Search results for "same"
| Artist |
Album |
Format |
Label & Cat. Number |
Year |
Price (incl. 19% VAT) |
|
| 400 LONELY THINGS |
same |
LP |
Bronsonunlimited BRO 000 LP |
2003 |
€20.00 |
 |
| A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN |
same |
CD |
Kranky KRANK157 |
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| ABBILDUNGEN VARIETE |
same |
CD |
ABBILDUNGEN VARIETE |
2023 |
€14.00 |
|
| ADORAN |
same |
CD |
Consouling Sounds SOUL0027 |
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| ALONE IN THE HOLLOW GARDEN & NAM-KHAR |
same |
CD |
Qualia QL08 |
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| APRAPAT |
same |
do-CD |
Freak Animal Records FA-CD-133 |
2021 |
€16.00 |
|
| ASHTORETH'S GATE |
same |
CD |
Gterma [gterma032] |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| B*TONG & BEYOND THE ELLIPSE OF TIME |
same |
CD-R |
Makabre Sinister Kabaret Productions MSK-007 |
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| BAILIFF, JESSICA |
same |
CD |
Kranky KRANK054 |
2002 |
€14.50 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN |
 Same River Twice (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Drone Records DR-68 |
2004 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Same River Twice |
7inch |
Drone Records DR-68 / 2nd |
2015 |
€7.50 |
|
| BIONULOR |
same |
CD-R |
etaLABEL eta-cd 017 |
2009 |
€8.50 |
|
| BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL |
same |
CD |
Insample # 1 |
1997 |
€14.00 |
|
| BLACK MAGIC DISCO |
same |
do-LP |
A Silent Place ASP27 |
2007 |
€19.50 |
|
| BLACK TO COMM |
same |
do-LP |
Type Records TYPE 120 |
2014 |
€23.50 |
|
| BLACK TO COMM / AOSUKE |
same |
LP |
Dekorder 021 |
2007 |
€12.50 |
|
| BLUE SABBATH BLACK CHEER / PIG HEART TRANSPLANT |
same |
CD |
Phage Tapes PT:184 |
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| BOWLINE |
same |
CD |
Sonoris sns-04 |
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| BRODERICK, PETER & GABRIEL SALOMAN |
same |
LP |
Beacon Sound BNSD004 |
2015 |
€19.50 |
|
| BURROUGHS, WILLIAM S. & BRION GYSIN |
same |
LP |
Cold Spring CSR293LP |
2021 |
€28.00 |
|
| CAPRICORNI PNEUMATICI |
same |
LP |
Tesco Archaic Documents ARCHAIC 009 |
2016 |
€23.00 |
|
| CATCH 20-22 |
same |
12" |
Raft Recordings RAFT 120 |
2002 |
€9.00 |
|
| CLEAR FRAME |
same |
CD |
CONTINUITY....records TINU001 |
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| CLOAMA |
same |
CD |
New Old Sentinel CD-01 |
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| COLECLOUGH, JONATHAN / BASS COMMUNION / COLIN POTTER |
same |
do-CD |
Aquarellist - aquarel 59-22 |
2022 |
€19.50 |
|
| CORBO COMBO / DANGER |
same |
do-CD |
Impulsy Stetoskopu 057 |
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| CORRAL SHUT / RESIDUAL / TYHJÄ PÄÄ / HAUDAT |
same |
CD |
Satatuhatta SATATUHATTA-64 |
2023 |
€12.50 |
|
| CORTINI, ALESSANDRO & MERZBOW |
same |
do-LP |
Important Records IMPREC431LP |
2017 |
€32.00 |
|
| COURTIS_MATSUNAGA |
same |
CD |
Kokelo / Prele prl001 |
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| CYCLOTIMIA |
Same Time Same Place |
10 |
Blade Records WMDA022 |
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| DATASHOCK & BLACK TO COMM |
same |
CD-R |
Ikuisuus IS-020 |
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| DBMG/RAF (DIE BAADER-MEINHOF GRUPPE / RED ARMY FACTION) |
same |
CD |
Vanity Publishing |
2009 |
€13.50 |
|
| DEATH & BEAUTY FOUNDATION |
same |
CD |
Somnimage SOMCD0801 |
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| DEN SORTE DOD |
same |
CD |
Cyclic Law - 171st Cycle |
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| DIETER MÜH (DIETER MUH) |
Black Square (same) |
CD |
Carnifex Rec. |
1997 |
€13.00 |
|
| DIRAC |
same |
CD |
Dirac d00001 |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| E-MAN |
same |
MC |
Tapeworm TTW#10 |
2009 |
€9.00 |
|
| EAU-DC |
same |
LP |
Droehnhaus DRH # 10 |
2010 |
€17.00 |
|
| ENSEMBLE PEARL |
same |
CD |
Drag City DC544CD |
2013 |
€15.50 |
|
| FAR BLACK FURLONG |
same |
CD |
Integrated Circuit Records ICR 65 |
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
same |
CD / CDR |
Integrated Circuit Records ICR 65 / 66 |
2007 |
€18.00 |
|
| FEARTHAINNE |
same |
do-CD |
Glass Throat Recordings 016 |
2009 |
€18.50 |
|
| FILM SCHOOL |
same |
CD |
Beggars Banquet BBQCD 245 |
2006 |
€16.00 |
|
| FLYING SAUCER ATTACK |
same |
CD |
VHF Records #11 |
1993 |
€13.50 |
|
| FOX, HARDY (THE RESIDENTS) |
same |
LP |
Secret Records SR14 |
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| FREQUENCY CURTAIN (JOHN GRZINICH, RICK REED, JOSH RONSON) |
same |
CD |
Elevator Bath eeaoa09 |
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| FROGOROTH |
same |
LP |
Ini.Itu #1601 |
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| FÜR DIESEN ABEND |
same |
CD-R |
Tausendfüssler 001 |
2004 |
€8.00 |
|
| GASTRIC FEMALE REFLEX |
same |
CD-R |
Gold Soundz GS#24 |
2004 |
€7.50 |
|
| GAUCHISTE |
same |
LP |
Little Black Cloud Records LBC 005 |
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
same |
CD |
Little Black Cloud Records LBCCD 005 |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| GELSOMINA |
same |
7inch |
Freak Animal Records FA-EP-017 |
2006 |
€6.00 |
|
| GHOSTS ON WATER |
same |
CD |
Faraway Press 12 |
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| GREEN KINGDOM |
same |
CD |
SEM label SEM 001 |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| HET INTERSTEDELIJK HARMONIUMVERBOND |
same |
LP |
Kraaak K098 |
2019 |
€28.00 |
|
| HORCHATA VS. SIL MUIR |
same |
mCD-R |
Taalem alm 52 |
2008 |
€5.00 |
|
| HOTOTOGISU + BURNING STAR CORE |
same |
LP |
Yik Yak 014 |
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| IIBIIS ROOGE |
same |
LP |
Dekorder 043 |
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| IKEDA, KEN |
Kosame |
CD |
SPEKK KK:024 |
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| ILLUSION OF SAFETY |
New Rules, Same Game, Less Instruction |
CD |
Drone Records SYM:02 |
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| IMCA |
same |
CD |
Absurd # 62 |
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| INFINITE LIGHT LTD |
same |
LP |
Denovali Records DEN80 |
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| ISLAND PEOPLE |
same |
do-LP |
Rastermusic r-m 174 |
2017 |
€20.00 |
|
| KAHN, JASON & RICHARD FRANCIS |
same |
CD |
Monochrome Vision (mv28) |
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| KIVA |
same |
do-CD |
Pogus Productions 21054-2 |
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| KLANK |
same |
CD |
Auf Abwegen KLANK 01 |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| KPT. MICHIGAN & SON |
same |
MC |
Someone Else's Tape s004 |
2009 |
€6.00 |
|
| KRCFHL |
same |
do-CD |
Kultfront KF-XXIX |
2022 |
€16.00 |
|
| KTL |
same |
CD |
Editions Mego 084 |
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| LA POUPEE VIVANTE |
same |
LP |
La Scie Doree SCIE 1213 |
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
| LALELOO |
same |
CD-R |
Tonto #12 |
2001 |
€11.00 |
|
| LIAISONS DANGEREUSES |
same |
LP |
Soulsheriff Records SSLP06 |
2015 |
€17.50 |
|
| LOCUSTA MIGRATORIA |
same |
LP |
KdB Records KDB003 |
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| LOKOMOTIV S.S. [BRIAN LADD] |
same |
CD-box |
Impulsy Stetoskopu 048 |
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| LOON |
same |
CD |
Beta-lactam Ring Records mt258 |
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOTUS EATERS |
same (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
Drone Records DR-55 (2nd) |
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
same (SOLD OUT) |
7" |
Drone Records DR-55 |
2002 |
€ |
|
| MARCHETTI / NOETINGER / WERCHOWSKI |
same |
CD |
Corpus Hermeticum Hermes 034 |
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| MARCHETTI, LIONEL + SOIXANTE ETAGES |
same |
LP |
33REVPERMI 3416 |
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| MASKED DIODE |
same |
mCD-R |
L.White Records LW-042 |
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
| MAW (=DMITRY CHISTOV = HUM!) |
same |
MC |
Ultra Low Fidelity 4 |
2001 |
€7.00 |
|
| MERZBOW & THE HATERS |
same |
CD |
Banned Production |
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| MODELBAU / GERALD FIEBIG & WILLIAM ROSSI |
same |
MC |
Grubenwehr Freiburg GFAC1003 / Attenuation Circuit |
2023 |
€8.50 |
|
| MOEBIUS & TIETCHENS |
same |
LP |
Bureau B BB109 |
2012 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
same |
CD |
Bureau B BB109 |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| MORSANEK / VINKEPEEZER |
same |
LP |
Kazemat KAZ 001 |
2009 |
€15.50 |
|
| MOSCOW HOLOCAUST SOUNDTRACK |
same |
CD |
Provolowa prvlk 0009-0001 Moskva 0001 |
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| MOSER |
same |
CD |
Potomak 919852 |
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| MY CAT IS AN ALIEN / BJERGA & IVERSEN |
same |
LP |
Ikuisuus IKU-025 / Gold Soundz [GS#98] |
2010 |
€14.50 |
|
| NEUROSIS & JARBOE |
same |
do-LP |
Neurot Recordings NR114LP |
2019 |
€26.00 |
|
| NIEDOWIERZANIE |
same |
LP |
Reue um Reue RuR009 |
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| NINE DAYS WONDER |
same |
LP |
Bacillus Records 9861916 |
2018 |
€22.50 |
|
| NO XIVIC |
same 7 (SOLD OUT) |
7" |
Drone Records DR-61 |
2003 |
€7.00 |
|
| NODERN |
same |
CD |
Sub Rosa SR241 |
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| NOISESPLATTER |
same |
CD-R |
A'rraggia Autoproduzioni |
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY |
same |
CD |
All Is Number Records AIN002 |
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| NOS PHILLIPE |
same |
CD |
Black Atlas BLKAT 001 |
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| NYILAM |
same |
CD |
Zazen ZZS 076 |
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| ONE MAN NATION & MACHINEFABRIEK |
same |
maxi-CD |
The Unidentified TUF 02 |
2012 |
€8.00 |
|
| ORDNUNGSAMT ET LA POLITESSE |
same |
do-CD |
Urknall Tonquelle Nr.57 |
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| ORGAN EYE |
same |
LP |
Staubgold 74 |
2007 |
€16.50 |
|
| ORIGAMIMETIC |
same |
CD |
Spectre Records S16 |
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| ORTHANK |
same |
CD |
Zazen Sounds ZZS 106 |
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| OTAVAN VERET |
same |
CD |
Cyclic Law 64th Cycle |
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| OVERTONE ENSEMBLE |
same |
CD |
Important Records IMPREC441 |
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| PAINTING PETALS ON PLANET GHOST |
same |
LP |
Time-Lag Records 030 |
2005 |
€29.50 |
|
| PEAL GRIM |
same |
CD |
Moonsun Productions MS009 |
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| PENDULUM NISUM |
same |
LP |
Hinterzimmer hint13 |
2011 |
€17.00 |
|
| PERISTALITH |
same |
CD |
Midira Records MIDIRA 116 |
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| PERLON |
same |
CD-R |
Zarek 01 |
2000 |
€12.50 |
|
| PITRELEH |
same |
LP |
Important Records IMPREC 384 |
2013 |
€19.50 |
|
| PRAXINOSCOPE |
same |
pic-LP |
A Silent Place ASP08 |
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| PUHBAH BABA |
same |
MC |
Puhbah Baba |
2017 |
€5.00 |
|
| RANALDO, LEE / JIM JARMUSCH / MARC URSELLI / BALAZS PANDI |
same |
LP |
Trost Records TR181 |
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
| REAS |
same |
CD-R |
Tonto #11 |
2001 |
€11.00 |
|
| RED FAVORITE |
same |
LP |
Streamline 1025 |
2008 |
€15.50 |
|
| REPORTAZ |
same |
LP |
Tonpress SX-T 129 |
1988 |
€13.00 |
|
| ROZENHALL, DANIEL |
same |
CD |
Fylkingen Records FYCD 1029 |
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| SEARCH ENSEMBLES |
same |
CD |
and/OAR and/46 |
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| SELF SUPPORTING TRANCES |
same |
MC |
EE Tapes ET22 |
1994 |
€5.00 |
|
| SIL MUIR (ANDREA MARUTTI / ANDREA FERRARIS) |
same |
CD |
Diophantine Discs n=22 |
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| SOLO ANDATA |
same |
CD |
12K 12K1056 |
2009 |
€14.50 |
|
| SONTARAN EXPERIMENT |
same |
CD |
Undergroove |
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| SORRY FOR LAUGHING |
same |
CD |
Klanggalerie gg289 |
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| SOULCRUSH |
same |
CD |
Dragonflight DFR010 |
2001 |
€8.00 |
|
| SOUND_00 / IVERSEN |
same |
7inch |
Dirtydemos dirty7 001 |
2005 |
€6.00 |
|
| STADLMEIER, SASCHA / EMERGE / ANJA KREYSING |
same |
MC |
Grisaille 04 |
2019 |
€8.00 |
|
| STRIGAE / ATROX PESTIS |
same |
MC |
Phage Tapes PT:232 |
2017 |
€8.00 |
|
| STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS |
same |
LP |
Conspiracy Records CORE072 |
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| SURVIVAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES |
same |
CD |
Sub Rosa SR177 |
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| SUSTAINED DEVELOPMENT |
same |
CD-R & object |
Attenuation Circuit / Limited Edition Series ACL 1001 |
2011 |
€11.00 |
|
| |
same |
CD-R |
Attenuation Circuit AC 1001 |
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| TBC & SEEMANN |
same |
CD-R |
Wachsender Prozess |
2020 |
€7.00 |
|
| TBC_CZEPOKS |
same |
CD |
Wachsender Prozess WP 30 |
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| TERVAHÄÄT |
same |
CD |
Anima Arctica Productions AUER-005 |
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| TEXT OF LIGHT |
same |
CD |
Starlight Furniture *24 |
2004 |
€16.00 |
|
| THE TREE PEOPLE |
same |
CD |
Tiquila Records |
2006 |
€19.50 |
|
| THEY FOUND MY BODY BY THE RIVER (ANSGAR WILKEN) |
same |
7inch |
Ted Serios Music N°3 |
2012 |
€7.50 |
|
| THIS HEAT |
same |
CD |
This Is 1 |
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
same |
LP |
Modern Classics Recordings MCR916 |
2016 |
€26.50 |
|
| THUJA |
same |
LP |
Important Records IMPREC 173 |
2008 |
€15.50 |
|
| TOMUTONTTU |
same |
LP |
Beta-Lactam Ring Records mt123 |
2007 |
€18.50 |
|
| TORTURING GIRL (=TORTURING NURSE + ALO GIRL) |
same |
LP |
Urashima UMA 019 |
2011 |
€25.00 |
|
| VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA |
same |
do-LP & DVD |
VHF Records VHF 127 |
2012 |
€23.50 |
|
| VIRGEN VAPOR [= REYNOLS!] |
All the songs of the universe played at the same time, shaping an invisible golden-fluo triangle |
CD-R |
Valuba Mafiforo VM-273 |
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| WAI PI WAI |
same |
CD |
Hands D063 |
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| WANDER |
same |
CD |
Small Voices SVR05015 |
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
same |
CD |
Divine Frequency DV 09 |
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| WETTERLÄUTEN (WETTERLAEUTEN) |
same |
LP |
Reue um Reue RUR035 |
2014 |
€7.50 |
|
| WHITELODGE |
same |
CD |
Beta-Lactam Ring Records mt067b |
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| WOODEN VEIL |
same |
CD |
Dekorder 035 |
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
same |
LP |
Dekorder 035LP |
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| YULCHIEVA, MUNADJAT & ENSEMBLE SHAVKAT MIRZAEV |
same |
CD |
World Network 28297 |
1997 |
€15.00 |
|
"same" entries in albums descriptions
| Artist |
Album |
Format |
Description |
Year |
Price (incl. 19% VAT) |
|
| 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 |
|
| AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF & DRONAEMENT |
Hermit Haven |
CD-R |
lovely obscure & experimental low-fi drone-ambience with weird folky passages, purely acoustic soundsources, field recordings; a bit crazy & beautiful at the same time; collaboration between two Drone Records artist who go unusual paths & develop a very own dimension of music; lim. 150 in DVD-box with three full-colour inlays
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| AF URSIN |
Itinera |
LP |
this is the first AF URSIN album created entirely on analogue synths - and if you know AF URSIN it should be clear these are not the typical "minimal synth" or "cosmic" sounds, but more mysterious surroundings: like stranding on an alien planet, finding strange hieroglyphs from an archaic past, listening to space winds, waving sinus tones and choirs of unknown beings, at the same time melancholic and full of nostalgy.. lim. 250 copies on clear vinyl
|
2017 |
€19.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & AGLAIA |
Vayu Rouah |
CD |
epic one-tracker, broad & spacious dream-muzak that transcends time, endless washes of sound-clouds & layers.... very minimal & very complex at the same time, on a micro-level.... perfect nightshade music... lovely album, 67 minutes
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| AMINI, SIAVASH |
TAR |
LP |
discovery from Iran on the Swiss label with 4 excellent experimental / ethereal drone-tracks, sharing a great spatial quality and quite massive electronic / granular sounds, with classical string instruments as sound sources, powerful and sublime at the same time... highly recommended! "This is Music to get lost in" [THE WIRE]
|
2017 |
€21.50 |
|
| AMON DÜÜL |
Disaster (Lüüd Noma) |
do-LP |
recordings from the same crazy sessions that were leading to the "Psychedelic Undergorund" LP (1969), now re-mastered from the original tapes! - "Zusammen, im Kollektiv.. war alles möglich. ... spielten in Meisels Studio zeitgemäß high in the sky eine Session ein, die alle Regeln durchbrach und alle Hörgewohnheiten auf den Kopf stellte." - comes in gatefold cover
|
2023 |
€26.00 |
|
| ANEMONE TUBE |
The Three Worlds - Forget Heaven |
CD |
second part of a trilogy collecting rare cassette-only material from 1997-2013 (plus unreleased tracks), summarising this under the existentialist worldview of the Theravada Buddhism of the 14th century, containing the three levels of existence of all beings; "Forget Heaven" presents very raw and bleak noise ambient tracks, most coming from the MC with same name (1997), plus rare compilation and other materal from about the same period that forms an authentic picture.. lim. 300
|
2017 |
€12.50 |
|
| APOPTOSE |
Ana Liil |
LP + CD |
with 'Ana Liil' (about a mysterious girl existing in otherworlds) this German project goes into a completely new direction by incorporating slow dark wave electro *pop* elements and rhythms, female vocals, choirs, and cosmic/harmonic synths into their dreamlike and melancholic visions... "extremely enthralling ambientmusic" [NonPop]; the vinyl version comes with printed inner sleeve and CD copy of the same album
|
2014 |
€24.50 |
|
| ASHTORETH |
Rites I & II |
CD |
the first wider available full length release by this Belgian 'shamanistic' doom/drone project, the sounds can be raw and heavy but extremely meditative and otherwordly far away at the same time, a guitarish melancholy is often present, eternally fluctuating winds and aural substances are really transporting you to another (mind) place.. exceptional drone muzak, highly recommended !! lim. 500 copies
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Rites I & II |
LP |
the first wider available full length release by this Belgian 'shamanistic' doom/drone project, the sounds can be raw and heavy but extremely meditative and otherwordly far away at the same time, a guitarish melancholy is often present, eternally fluctuating winds and aural substances are really transporting you to another (mind) place.. exceptional drone muzak, highly recommended !! vinyl version lim. to 300 copies
|
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
| ATKINSON, FELICIA |
Hand in Hand |
do-LP |
this French artist (once active as JE SUIS LE PETIT CHEVALIER) releases on the prolific Shelter Press, creating poetic, sensitive and very emotive day-dream ambience from synthetic and acoustic sources, field recordings and her voice; "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"
|
2017 |
€25.00 |
|
| ATOM EARTH MOTHER |
Ancient Faith |
do-LP BOX |
stunning first solo-release by ZOVIET FRANCE member (of the current line up) MARK WARREN => "archaic" ethno ambient, using digital & analog sound sources along with field recordings, inspired by prehistoric artefacts / marks of the Northumberland regions; lim. 250 in hand-designed "art-branding" WOOD-BOX, each one unique, comes with bonus CDR of the same album
|
2013 |
€55.00 |
|
| BAD SECTOR |
Storage Disk 1 |
CD |
Great collection of older, rare material in the typical BAD SECTOR-style the Italian project got known for, also the B-side of the Drone EP (DR-18) is included ... raw and archaic sounding electronic synths, otherworlds of pulses and harmonics, at the same time melancholic and cold... 10 tracks, almost 55 minutes. Comes again in a very special cover-sleeve on the prolific labe from Moscow; - lim. 500 special cover & booklet
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Transponder |
CD |
re-issue of ultra-rare album (CDR on Blade Records 1999) which collected early material from different releases 1994-1999, finally available again! Experience the legendary, rough but emotional machine-ambient sound!! Comes with two bonus-tracks from the same period
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN |
Souvenirs of the Eternal Present |
MC |
first ever (?) AIDAN BAKER tape, showing him in a full drone-mode but with surprising 'Kraut'-influences, using hypnotic drums & bass against wide shimmering drone & overtunes... C-30 lim. to 3 x 100 copies in three colours (of shells): red, green and blue, professional cover, numbered, comes with digital download code of the same album
|
2013 |
€11.00 |
|
| |
Dualism |
do-CD |
three long phantastic tracks ["Consiousness Bridge", "Dualism (Body)", "Dualism (Mind)"] that completely mesmerize us with their dark sublimeness and use of unusual sounds (percussion plays a big role), inspired by the theme "Dualism"; as the original masters got lost first, a second recording was done, so this is released with two different versions of the same tracks on each CD, recorded in two different studios... lim. 200
|
2016 |
€18.50 |
|
| BASINSKI, WILLIAM |
Shortwavemusic |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung der Raster-Noton LP von 1997, mit Bonustrack! Sanfte Äther-Melodien in endlosen Kurz-Echo Räumen, Musik die ausfranst in einem Meer von seltsamen Effekt-Sounds.. / re-release of LP from 1997 with bonus-track (+ 14 min.), comes in squared clear case with cardboard sheath. BACK IN STOCK
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
| BASINSKI, WILLIAM & LAWRENCE ENGLISH |
Selva Oscura |
LP |
first ever collab between the two prolific aural atmospherics, two side-long tracks inspired by 'Dante's Inferno', extremely minimalistic / warm harmonic drone-layers with enough spatial expansion and rawness, majestic and subtle at the same time ... "As one sound fades away, another is revealed in its place, creating a sense of an eternal reveal..." this is the lim. grey opaque vinyl ed.
|
2018 |
€21.00 |
|
| |
Selva Oscura |
CD |
first ever collab between the two prolific aural atmospherics, two side-long tracks inspired by 'Dante's Inferno', extremely minimalistic / warm harmonic drone-layers with enough spatial expansion and rawness, majestic and subtle at the same time ... "As one sound fades away, another is revealed in its place, creating a sense of an eternal reveal..."
|
2018 |
€14.00 |
|
| BERIO, LUCIANO |
Differences |
LP |
material ranging from 1951-1969 / also available as CD for same price |
2006 |
€16.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE (B.S.E.) |
The End of it all |
CD |
it seems with this album the Swedish duo wanted to create the saddest music in the world: lush piano melodies traversing through reverberated halls, desperated vocals emerge from far away, a despondent atmosphere is created where everything moves very slowly...depressive but filled with beauty at the same time.. "The intersections of beauty, despair, and a pervasive calmness give The End Of It All a powerful emotional edge." [Terra Relicta]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIOSPHERE |
Microgravity |
do-CD |
remastered re-issue of BIOSPHERE's first album, recorded 1990-1991, now with a full bonus CD of unreleased material from the same time !!
|
2015 |
€25.50 |
|
| BJERGA, SINDRE & NILS ROSTAD |
Live at Moving Furniture Records |
CD-R |
two long pieces on this very limited (50 copies) CDR with handmade artwork (incl. 2 original photos): 26 min. well designed experimental drone from SINDRE BJERGA, 15 min strange acoustic guitar tunes from NILS ROSTAD, recorded on the same evening...
|
2011 |
€7.50 |
|
| BJÄRGÖ, PETER |
A Wave of Bitterness |
CD |
the ARCANA mastermind released his first solo-album in 2009 on the German label Kalinkaland, here's finally a re-issue of this mesmerizing work, a must for any DEAD CAN DANCE fan (transporting the same mood and grandeur, without being a copy of DCD); digipak ed. of 500 copies - comes with 8 page booklet
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| BLACKSHAW, JAMES |
The Glass Bead Game |
LP + CD |
newest album by the British 12-string guitar - mantra wonder, on Michael Gira's label! (CD has same material as LP)
|
2009 |
€17.00 |
|
| BOCKSHOLM |
Caged inside the Beast of the Forge |
CD |
fourth studio album by the ongoing band-project of two Swedish subjects named the same (= PETER ANDERSSON), better known as DEUTSCH NEPAL & RAISON D'ETRE; bleak & haunting atmosphere, sluggish metal pulses, strange sounds & odd harmonies... very atmospheric & experimental & otherwordly droney, adding more noise & dirt sometimes.. (9 tracks in total, 57+ minutes playtime); just excellent !
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| BODIN, LARS-GUNNAR / BENGT EMIL JOHNSON |
Semikolon |
LP |
re-issue of both artists debut-LP from 1966 with recordings made 1965 at EMS (Elektron Music Studio) for Sveriges Radio; highly experimental collages using sound poetry & electronic sounds, at that time a pioneering work that didn't fit in any category (which later was named 'text-sound-composition')! This new ed. icludes one previously unreleased bonus-track from the same time ! lim. 500
|
2013 |
€18.00 |
|
| BRADLEY, PAUL |
Mas Memorias Extranjeras (2) |
CD |
sister-release / re-working to Alluvial Rec. A23, with same cover ! / last copy!
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| BRUME |
Anthology (BLACK edition) |
13 x CD-Box |
the full anthology in one box, BLACK edition (unnumbered, but in same nice box, black coloured)
|
2008 |
€115.00 |
|
| BRUME / OUBLIER ET MOURIR |
A Year to live |
LP |
split LP inspired by the book of the same name by STEPHEN LEVINE about preparing for death in order to live more consciously inside every moment; OUBLIER ET MOURIR is the ambient side of ANEMONE TUBE; BRUME has an incredible side-long dark ambient-drone noise & poetry track in different parts, haunting & captivating & always changing! lim. 300 copies on white vinyl, with postcard and very nice 320gr. full-colour cover
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| B°TONG (B*TONG / B-TONG/ BTONG) |
Monastic |
CD |
MONASTIC (='klösterlich') is the companion release to 'The long Journey' on the same label =>; from various field recordings uncanny soundscapes and strangely reverberating acoustics are formed, resulting in long one nightmarish, unescapable ambience realm which seems to have no beginning or ending, going on in endless circles..
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| CASTELLO, ANGELICA |
CATORCE REFLEXIONES SOBRE EL FIN |
LP |
great LP by this Mexican sound artist and "dreamworld / subsconsciousness explorer" => based on an installation with 14 objects woven with magnetic tape that interrelate to the sound and to each others, there are 14 miniatures with processed field recordings building a circle, it reminded us on some of LUC FERRARI's works, a conflation of voices, daily object sounds and more mysterious impulses, creates a spooky atmo... - lim. 300 ---
"It is uneasy music, but at the same time, it is beautiful uneasiness." [Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€18.00 |
|
| CELER & DIRK SERRIES |
Background Curtain |
CD |
first ever collaboration between CELER and DIRK SERRIES (VIDNA OBMANA, FEAR FALLS BURNING) who exchanged files through several years and created two long ambient compositions that are interconnected as they are based on the same source material... softly biting guitar-rays, shimmering / flickering drone-clouds, undulating in an enchanting way.... the perfect music for the early morning air! Lim. 300
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| CHARTIER, RICHARD |
Continue |
CD |
re-workings of older material form four new movements of most subtle drone minimalism entities, evoking philosophic questions: When is a music or art piece really finished? Are we ever finished "forms", too ? Is the sun the same everyday? - *The music is subtle, delicate and at moments fragile. Full, with details, like delicate patterns that unfold like ripples on water...* - lim. 200 gatefold sleeve wtih metalic ink print
|
2020 |
€12.50 |
|
| CHAUVEAU, SYLVAIN |
S. |
10inch |
Five pieces composed for a dance theatre by the prolific composer from France, very reduced minimal electroacoustics with a focus on guitar sounds and sublime micropatterns,..- * Since his 2000 debut Le Livre Noir Du Capitalisme, Chauveau has been a pioneering figure in the world of modern classical/electronic music. This status has seen him inhabit the same creative space as Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson and Ryan Teague... * - lim. 500 copies, last copies found!
|
2007 |
€12.50 |
|
| CHRIS & COSEY |
Elemental 7 |
LP |
The legendary soundtrack to the film of the same name (released on CABARET VOLTAIRE's label in 1983 on VHS), feat. JOHN LACEY (COUM TRANSMISSIONS), a true collector's item, available for the first time since 40 years!! - "Elemental 7 has cast a looming shadow of influence over almost all electronic music since it was made." [Boomkat]
remastered edition on GREEN vinyl |
2023 |
€30.50 |
|
| CINDYTALK |
In this World |
CD |
re-issue of the two different albums with same title from 1988
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
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 |
|
| CIRCAEA |
The Bridge of Dreams |
LP |
a new project with ANDREW CHALK, plus: TOM JAMES SCOTT (known from the awesome LIBEREZ) and ECKA MORDECAI on Cello - 12 miniatures of extreme impressionism... "Birds love the woods - If you are not a bird - you will not know its truths - A quiet life is much the same. - How would anyone know it - without living it ?"
|
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
| CLADE, |
Holonic Sadism |
CD-R |
second album for this promising drone-newcomer from Scotland, infinite drone-rays & landscapes with a philosophic inspiration, dark & shimmering at the same time.... lim. 100 handmade silkscreen-printed covers that are closed by crepe-paper & sealed with way... highly recommended again !
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| COELACANTH & KEITH EVANS |
Wrack Light in Copper Ruin |
CD & DVD |
back in stock , the fourth album by the former project of JIM HAYNES & LOREN CHASSE, this time in collaboration with film-maker KEITH EVANS whose works are feat. on the DVD; the higly abstract audio consists of mysterious yet somehow 'concrete' materialized ambience, a´sound-net made from frictioned objects, field recordings, glass-drone feedbacks, granular surfaces, everything seems to flicker and flutter permanently, so close to the matter but opening unknnown spaces at the same time.. we love it!!
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| COIL |
Sara Dale's Sensual Massage |
do-LP |
the complete version of COILs soundtrack for the erotic video of the same name, including 8 previously unreleased tracks and the "Themes for Derek Jarmans's Blue" material; all for the first time on vinyl! Comes in gatefold cover with artwork by STEVEN STAPLETON, lim. 500 BLACK vinyl
|
2020 |
€34.00 |
|
| COIL presents BLACK LIGHT DISTRICT |
A Thousand Lights In A Darkened Room |
CD |
this Russian re-issue of COILs "Black Light District" project from 1996 is not a bootleg, but was authorized by COIL-collaborateur DANNY HYDE, who also delivered a unreleased bonus track from his archives ("Scattered Cross"), taken from the same recording sessions
|
2018 |
€15.00 |
|
| CONJECTURE |
V |
LP |
excellent electro-rhythmic industrial / dark ambient / IDM from Greece, arranged with a great focus on atmosphere and tension.... - " V" is an anti-body statement. The individual's disengagement from the human body and from all kinds of physical hypostases is portrayed through unconventional industrial sound forms. Sometimes oneiric, sometimes frozen and aggressive, while at the same somewhat erotic." - lim. 275 copies on black-white marbled vinyl
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| CONTAGIOUS ORGASM |
Live at Maschinenfest 2018 |
MC |
the cassette-only live series on the Berlin based label goes on, high quality design and MP3 download included, perfect sound.. "...this perfectly shows the progression from the 2008 performance made available last year: gone are the idm leanings, the co sound of the 2010s (which is presented here) is even more a language of its own, abrasive and accessible, palpable and psychedelic at the same time." 100 copies
|
2019 |
€10.00 |
|
| CONTRASTATE |
No Eden without Annhiliation |
LP + CD |
the sister release to "A breeding Ground for Flies" features live recordings made at various venues throughout Europe from 2012-2014, further refining their vision of apocalyptic / deeply critical music, a mixture of ambient industrial, ritual music and noise with a strong emphasis on the thought-provolking lyrics, thus often generating a compelling psychic vortex; lim. 300 with CD version of the same album included
|
2016 |
€25.00 |
|
| CONTROLLED DEATH (MASONNA) / MAYUKO HINO |
Split |
pic-LP |
Japan (death) noise split picture LP with 6 new C.D. tracks entitled "Devil's Sacrifice" and 2 long MAYUKO HINO tracks on the B-Side... - "Maso's is an uncompromising emotion of slabs of screams and drone, whereas Mayuko's achieves the same emotional frenzy by other means. Both achieve the apocalyptic annihilation of sound.." [Vital Weekly] - 400 copies pressed
|
2021 |
€26.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| DAFELDECKER, WERNER & VALERIO TRICOLI |
Williams Mix extended |
CD |
a new interpretation of JOHN CAGE's piece with the same name from 1952, which was his very first tape composition (the complex concept/score for the piece made 600 single recordings necessary, the cutting and splicing of the tape needed 1 year - for a piece that was only 4:15 min long in the end!); TRICOLI & DAFELDECKER transfered this into the digital domain, recorded over 2000 single sounds for a 32 min. long composition of fast changing collage sounds, pretty exciting!!
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| DE WAARD, FRANS |
De Nederlandse Cassette Catalogus 1983-1987 |
BOOK |
hardcover re-print of DE WAARDS yearly Independent Cassette release surveys 1983-1987, styled the same way as the famous ""International Discography of the New Wave" (1982/83), along with lots of archive / source material - articles from magazines about the cassette scene, flyers from labels, letters, adverts for cassettes, etc.. lots of stuff you will never find at Discogs, a true treasure trove about an amazing DIY scene !! 304 pages
|
2021 |
€16.00 |
|
| DEAUX, CHARLIE (WITH LUSTMORD) |
Zoetrope |
DVD |
The film to the CD soundtrack-release of the same name from 2004, based on KAFKAs "In the Penal Colony". Etched DVD-digipack, region free NTSC format.
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| DEISON / K.K.NULL |
Into |
CD |
last copies of their first collab.,the label called it "Penetrating Hi-Tech Music", absolutely recommended to re-discover !! - *Splinters of sonic fragments, buzzings, electronic hisses, pulsations, hypnotic loops, ambient textures, sudden rays of light* - "Always abstract, always electronic, but almost never the same thing twice. From soft passages to loud ones, from clicking, rhythmic sounds to dense fields of waving electronics." [Fdw/Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| DEUTSCH, ANDREW |
Lung Cleaner |
CD |
mind-overflooding microscopic ambience, the mergence of electronic & acoustic sounds, hyper-concrete and flowing at the same time! back in stock!
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| DIJKSTRA, RAYMOND |
De Schaal |
CD & BOOK |
Soundart-release by RAYMON DIJKSTRA (ex K.S.P / INDRA KARMUKA. who once had a 7" on Drone Records [DR-21]!) - with music on the CD that is somehow uncomparably strange, but builds a logic in itself; (consisting of) a brusque, inaccessible dimension of art & music, that shares some charm at the same time... lim. 200, comes with 40 page 10" sized book with collage artworks
|
2013 |
€18.00 |
|
| DOYLE, ROGER |
Thalia |
do-LP |
ROGER DOYLE from Ireland was one of those 'outsider artists' being on the legendary NURSE WITH WOUND list in 1978, and this album appeared in the same year but was withdrawn by 'CBS Classics' almost immediately after the release..." Now finally available on its intended format, the keening, breezy logic and abstract dramaturgy of Doyle’s work on ‘Thalia’ has been reshuffled to highlight its apparent surreality and frolicking apparitions.." - FIRST TIME VINYL RE-ISSUE !!
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| DRUMM, KEVIN |
Purge |
CD |
limited re-issue of a deleted MC (C-60) from 2007 by the same label that sold out immediately: "Intense listening taking you deep into the known unknown. Drumm's noise is extremely powerful and dynamic.; travelling frequencies, rich with details, with very little hope, with guaranteed exhaustion after frequent listening." [Joachim Nordwall]
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| DÄLEK {DALEK] |
Endangered Philosophies |
do-LP |
the best dark + spheric HipHop around - DÄLEKs album from 2017, with new line-up, released by the prolific IPECAC label (MIKE PATTON) - "Crushing, claustrophobic, educated Hip-Hop. Perfect for the times we live in." [BuiltInThe50s] - *Immer noch sind sie ein seltsames Hybrid - erstaunlich, dass sich sonst niemand an dieser Stilkreuzung versucht hat: hier der urbane, offensive Beat, dort der düstere Hinterzimmer-Soundtüftler-Noise, darauf die kommentierenden, erzählenden Vocals* [OX-Fanzine]
|
2017 |
€29.50 |
|
| ELLENDE |
Odyssey, A Sentimental Journey |
BOOK + 2 x 10inch |
collector's item: impressive art-book (38 pages) and two 10" vinyls with four sides of dark nostalgic, acoustic / improv drone pieces by the mysterious South African art collective (residing in Tokyo), recorded in Cape Town 2018; the text in the book is centered about the odd sexual experiences of founding member Wim Bontjes with "Geishas" in Japan in the 90's, accomponied by "women's death-masks-like faces" graphics... beautiful and disturbing at the same time! ; numbered ed. of 300 copies, Japan import
|
2019 |
€38.00 |
|
| ELODIE (TIMO VAN LUIJK & ANDREW CHALK) |
Odyssee |
CD |
'Odyssee' is a live recording made at the GERÄUSCHWELTEN festival in Münster, Germany, in Febr. 2015, when ANDREW CHALK and TIMO VAN LUIJK performed as a duet using flute and string synthesizer, a soundtrack to a film that was shown on the same evening..."a gorgeous, shimmering beautiful listen. Resting on a soft bed of keyboards and various flutes, Elodie takes you on an odyssee that is calming and soothing, without ever becoming a cliché."[Freek Kinkelaar] mini-gatefold ART cover!
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| ELOY, JEAN-CLAUDE |
Shanti |
do-CD |
early drone / experimental meditation piece, from 1972/1973, for electronic and concrete sounds, created at Electronic Music Studio, WDR, Cologne. Digitalized & revised version 2001 - ".. 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] BACK IN stock
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
| EMERGE |
Oneirism |
10inch |
third vinyl appearance of this south-german project presenting two very hypnotic dream-drone tracks; whereas one side dissolves into ghostly fog-sounds (reminding of certain JOHN DUNCAN or M.B. works), the flipside points into sub-bass areas, extremely deep & with hallucinogenic effect... lim./numbered 300 copies & with bonus CDR of the same tracks
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| ENGLISH, LAWRENCE |
Cruel Optimism |
LP |
inspired by a text of LAURENT BERLANT with same title, this album with 10 stunning tracks by the Australian composer has a completely different approach than before: no field recordings were used and several guest musicians invited to contribute instrumental material - via file exchange or performed in real time; the result are gently overwhelming, orchestral, multi-layered drone pieces that sometimes dissolve into something unformed, reminding on TIM HECKER at times...
|
2017 |
€26.00 |
|
| ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO |
Ultraphoon |
CD |
... still the most hypnotique, trance-inducing, energizing tribal industrial you can find - these grooves can make you addicted - so subtle & stimulating at the same time !! mastering by FRANCISCO LOPEZ, feat. TEHO TEARDO ! |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| EYELESS IN GAZA |
Summer Salt & Subway Sun |
CD |
numbered ed. 1000 / we got few of the SIGNED copies - act fast if you want one (same price) !
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Photographs as Memories |
CD |
re-issue of the second album from 1981, plus 7 bonus-tracks from two EPs released the same year (Invisibility 7" & Others 7"); remastered version 2008
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Rust Red September |
CD |
re-issue of their maybe most beautiful album from 1983, plus 6 bonus-tracks from the same period
|
1994 |
€14.00 |
|
| FAVARON, GIANLUCA |
Equivalent XI |
CD |
after the nice "Surface" 12" on the same label GIANLUCA FAVARON (who is also part of UNDER THE SNOW) created here 11 new tracks that are based on microsounds of everyday utensils and tools, creating a kind object based musique concrete / collage / concrete ambience" with loopy and strange quasi rhythmic effects.... very original and at times bizarre ! lim. 50 collectors item with original photo
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Equivalent XI |
CD |
after the nice "Surface" 12" on the same label GIANLUCA FAVARON (who is also part of UNDER THE SNOW) created here 11 new tracks that are based on microsounds of everyday utensils and tools, creating a kind object based musique concrete / collage / concrete ambience" with loopy and strange quasi rhythmic effects.... very original and at times bizarre ! lim. 200 in satin finished gatefold sleeve
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| FEAR DROP |
No. 18 (Les Pistes Sauvages) |
mag & CD |
incredible edition about the "Chants of the Waters, Forest and Night" with long articles about the symbolism / romanticism of these notions (feat. W. BASINSKI, TROUM) and features about MICHAEL BEGG, MANINKARI, O YUKI CONJUGATE, COIL [+ long exclusive live track on the CD), THE CURE, + CD with exclusive material by most of the same artists and: ZOVIET FRANCE, F. LOPEZ, TOY BIZARRE, LAWRENCE ENGLISH, JANA WINDEREN, MARC NAMBLARD, MARTYN BATES, STEVEN WILSON, Y. DAUBY - if you only buy ONE music mag this year it must be this!!!
|
2020 |
€12.50 |
|
| FENNESZ |
AUN: The Beginning and the End |
CD |
Original Soundtrack to the film with the same name by EDGAR HONETSCHLÄGER, feat. R. SAKAMOTO on some tracks; comes with 28page full colour booklet with stills from the film
|
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| FLEURY-STEINER, BEN |
Ventus |
mCD-R |
the return of this Ambient composer (with big "A") from the U.S. who was once running the fine GEARS OF SAND label and had a release on taalem before (alm 48), inspired by the 'that which blows' notion.. "Maybe like wind, it moves, going round and round, sounds rising a bit above the mix, a bit below, moving about. Like long loops that repeat in various ways, but without much repetition, nothing is overlayed in the same way twice.." [Vital Weekly]
|
2020 |
€5.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| FRAJERMAN, DENIS |
Herbes & Golems |
CD |
NEW album by the French avantgardist, who released in his early stages on the legendary NOISE MUSEUM label; "Herbes & Golem" is inspired by a book of same name from MANUELA DRAEGER, a 'post-exotic' author; compositions are derived from many sources, often based on electric organ and beat box, with spoken lyrics, field recordings, other instruments, maybe like a softer form of D.D.A.A....
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| FREIBAND |
Stainless Steel Redux & Finale |
mCD-R |
kind of companion-release to the "Stainless Steel" LP with a track from the same sessions, not on the LP; 20min. long
|
2011 |
€5.50 |
|
| GAMLASKATTEN |
Voltage |
CD |
debut album (after the "Brutalism" EP) for this German rhythmic industrial project, very dry and focused, complex machine-beats, powerful and energetic...yes, absolutely danceable! - "Heavy beats, moving sequences and a pace that you cannot escape. As it's predecessor the tracks are heavy influenced by oldschool EBM, dark techno and industrial elements." - "It sounds brutal and pretty sexy at the same time." [Side-Line]
|
2022 |
€12.00 |
|
| GENETIC TRANSMISSION |
Genetic Transmission |
CD |
re-issue of GT's very first release, which was originally a cassette that came out on Polish legendary experimental label OBUH Records in 1997 => "harsh, metallic sounds, a mechanical structure, brut collages created using only analog sources and recorded in exactly the same manner - without the use of computers." lim. 200 and a great document of Polands "early" post industrial sound
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| GILLIS, ANNE |
Vhoysee |
CD |
the six tracks from her first cassette-only release "Angebigue" (1983), a true collector's item, plus 4 new re-mixed / re-worked compositions made up from the same minimal synth sources, imagine D.D,A,A, mixed with electronic chansons and incredible intimate singing...- lim. 200, Japan import
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| HAIGH, ROBERT |
Human Remains |
CD |
third in the trilogy of piano-based works for Unseen Worlds => "The title, Human Remains, was initially based on a painting of the same name by Haigh that is suggestive of an ancient structure resolute in the wake of overwhelming forces. As a metaphor for our current times, it could be interpreted as human frailty in the face of nature’s unyielding dominion. Conversely, it could represent the persistence of human spirit and resourcefulness in the midst of catastrophe and upheaval."- vinyl version to follow
|
2022 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Human Remains |
LP |
finally out, the lim. vinyl version of the third album in this trilogy, mastered by STEPHAN MATHIEU => "The title was initially based on a painting of the same name by Haigh that is suggestive of an ancient structure resolute in the wake of overwhelming forces. As a metaphor for our current times, it could be interpreted as human frailty in the face of nature’s unyielding dominion. Conversely, it could represent the persistence of human spirit and resourcefulness in the midst of catastrophe and upheaval."
|
2022 |
€24.00 |
|
| HARMONIA & ENO |
Tracks and Traces |
CD |
the legendary sessions from 1976 between HANS JOACHIM ROEDELIUS, MICHAEL ROTHER, DIETER MOEBIUS & BRIAN ENO, this is the re-issue of the HARMONIA 76 CD (1997) with 3 additional tracks from ROTHER's archive, taken from the same sessions
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| HAUSCHKA |
A NDO C Y |
LP |
the continuation of the 'Abandoned City' album from last year (inspired by forgotten and desolated places) with more tracks from the same sessions on Side A and remixes by DEVENDRA BANHART and ELUVIUM on Side B; comes with extra live album via download (live in Japan 2014)! lim. 1000
|
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| HAYWARD, CHARLES |
Switch on War |
CD |
sehr aussergewöhnliche Klänge vom ex-THIS HEAT & CAMBERWELL NOW-Frontmann, aufgenommen 1991 zum ersten Golfkrieg. Verzerrte Orgelflächen, aus denen sich seltsame Patterns & Sounds herausschälen, explodierende Perkussion & geschriene Lyrics im Hintergrund.....schwelend und obskur bedrohlich und verstörend...wütender und verzweifelter Experimental-Ambient." - back in stock the CD re-issue of his 1991 album
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| HELM |
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 |
|
| HENRIKSEN, ARVE |
The Nature of Connections |
LP + CD |
remarkable album by the Norwegian trumpeter and singer, combining subtle Jazz with Nordik Folk and Contemporary Chamber Music in an elegant, highly emotive / melodic way... recorded with four different string-players (2 x violin, viola, cello), many of the pieces were composed by his collaborators... the vinyl version comes with CD copy of the same album included
|
2014 |
€25.00 |
|
| HIORTHOY, KIM & RUNE KRISTOFFERSEN |
LET'S PUT IT TO MUSIC / 20 YEARS OF RUNE GRAMMOFON |
BOOK & 7inch |
224 pages hardcover book with visuals by RUNE GRAMMOFON desgner Kim Hiorthøy, the label works since 20 years with the same artist, creating a strong visual identity... "an interesting insight by including sketches, rejected designs and unused idéas that never left the drawing board.." comes with 7" incl. tracks by FIRE!ORCHESTRA, MAJA S. RATKJE and THE LAST HURRAH! |
2018 |
€46.00 |
|
| HOGAN, ANNI |
Kickabye |
do-CD |
expanded re-issue of the Kickaybe 12" (1985) & Each Day 12" (1988), with many previously unreleased tracks from the same period and some new versions, feat. NICK CAVE, MARC ALMOND, FOETUS, BUDGIE (SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES), YELLO and GINI BALL
|
2009 |
€16.50 |
|
| HORTOBAGYI, LASZLO |
Transreplica Meccano (complete edition) |
CD |
first CD re-issue since 32 years of this milestone of ethno ambient / electronic music, HORTOBAGYI was a Hungarian ethnologist who learned to play many traditional Indian instruments himself, combining this with electronic sounds and samples; this "complete" edition comes with three unreleased bonus tracks from the same sessions and re-mastered, lim. 300 copies
|
2024 |
€15.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| IF, BWANA / DAN WARBURTON |
I am sitting in Phil Niblock's Kitchen |
CD |
very conceptual sound-work by DAN WARBURTON, who time-stretched about 100 IF, BWANA pieces to exactly 45 minutes for a live performance and mixed them simultaneously; later IF,BWANA added a WARBURTON piece that was processed the same way... -> very dense & droney stuff with thousands of tiny micro-details in the soundstream !
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
| INADE |
Aldebaran |
do-LP |
first ever vinyl re-issue of the dark ambient milestone from 1996, re-mastered and expanded with additional material from the same sessions => "...walls of solid deep and pulsating sound waves, crushing explosions of stellar noises, wails and voices dragged from the very depths of space itself, along with blanketing swathes of night-encrusted atonal skitterings echoing in dark cathedrals." lim. 350 copies on BLACK vinyl
|
2017 |
€25.00 |
|
| INCAPACITANTS |
Extreme Gospel Nights |
LP |
re-issue of rare cassette from 1993 (Vanilla Rec.) with two long tracks:"...don't expect traditional spirituals, but rather some truly alien performances, complete with sporadic screaming of vivisected baboons drowning in the sonic sludge... This is fun, terrifying, hypnotic, and fascinating all at the same time; their noise takes root not in violence or gimmickry, but in pure energy." - lim. 300, silver silkscreen sleeve + wrapped in golden paper like the original K7
|
2019 |
€23.00 |
|
| INFANT CYCLE |
A Mysterious Disc |
lathe-cut 7" |
"Is this lathe a mysterious disc?" TWO versions of "A Mysterious Disc" are existing with absolute the same cover & catalogue number, but different material. No information available. This is version 1
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
A Mysterious Disc |
lathe-cut 7" |
"Or is this lathe a mysterious disc?"'Two versions of "A Mysterious Disc" are existing with absolute the same cover & catalogue number, but different material. No information available. This is version 2
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| IRISARRI, RAFAEL ANTON |
Sirimiri |
MC |
tape-only release by the prolific ambience composer with the same 4 tracks on both sides (72 min. in total), this 'drizzle' ambience is "shrouded in melancholic vapours and forlorn harmonics... four majestic extended cuts as so many viewpoints on an untouched phantasmal valley... ‘Sirimiri‘ offers sensations in their purest essence, primitively symbolic yet actively contemplative." 2nd. ed. in cassette-case with download code on this label from Mexico City
|
2018 |
€15.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| JECK, PHILIP & CHRIS WATSON |
Oxmardyke |
CD |
PHILIP JECK died in March 2022, in January of the same year, already in hospital, he worked on the sound files provided by CHRIS WATSON for this collaboration, recorded around "Oxmardyke rail crossing" (near humber estuary)... a great last work, 9 tracks, The Quietus Album of the Week 15th June 2023; large format DVD package
|
2023 |
€17.00 |
|
| JOHANNSSON, JOHANN |
Personal Effects |
LP |
the very calm and melancholic soundtrack to the movie of the same name from 2009 (directed by DAVID HOLLANDER), previously unreleased, performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, with J. JOHANNSSON providing the piano and electronics... - extensive liner notes by the director on the inlay: "I never imagined this score would be something that would help me not only to cope with Johann's death, but to feel Johann's presence and be moved, time and time again, by his work"
|
2020 |
€28.00 |
|
| JONES, A.F. |
For Eschrichtiidae |
mCD-R |
this is a hydrophonic / underwater recording (with condensers in open air at the same time) of a Washington State ferry approaching and docking in Port Townsend, WA, USA, in April 2019, you're surround by crackling and spiraling water sounds, as well as the rumbling from machines, propellers and bouncing objects, the whole is inspired by the growing problem of underwater noise pollution... "Listen, enjoy, and advocate for robust undersea noise pollution policy."
|
2019 |
€5.00 |
|
| KA-SPEL, EDWARD |
The Textures of Illumina |
do-CD |
a compilation with the material from the 10" with same name, rare compilation tracks and two versions of "Atomic Roses '95", as well as a bonus disc with previously unreleased experiments and re-workings of old songs, recorded throughout 2001
|
2002 |
€18.00 |
|
|
High on Station Yellow Moon |
10inch |
this is the rare companion release to the full-lenght album of the same name, recorded with AMANDA PALMER; the two bonus songs from the CD version, plus one exclusive new track on side two, all previously unreleased on vinyl; lim. 227 copies w. special textured paper cover
|
2017 |
€26.00 |
|
| |
Tales from the Trenches |
LP |
the successor to the "Permission to Leave the Temple" 10inch from the same label, 8 new studio tracks: *Everything may at first feel ominous or sombre in tone, but there’s also a glimmer of hope laid bare in all its sun-drenched glory poking between the cracks.* - 500 copies pressed, 250 copies on brown vinyl, 250 on black
|
2024 |
€23.00 |
|
| KAHN, JASON |
Vanishing Point |
CD |
"a subtle and hypnotic elegy for rattling metals, timbral vibration, gossamer static, hissing field recordings, and colored noises"
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF |
There are Actions which we have neglected and which never cease to call us |
LP |
"After 20 years of Kammerflimmer Kollektief, with 10 albums thus far, the time has come to take a trip. The Karlsruhe combo guide us through seven stations in an unfathomable Terra Incognita, where a listening space emerges at the intersection of improvisation and composition, a space where certitude slips out of reach, jouncing incessantly between precision and freedom..." black vinyl, comes with CD of the same album
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| KENT, JULIA |
Temporal (lim. white vinyl) |
LP + CD |
JULIA KENT's new album is a "meditation on the transitory and fragile nature of existence", most material was originally made for dance theatre productions... "The electronic manipulations are subtler, with Julia sampling voices from a theatre production and processing them into unrecognisable textures: ghosts of the source material." lim. 500 white vinyl, + CD of the same album
|
2019 |
€22.50 |
|
| KG AUGENSTERN |
Circles and Cycles |
BOOK + CD |
after the obscure, hyper conceptual sound art "Tentacles" release on the same label, a like-minded offering by KG AUGENSTERN from Berlin: recordings from scratching surfaces with a special fiberglass tentacle, this time made on abandoned places and ruins in Sicilia and accompanied with video recordings of the sites, also using sheep wool and clay, which lead to an exhibition in Palermo; - comes wtih a very nice 60 page art book with many s/w and colour photos, texts, notes..
|
2020 |
€18.00 |
|
| KINETIX |
Gestaltsystem 01: Possible Forms |
do-CD |
early sound art release by GIANLUCA BECUZZI, part of an installation: two CDs that sound completely different (one with digital structures and forms, the other with very intimate, 'concrete' and microscopic noises) with exact the same length, containing both eight pieces with exact 5:20 min. playtime => both CDs but also single tracks should be played simultaneously, but especially the 2nd CD sound also great alone... BACK IN STOCK for special price now !
|
2006 |
€8.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| KLOOB |
Parallel States |
CD |
KLOOBS music could be called "evocative dark ambient", it can evoke dark visions but has at the same time a soothing, trance-inducing effect, the mind seems to dissolve into objectless spheres... psychoactive muzak! The third album on W-L, strictly limited to 200 copies.. - " At once comprehending and understanding even the most intricate of macrocosmic notions... "
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| KOUW, MATTHIJS & GAGI PETROVIC |
Recalcitrance |
do-CD |
two promising Dutch drone / minimal / experimental artists on this split double album, inspired by philosopher ISABELLE STENGERS and her concept of "Recalcitrance", and starting from the same source sounds: "Anything that resists subsumption to technical rationality is seen as a threat to public order....Recalcitrant subjects ask new questions, thereby allowing the currently dominant reductionist mindset obsessed with productivity to be unsettled by space for reflection and quiet contemplation." lim. 200
|
2021 |
€15.50 |
|
| KREBS, K.M. |
Alchymy |
CD-R |
KEVIN KREBS convinces with 9 pieces (55 minutes) of electro-acoustic drone-soundscapes, using field recordings and more "played" concrete elements from instruments or objects at the same time, for a stunning result where one can focus the attention totally. Sometimes the compositions seem to float and stream, at times they appear to be more collaged... lim. 60 special cardboard-box with inlay / numbered ed.
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| KÖNER, THOMAS |
Nuuk |
CD |
re-issue of the phantastic "subliminal / glacial ambience" classic that was first released on the "Driftworks" 4 CD compilation in 1997 (recorded already 1995) - "Subdued and minimal at first glance, this album is brimming with low-end frequences, shadowy resonances and boreal ambience, but at the same time, constant fluctuation and vulnerability of sonic events, makes it very organic, human and almost comforting..."
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
| KÖTTER, DANIEL & HANNES SEIDL |
Stadt (Land Fluss) - A Radio Play |
CD + BOOK |
"Town-Countryside-River" is work about the sounds of the city, the permanent transformation, construction noises and increasing interconnection of all of its parts: which social dimensions open up? how does the town sound, how could it sound? who has the right to shape it? This radio play was created on the basis of a musictheatre piece of the same name, and uses electro magnetic sounds of CHRSTINA KUBISCH and others, along with quotes / texts about these topics... - oversized package and 16 p. booklet
|
2020 |
€14.00 |
|
| LA CASA, ERIC & CEDRIC PEYRONNET |
La Creuse |
CD |
a super fascinating 'pure sound' journey based on mysterious field recordings, 'concrete' & droney at the same time; both artists mixing each others material; highly recommended !!
|
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
| LAMIA VOX |
Sigillum Diaboli |
CD |
second album for this Russian project - now on the prolific CYCLIC LAW label from Canada - orchestral ambience, droney synths, orthodox chorals, female singing & whispers, with additional ritualistic percussion & neo-classic arrangements, gloomy & elevating at the same time... for fans of / somewhere between ARCANA, RAISON D'ETRE, HYBRYDS, IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES, etc.. lim. 600
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| LANG, KLAUS |
Einfalt.Stille |
CD |
Another kind of meditative ZEN-ambience, created totally acoustic / non-electronic with flute, female singing, very subtle percussion and viola. Music that floats, and creates an inner state of silence and stasis at the same time. Very nice and deep, not "new agey" at all !
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| 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... // lim. 300 / 7"-cover with silkscreen-print
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| LEGENDARY PINK DOTS (LPD) |
The Maria Dimension - Complete Recordings |
3 x CD |
re-issue of one of LPDs "landmark" albums (from 1991), now with the complete additional material recorded at the same sessions (first released on the 5 LP set in 2015) : "In addition to the original album, remastered by Edward Ka-Spel, two additional CDs of material from the same recordings sessions are presented here. It’s all packed into an eight-panel digipak with a 12 page booklet with lyrics and notes about the recordings. Over three hours of music in one package!" - lim. 499 copies
|
2022 |
€43.00 |
|
| LOOP |
A Gilded Eternity |
do-CD |
re-issue of the album from 1990, plus one full disc with unreleased demos from the same period
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO |
Untitled # 90 |
CD |
re-issue of a CD that appeared on PRE-FEED in 1999, pure INSECT SOUNDS. This is Sonic Biology ! Comes in the same minimal design with no real cover as other UNTITLED releases in this phase... one-tracker 46 minutes, special priced
|
2002 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Untitled # 300 |
LP |
new LOPEZian composition based on multi-track field recordings of a large colony of SEAGULLS and hydrophonic capturing of sea and underwater creatures from the same location (coast of Morocco, 2011) processed digitally in an unusual way after; lim. 300 black vinyl - nice textured cover |
2015 |
€26.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & ALBERTO NOVELLO |
Neocortical F-Bars |
CD |
ALBERTO NOVELLO (aka JESTERN) is a sound artist working with old analog devices, connecting sound and light in his installations, using self repaired or modified machines from the past... - this way, a very unusual collaboration arised with FRANCISCO LOPEZ, both working with the same source materials - one long (37 min.) piece by both, full of strangest electro-magnetic buzzing and humming, sinewaves and analogue hissing, anti -music in new shaped forms.. lim. 300
|
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, JAY-DEA |
The Australian Gothic |
CD |
field recordings from Australia, which was for a long time (colonised in 1788) a kind of "dark subsconscious" of Britain, the dungeon of the world, a dangerous and alien place with a strange soundscape... JAY-DEA LOPEZ tried to capture and process daily farm- and landscape-sounds into a composition that shares uneasiness and beauty at the same time... lim. 200
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| MACHINEFABRIEK |
The Measures Taken |
CD |
a score for a dance choreography by ALEXANDER WHITLEY (with the same name) based on the theme "Men versus Machine", apart from the typical delicate MACHINEFABREIK ambience this goes at times into very abstract / electro-acoustic / challenging areas, with lots of concrete noises, crackles and cut-ups, a surprising and intense work for the dutch sound artist!
lim. 300
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| MARUTTI, ANDREA / CARLO GIORDANI |
Impressioni Organizzate Di Ansie Liquide (part 1) |
mCD-R |
a kind of sister release to the strong CD on Silentes with same title - this contains different material: organic field recordings of water, growling thunder and other elementary nature sounds merge with electronics in a most sublime way... endless REPEAT modus, please ! - a one tracker of 22 min.
|
2020 |
€5.50 |
|
| MEIRINO, FRANCISCO & KIKO C. ESSEIVA |
Focus on Nothing on Focus |
LP |
using the same source material, each composer is responsible for one side of this record, both use all kinds of devices to create their "intelligently sliced noise collages" [ISNC] - this is very dynamic, collageous, ever surprising stuff with lots of acoustic micro occurences, culled from all kinds of homemade objects and electronics, using reel-to-reel tape recorders, EMF detectors, piezo transducers... numbered ed. of 300 copies
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| MEIXNER, STEPHEN |
Between the Lines |
CD |
four dark compositions inspired by the symbolic architecture of DANIEL LIBESKIND for the Jewish museum in Berlin, moving between electro-acoustic and experimental ambience... very emotional and challenging at the same time, the first solo album by the CONTRASTATE-member from U.K.
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| MELANCHOHOLICS |
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 |
|
| MENUCK, EFRIM MANUEL |
High Gospel |
LP + CD |
debut solo-album by the GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPOROR co-founder and leader of SILVER MT.ZION, a mixture of passionate folk / song-oriented and astonishing experimental / electronic tracks, held together by his insistent singing and guitar-playing... feat. various guest musicians such as JESSICA MOSS on violin, etc.. / comes w. 3 inlays/poster and CD copy of the same album
|
2011 |
€23.50 |
|
| MERZBOW |
Nezumimochi |
pic-LP & CD |
jubilee release on the British industrial institution Cold Spring Records, a nicely designed MERZBOW picture disc (showing ornamental rat-tails), two side-long pieces recorded summer 2014... "Over 90 minutes of crunchy, intense noise, complex structures, and hypnotic samples, all with that special Merzbow touch"; CD version of the same album included, lim. 500
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Noisembryo /Noise Matrix |
do-CD |
re-issue of album from 1994, plus full bonus CD with rare material from the same period... - "When people ask where to start with Merzbow, this is the answer. The holy grail, not only of Merzbow's obsessive discography, but of the entire '90s noise movement.. Velocity loops, roving automotive bass, and cacophonic drum machine gel together with the surprising inclusion of a sound rarely heard within Merzbow's many years... Masami Akita's own voice!"- luxus gatefold cover, mini poster, DL code!
|
2022 |
€22.00 |
|
| MERZBOW + KAORU SATO |
Kyoto Oct. 21 2018 |
LP |
this documents the first ever collaboration performance of KAORU SATO (R.N.A.Organism, EP-4) and MERZBOW with a surprising, very dense and strange ambient sound (Side A), on Side B two solo pieces by both artists from the same evening, remixed in the studio afterwards... lim. 300 copies
|
2019 |
€22.00 |
|
| MICHAEL, DAVID & SLAVEK KWI |
MMABOLELA |
do-CD |
the more or less same African field recordings from two different perspective/microphones (recorded during a 2 week workshop in South Africa organized by FRANCISCO LOPEZ in 2013): SLAWEK KWI (ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE) and DAVID MICHAEL recorded the wildlife, certain animals and bugs, subaquatic sounds or just the midnight atmospheres revealing a fascinating variety; nice full colour presenation, a must for field recording specialists!
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| MINAMATA |
Fukushima |
CD |
the latest, ambitious work of the French industrialists is an emotional noise-drama based on the Fukushima disaster, harsh and oppressive, devastating and sad at the same time! - "a free sonic interpreting of the japanese industrial disaster of the nuclear power station of Fukushima - the soundtrack of this dramatic event, mixing cold and telluric electronics with metal elements and heavily processed vocals. The entire recording sounds like radiations eating your skin!"
|
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
| MIZUTANI, KIYOSHI |
Works 1989-1991 |
CD |
back in stock this collection with early material from the "The same thing makes always her laugh" LP (ZSF 1990), plus other rare cassette-only stuff; on the CRAWL UNIT-label which is not active anymore
|
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
| MORRICONE, ENNIO |
Escalation |
LP |
soundtrack to the film of the same name from 1968, directed by ROBERTO FAENZA, a very political comedy attacking the values of western capitalism..; stylistically a very versatile soundtrack with lots of choral elements and the phantastic "Dies Irae Psichedelico" track; comes with cover replica of the original first LP edition from 1968, lim. 500 yellow vinyl
|
2015 |
€21.00 |
|
| MURAYAMA, SEIJIRO & ERIC LA CASA |
Paris: Public Spaces |
CD |
for this teamwork Japanese drummer SEJIRO MURAYAMA and ERIC LA CASA took diverse field recordings from public spaces in Paris, always recorded at the same time in different locations, often added by MURAYAMAs own vocal utterances, breathings, sighs, whispers..=> the result is a VERY curious mixture of site-specific environments with improvised elements-"Murayama's contribution is rather mysterious most of the time, but that sort of is exactly quite right for this kind of music. A rather beautiful release" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| MURMER |
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 |
|
| MUSLIMGAUZE |
Minaret Speaker |
CD |
first issue of unfinished recordings from around 1996 (elements of this appeared on the lim. 7" of the same name in 1996), 14 tracks, 61+ min, lim. 500; BACK IN STOCK last copies!
|
2015 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Eye For An Eye |
LP + 7inch |
re-issue of 6 track album from 2001 (Muslimlim.029), now completed with two unreleased bonus tracks on the 7\" from the same sessions, a very atmospheric / ambient album with lots of casading echo effects...- *This record makes an adventure of the sameness, breaks it all down, and turns it into texture-fields of tactile melodic density. The timeliness of the title and the current world situation.* - BLACK vinyl ed. lim. 600, excellent cover + DL code inside
|
2023 |
€26.00 |
|
| MY BLOODY VALENTINE |
m b v |
LP & CD |
what a sensation & surprise - almost 22 years after the masterpiece "Loveless" the NEW third album by MBV is out - this limited vinyl version (with bonus CD of the same album) comes in a gatefold-cover and was recorded & mastered 100% analogue (no digital procession)- so it sounds really different on vinyl !!
|
2013 |
€30.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| NADJA |
Corrasion |
do-LP |
re-issue of the album from 2003 / 2007 incl. new versions and one track previously only available as MP3 single; gatefold cover lim. 400, last copies BACK IN STOCK! => "das vielleicht bisher eingängigste NADJA-Album, himmlische Melodien & wuchtige Arrangements, wundersame Drone-Sphären und geisterhaft gehauchter Gesang, im Spannungsfeld und Treffpunkt von Metal, Post-Rock und Sphären-Drone... [Drone Rec. info]
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
|
Under the Jaguar Sun |
do-LP |
this vinyl version features three completely different remixes (from last years do-CD with the same name) by NADJA and a real stunning one by EDWARD KA-SPEL! Comes in oversized "book bound" full colour gatefold sleeve
|
2010 |
€26.50 |
|
| |
Paradox Incubate 15.09.14 |
LP + CD |
only 5 days after the performance in Tilburg at the INCUBATE festival (15.09.14) this LP of the concert recordings was released, in a limited edition of 300 copies with additional CD version of the same album included => tracks from the great "Queller" album and long ambient-drone passages...excellent sound quality, 41+ min. playtime, a very nice document !
|
2014 |
€18.50 |
|
| NADJA / AIDAN BAKER |
Nalepa |
LP + CD |
the 100th release on MIDIRA, the fine minimal / guitar / experimental drone label from Essen, Germany, is something very special: a "live in the studio" LP by NADJA recorded at the legendary Funkhaus Berlin, feat. HYPNODRONE ENSEMBLE drummer.. plus a full AIDAN BAKER solo CD recorded at the same studios a bit later; only 250 copies exist, all NADJA fans should hurry up !!!
|
2022 |
€32.00 |
|
| NEGATIVLAND & CHUMBAWAMBA |
ABCs of Anarchism |
maxi-CD |
three completely crazy collaboration collage pieces - the title & some original quotes being based on ALEXANDER BERGMANs book from 1929 of the same name - using hundreds of different samples of music, sounds & speeches from various sources = this is plunderphonia at its weirdest & funniest !
|
1999 |
€9.00 |
|
| NIGHT SCIENCE (MAGAZINE) |
Vol. V |
BOOK & CD |
newest issue for this book-sized magazine (158 pages!) from Australia for Industrial, harsh noise and the darker sides of ambience & drone, has articles & interviews with/about: MLEHST (!), ANEMONE TUBE, NIELLERADE F., KAZUMA KUBOTA, the FRAGMENT FACTORY label,etc. + hundreds of reviews, live reports, + additional comp. CD with the same artists, lim. 500
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| NOIT, HATIS |
Illogical Dance |
LP |
Japanese female singer with impressing debut 12" (a 45rpm long play EP), using solely her own voice - without sampling and influenced by Japanese Gagaku and Folk, Gregorian Chants and Western Avantgarde singing, HATIS NOIT creates multi-layered songs that sound mysterious and emotional at the same time... to discover !!
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| NORDVARGR |
Daath |
CD |
a kind of sister solo-album to MZ.412's strong "Svartmyrkr" album, recorded at the same time... "The ambient parts have been put in the backseat in order to make way for heavy percussion, stringed and bowed instrumentation and thundering vocals delivered with serious intent. The title refers to the false sephira which also can be interpreted as the great abyss that needs to be crossed in order to attain higher knowledge.." - lim. 500 six panel digipak
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| NORTHAM, MICHAEL |
Memory of A |
mCD-R |
one-tracker mixing instrumental (zylophone) with field (rain) recordings; kind of sister-release to the SUHINA 10" which appears at the same time
|
2009 |
€5.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| NOSTALGIE ETERNELLE |
Notre Debut |
CD |
collection of twenty tracks by this remarkable German post-industrial / minimal / electro-wave duo active from 1986-1991 who established their very own style, with vocals & piercing synths, but also through very dark & melancholic songs..; coming from the same small town (Leer) as MAEROR TRI they shared the stage few times. Very first widely available CD!!
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| NURSE WITH WOUND |
Thunder Perfect Mind |
do-CD |
re-issue of NWW's classic from 1992 (sister album to the CURRENT 93 album of the same name), now with a full bonus discs feat. rare tracks (for example from the 'Steel Dream March of the Metal Man" 7" or the "Alien" 7") and two previously unreleased tracks, incl. "Bad Trip in Berlin" !!
|
2016 |
€22.50 |
|
|
Spiral INsana |
do-CD & BOOK |
and if you haven't already enough versions of this seminal NWW album classic from 1986, here's the definite one: two CDs with the same material as on the do-LP (the complete sessions plus "A Missing Sense", feat ANDREW McKENZIE (HAFLER TRIO), DIANA ROGERSON, DAVID TIBET, ROBERT HAIGH and others..), housed in a 30 page art book with silverfoil hardcover, presenting full colour screen prints !!
|
2017 |
€27.50 |
|
|
Homotopy to Marie |
do-LP |
luxus re-issue of NWW's 5th album and true surrealistic masterpiece from 1982, described as "a step on from the Dadaist rock of Merzbild Schwet, with much use of tape manipulation and classical avant-garde techniques"; much more eerie and subtle as previous releases, we think: the best possible approach to the Irrational and Unconscious, a kind of logbook for surpressed memories... silver printed gatefold cover, 4 rare bonus tracks from the same period, numbered ed. 700; SILVER-BLACK/WHITE VINYL
|
2018 |
€38.50 |
|
|
Merzbild Schwet |
CD |
first CD re-issue after 25 years of the NWW classic (third album) from 1980 - released at the same time as 'To the Quiet Man from a Tiny Girl' - "the first fully realized NWW record.." - this new edition comes with new and original artwork plus an (unreleased?) untitled bonus track (12 + min.), no information is given on this..
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
|
To the Quiet Men from a Tinyl Girl |
CD |
first CD re-issue after 25 years of the NWW classic from 1980 (2nd album and the last one recorded as a trio), released at the same time as "Merzbild Schwet", feat. JAC BERROCAL and with dedicated material to Vienesse actionist RUDOLF SCHWARZKOGLER; this re-issue has original and new artwork and an (unreleased?) untitled bonus track (23 + min.), no information is given on this..
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
|
To the Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl |
LP |
first LP re-issue after 25 years of the NWW classic from 1980 (2nd album and the last one recorded as a trio), released at the same time as "Merzbild Schwet", feat. JAC BERROCAL and with dedicated material to Vienesse actionist RUDOLF SCHWARZKOGLER; this re-issue has a replica of the original cover art but a newly designed insert, and comes on YELLOW vinyl
|
2020 |
€23.50 |
|
|
Merzbild Schwet |
LP |
first LP re-issue after 25 years of the NWW classic (third album) from 1980 - released at the same time as 'To the Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl' - "the first fully realized NWW record.." - this new edition comes with a replica of the original cover, with new designed inlay and on BLUE vinyl
|
2020 |
€23.50 |
|
| |
Spaced Muzak |
do-CD |
a newly mastered version of "Space Musik" (LP on Beta-lactam Ring Records), now with three additional, previously unreleased pieces on CD 2 (the original mix of the same piece, a sleep concert version feat. TIMO VAN LUIJK, and a different new mix), comes in splendid 6 panel "double digipack" with new artworks...
|
2022 |
€18.50 |
|
| O YUKI CONJUGATE |
Sleepwalker |
CD |
selected live recordings from their extensive touring throught Europe 2017-2019, building the dreamlike soundtrack for the film of a same name by ANDREW HULME of OYC => elegant woven ethno-ambience with a stronger electronic touch than on their early classics, but the typical OYC sound shines through distinctively; comes with 16 page full colour booklet, ed. of 500 copies
|
2019 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Sleepwalker |
do-LP |
lim. vinyl version of the AUF ABWEGEN CD from 2019 with selected live recordings (with top quality!) from their extensive touring throught Europe 2017-2019, building the dreamlike soundtrack for the film of a same name by ANDREW HULME of OYC... 400 copies incl. 12" insert and 16 page 10" x 10" booklet, 3 bonus-tracks !!
|
2021 |
€36.50 |
|
| O'ROURKE, JIM |
Hands That Bind |
LP |
Soundtrack to the movie of the same name by KYLE ARMSTRONG ('prairie gothic' tale of down-on-the-farm horror' north in Canada): "Jim O’Rourke’s soundtrack is perfectly calibrated to this unforgiving space squashed between parched fields and blown-out sky. His palette - detuned piano, watery vibraphone, and a muted, amorphous shimmer that might be harmonium or synthesizer - matches the film’s dusty tones of beige and pewter and mobile-home brown" - comes in nice gatefold cover
|
2023 |
€27.50 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO |
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 |
|
| OVAL LANGUAGE, THE |
Waldkonzerte |
do-LP |
impressive, impossible to categorize release with outdoor/forest performance recordings (without audience!) by this project from Leipzig, active since 1987 - only materials found at site plus extreme vocals were used for five most challenging rituals, bewildering and intimate at the same time..... - very nice edition with die-cut sleeve and printed inners, lim. 200
|
2021 |
€29.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| PHURPA |
Trowo Phurnag Ceremony |
CD |
recorded live at "Gazgallery" in Moscow, autumn 2008 = the same ritual that was recently re-issued on IDEOLOGIC ORGAN as do-LP by STEPHEN O'MALLEY! Lim. 500, hard to find, on very unknown Russian label
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Trowo Phurnag Ceremony |
CD |
first rare studio CD (the same recordings were released later as SOMA01 double LP on Stephen O'Malleys newly established label), already recorded in 2005, by the ritual performance group around ALEXEI TEGIN, practising ancient Tibetan vocal / chanting techiques and sound... this is one of the few releases with STUDIO recordings, so the quality is much better; jewel-case + 6 page booklet
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| POUSSEUR, HENRI |
Early Experimental Electronic Music 1954-1961 |
LP |
earliest works by the Belgian composer and music theorist, incl. "Seismogrammes I-III", "Rimes 1-2-3" and the three "Trois Visages De Liege" pieces.. "Realized in the same Cologne radio studio as much of Karlheinz Stockhausen's most famous work, this collection brings together some of Pousseur's greatest work, early tape and electronic masterpieces that deserve the recognition afforded many of his more famous contemporaries"
|
2019 |
€18.50 |
|
| PRIMITIVE WINGS |
Morphosis |
CD |
first promising album of the new project from JAAKKO VANHALA, a well known figure of the Finnish experimental underground scene (ZOÄT-AON, I.CORAX) with links to the AURAL HYPNOX label... sophisticated noise with a certain "archaic" feel.. - *a highly evocative album, bringing into mind vivid flashes of something primal, perhaps from the prehistoric past. At the same time it’s very raw, but without being utterly harsh..*
|
2023 |
€12.50 |
|
| PSYCHIC TV |
Those Who Do Not (White Vinyl) |
do-LP |
definitely one of the best PTV-releases ever, now for the first time back in print on vinyl! With GENESIS P'ORRIDGE, P.CHRISTOPHERSON, JOHN BALANCE, HÖH, ALEX FERGUSSON, JOHN GOSLING, recorded live in Rejkavik in 1983 (released 1984), remastered gatefold ed. on white vinyl! (lim. 230 copies) - "Psychic TV at their most esoteric, their most ritual, and often most extreme, a perfect accompaniment to the legendary Dreams Less Sweet album of the same year"
|
2023 |
€33.00 |
|
|
Those who do not |
do-LP |
definitely one of the best PTV-releases ever, now for the first time back in print on vinyl! With GENESIS P'ORRIDGE, P.CHRISTOPHERSON, JOHN BALANCE, HÖH, ALEX FERGUSSON, JOHN GOSLING, recorded live in Rejkavik in 1983 (released 1984), remastered gatefold ed., standard BLACK vinyl - "Psychic TV at their most esoteric, their most ritual, and often most extreme, a perfect accompaniment to the legendary Dreams Less Sweet album of the same year" |
2023 |
€31.00 |
|
| |
Those who do not |
CD |
definitely one of the best PTV releases ever, back in print on CD with 12 page booklet...feat. G. P-ORRIDGE, P.CHRISTOPHERSON, JOHN BALANCE, HÖH, ALEX FERGUSSON, JOHN GOSLING, recorded live in Rejkjavik in 1983 (released 1984) - "Psychic TV at their most esoteric, their most ritual, and often most extreme, a perfect accompaniment to the legendary Dreams Less Sweet album of the same year"
|
2023 |
€14.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| RADIGUE, ELIANE |
Songs of Milarepa |
do-CD |
MILAREPA was a legendary Tibetan saint from the 11th century, who is said to have composed up to 100.000 verses to spread his beliefs; this do-CD uses five of his pieces, combined with subliminal drone waves a lulling and extremely subtle and calm atmosphere is spread; this collects the LP with same title from 1983, the "Mila's Journey" CD (1987) plus two unreleased pieces; BACK IN STOCK! |
1998 |
€26.00 |
|
| RADIGUE, ELIANE (FEAT. ENSEMBLE DEDALUS & RYOKO AKAMA) |
Hepta I / Occam XX |
CD |
Two pieces written by Éliane Radigue at the same period (2014-2018), one instrumental (recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris by Ensemble Dedalus) and the other electronic (performed by Ryoko Akama)... - two new longform drone works, both around 30 minutes in length, lim. 500 copies
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| RAISON D'ETRE |
Prospectus I (Redux Version) |
do-CD |
remastered & remixed '20th anniversary' re-issue of R.D.s first album from 1993, filled with religious chants, choirs, bells & creating a 'gothic' atmosphere, this marked the invention of the typical R.D. sound, somehow a mixture of post-industrial & archaic catholic mysticism... comes with diverse bonus-tracks from the same sessions
|
2013 |
€17.00 |
|
|
Within the Depths of Silence and Phormations |
do-LP |
first ever vinyl version of this dark ambient classic from 1995 (the third R.D. album, released on Cold Meat Industry) - "Layers of ethereal atmospheres and the collage of choirs, strings, bells and occasional voices slowly bleed together to create music for society whose spirituality has been rendered impotent. Soaking in this world, one is left with the impression of overwhelming sadness and profound desolation..." - gatefold cover, incl. 5 bonus tracks from same period, 300 copies black vinyl
|
2020 |
€28.50 |
|
| |
In Sadness, Silence and Solitude |
do-LP |
first ever vinyl version of this dark ambient classic from 1997 (the fourth R.D. album) - "This is music guaranteed to at least bring about thoughts of mysticism, if it doesn't produce mystical states outright. This defines the term hauntingly beautiful...".- gatefold cover, incl. diverse rare bonus tracks from same period, 300 copies on black vinyl
|
2020 |
€28.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
|
A pale blue Door |
BOOK + CD |
a book with the first published short story by ROBIN STOREY (68 pages) around a mysterious spaceman and "takes place in the past, the present and the future, and may involve time travel", plus a full RAPOON CD with same title, based on recordings of stars, space missions, radio signals, etc. taken from the NASA website; first ed. only 200 copies !!
|
2015 |
€23.00 |
|
|
What do you suppose? (the Alien Question) |
do-CD |
re-issue of deleted album from 1999 inspired by a theory about the presence of aliens by WILLIAM COOPER, now with a completely new & so far unpublished bonus album "The Project Book" which is based on the same source recordings as "What do you suppose" but uses (almost) no vocal material at all, sounding completely different... lim. 500
|
2015 |
€16.50 |
|
|
Raising Earthly Spirits |
do-LP BOX |
first vinyl re-issue of this early RAPOON classic (2nd album from 1993), a masterpiece of ethno/trance post industrial - comes in a glorious edition (printed wood box-sleeve plus printed inners) with two unreleased tracks from the same sessions!! - "The spirits Rapoon conjure either rise from the primordial ooze breathing fire or poise themselves on the abyssal edge, waiting patiently for obeisance " [i/e magazine] - Lim. 400 on BLACK vinyl
|
2023 |
€42.50 |
|
| |
Raising Earthly Spirits |
CD box |
special CD re-issue of this early RAPOON classic (2nd album from 1993), a masterpiece of ethno/trance post industrial - comes in a glorious edition (printed wood slip case with two unreleased tracks from the same sessions!! - "The spirits Rapoon conjure either rise from the primordial ooze breathing fire or poise themselves on the abyssal edge, waiting patiently for obeisance " [i/e magazine] - Lim. 300
|
2023 |
€19.50 |
|
| RATKJE, MAJA S. |
Crepuscular Hour |
do-LP / DVD / CD |
one hour piece written for three choirs, three pairs of noise musicians and church organ, to be performed in a cathedral with musicians surrounding the audience, with all texts used being from the 'Nag Hammadi Library'; this version was performed and filmed at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2012; very eerie, dramatic & powerful, like dark contemporary new music mixed with noise elements; comes in gatefold cover with DVD and CD of the same album
|
2016 |
€34.00 |
|
| RENALDO & THE LOAF |
Arabic Yodelling + Grain by Grain (for Accuracy) |
do-CD |
re-issue of their third album from 1983 (the second for Ralph Records), plus another CD of collected unfinished pieces and rare material rec. around the same time, all re-mastered from the original tapes
|
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| RESIDENTS |
Not Available |
CD |
re-issue of second album from 1979 (recorded already 1974!), incl. 7 minutes from the same sessions as bonus
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| REUTOFF |
No One's Lullabies |
CD |
the 9th album by the deep melancholic / sophisticated electro industrial outfit from Moscow, an extension of the MC release with same title from last year... "So near perfection is No One’s Lullabies that while listening, one can’t help but feel that the album is a masterpiece for a project that has gone virtually unnoticed in the West for far too long now." [Heathen Harvest] lim. 333 copies
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| REYNOLDS, ROGER |
Process and Passion |
do-CD |
MARK MENZIES: violin HUGH LIVINGSTON: cello. includes bonus CD with "binaural presentation" ( 6-channel spatialization) of the same works, for headphone-listening!
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| RICHTER, MAX |
Disconnect (OST) |
CD |
Soundtrack for the Film of the same name - a real "ambient / chamber music" masterpiece based on the great emotional main theme ('On the Nature of Daylight') appearing in varied forms a few times, connected through fields of dreamy & ultra subtle melancholic night-drone passages... 60+ minutes
|
2013 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
Sleep |
9 x CD-BOX |
the full eight-hour version of SLEEP, which is said to be the longest one-piece composition in the history of classic music => beautiful 'contemporary drone' lullabies that work perfectly also during the daytime to set you in a dreamstate with their wonderful melancholy & repetitive structures....8 CDs + one blue-ray disc containing the same material, + booklet in cardboard box
|
2015 |
€60.00 |
|
| RUA, VITOR & THE METAPHYSICAL ANGELS |
When Better isn't quite Good enough |
do-CD |
VITOR RUA is a Portugesian guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, member of the avantgarde free jazz duo TELECTU, etc.. - he created a full solo album based on his guitar improvisations, on the second CD the same pieces are orchestrated with drums, bass, piano, guitar, clarinet and trumpet by the METAPHYSICAL ANGELS..
|
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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| SAVAGE REPUBLIC |
Tragic Figures (40th Anniversary Edition) |
do-LP |
collector's item! = the 40th anniversary release of this cult album from 1982 (definitely in our personal TOP TEN for the lonely island), the masterpiece of "art punk" or "art industrial" with psychedelic / tribal / ethnic influences and strong political impact - comes with a full extra disc of rare recordings and demos from the same time, when they rehearsed in a garage with natural reverb; all re-mastered, plus new liner notes & interview, lim. gatefold cover edition on RED vinyl
|
2022 |
€55.50 |
|
| |
Tragic Figures (40th Anniversary Edition) |
do-CD |
the 40th anniversary release of this cult album from 1982 (definitely in our personal TOP TEN for the lonely island), the masterpiece of "art punk" or "art industrial" with psychedelic / tribal / ethnic influences and strong political impact - comes with a full extra disc of rare recordings and demos from the same time, when they rehearsed in a garage with natural reverb; all re-mastered and with the original cover graphics, 6 panel digipak
|
2022 |
€30.00 |
|
| SCORN |
Imaginaria Award |
CD-EP |
this is the CD version of SCORNs 5 track 12\" from 2000 (25 min long), the middle phase of MICK HARRIS industrial dub project, released at the same time as the \"Greetings from Birmingham \" album - *a unique blend of sub bass and minimalist grooves..* - last copies back in stock !!
|
2000 |
€9.50 |
|
| SEETYCA |
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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| SHOEMAKER, MATT |
Isolated Agent Stranding Behaviour |
pic-LP |
another release in this lovely series (artwork painting & sound by the same artist); quite massive electronic drone pulses & patterns by this rising US-artist from Seattle, lim. 233 copies
|
2010 |
€17.50 |
|
| SIEBEN |
Each Divine Spark |
LP |
one of the best albums by SIEBEN aka MATT HOWDEN now in stock, the excellent British singer and violinist, often using violin loops as a basis, feat. diverse guest musicians => dreamy & hypnotic songs full of melancholy and emotions.. comes in gatefold cover, ed. of 250 copies in total... "Samengevat : een zeer sterk album van Sieben, misschien wel zijn sterkste tot op heden..." [Peek-a-Boo mag]
|
2014 |
€19.50 |
|
| SIGILLUM S |
Terror Auto-Obstetrics |
maxi-CD |
4 track EP with material from long deleted releases 1988-1991 (e.g. from the 7" with the same name)
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| SIGUR ROS |
Kveikur |
do-LP & 10inch |
lim. vinyl version of new album with bonus 10" (two extra tracks & one remix) and CD of the same album, showing SIGUR ROS going partly into a darker, more "industrial" direction as before...
|
2013 |
€26.00 |
|
| SKULLFLOWER |
Kino IV: Black Sun Rising |
CD |
rare material from various sources (1990) plus 6 previously unreleased tracks from around the same period.. part IV of the 4CD retrospective series of SKULLFLOWER's early works 1986-1990
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| SMOOTH QUALITY INSTRUMENT |
Destroy our planet, please Vol. 1 |
CD-R |
re-issue of the SMOOTH QUALITY EXCREMENT CDR with same title
|
2001 |
€10.00 |
|
| SONIC YOUTH |
Simon Werner a Disparu |
LP |
music for the film of the same name by French director FABRICE GOBERT, which premiered in Cannes May 2010 !!
|
2011 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Simon Werner a Disparu |
CD |
music for the film of the same name by French director FABRICE GOBERT, which premiered in Cannes May 2010 !!
|
2011 |
€14.50 |
|
| SPIEGEL, LAURIE |
Expanding Universe |
do-CD |
re-issue of LAURIE SPIEGELs debut-album from 1980, plus 15 more tracks from the same period (mostly unreleased); very reduced and minimal electronic & purely synthetic patterns & structures, that can be poly-rhythmic or just floating...comes with 24p booklet with liner notes & photos ; digipak edition
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
The Expanding Universe |
3 x LP |
extended re-issue of LAURIE SPIEGELs debut-album from 1980 that became a classic of 20th century electronic music (contains now 15 additional tracks from the same period, many for the first time on vinyl) => very reduced and minimal electronic & purely synthetic patterns & structures, that can be poly-rhythmic or just floating... her piece "Kepler's Harmony of the Worlds" was included on the Golden Record launched on board the Voyager spacecraft! Gatefold cover & download postcard
|
2019 |
€42.00 |
|
| STRAFE F.R. (STRAFE FÜR REBELLION) |
Octagon Sphere |
LP |
stunning album by the German electronic avantgarde veterans ("Burn the Electronic Music Machines"), who released their first album back in 1983 on Düsseldorfs PURE FREUDE (at that time also a record shop), a comeback of the female voices of the early albums!: "The work features heavily treated female vocals and includes rhythmic patterns and electronic sounds contributed by Detlef Klepsch...The overall atmosphere is tense and moody, both dark and uplifting at the same time..." - lim. 300
|
2023 |
€18.50 |
|
| SUDDEN INFANT |
Wölflis Nightmare |
LP + CD |
JOKE LANZ dedicated his new album to the legendary Swiss schizophrenic 'Art Brut' artist ADOLF WÖLFLI and created a swampy industrial rock masterpiece, the labels calls it "Industrial Brachial Minimal Blues Noise"; the vinyl version comes with CD copy of the same album
|
2014 |
€15.50 |
|
| SUNN O))) |
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 |
|
| SVARTSINN |
Of Darkness and Re-Creation |
CD |
re-issue of the second SVARTSINN-album from 2003; new artwork, new mastering & bonus-track, mini-LP styled sleeve, lim. 500 copies; re-listing for better price now! ".. SVARTSINN kreieren hier mit Samplern + Synths ruhige, einsame und eisige Klanglandschaften ohne Grund und Boden, das infinite Äußere oder Innere vertonend, mind-space oder space-mind?" [Drone Rec. info]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| TAPE |
Milieu plus |
CD |
re-issue of the album from 2003 plus 4 bonus-tracks from the same sessions
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| TAPHEPHOBIA |
Escape from the mundane Self |
CD |
the emotional & melancholic side of dark ambience, using especially spheric guitar-based sounds & dark harmonies, the perfect soundtrack to an introspective inner journey, excellent new album reminding on TROUM/MAEROR TRI, DESIDERII MARGINIS, etc.. beautiful & desolate at the same time!
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| TAZARTES, GHEDALIA |
Jeanne |
CD |
NEW material created for a theaterplay of the same name!!
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
La Bar Mitzvah du Chien |
LP |
recordings from 2012, feat. TAZARTES son Lalo on the B-side track, back in stock ! "Another shamanic journey in Tazartès's universe. He sings and plays all the instruments and samples, recorded in the very same room as all his other solo records since 1974..."
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| THE PICKLE FACTORY |
Our Anthems |
LP |
project of SCOTT FOUST & KARLA BORECKY (IDEA FIRE COMPANY) that was active in the 90's; this is a previously unreleased album recorded 1996 -> more song-oriented & structured but based on the same sound sources as IFC, this sounds like a mellow, at times exotic version of it; lim. 300
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS |
Eine Menge Papier |
mCD |
5 track mCD with material derived from the sounds of paper (two tracks from the SYNTACTIC 7" plus unreleased material of the same "study"). Full sized CD & Cover, lim. 500
|
2009 |
€9.50 |
|
|
Dämmerattacke |
CD |
a new issue of TIETCHENS superb ambient work from 1997, now with a new bonus track ("Franz-Joseph-Land") that was not on the CD re-issue from 2002; "....It reminded me of the very first Werkbund LP, Skagerrak, with that very same submarine below sea surface sound..." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2017 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Abraum Zwo |
CD |
the phantastic follower to "Abraum" (2010), based on the same source recodings from the harbour in Hamburg, but re-processed with different approach.. "...On this new release, everything that reverts to musique concrète is removed, and shimmering sounds is what remains. At times quite droney, but in the world of Asmus Tietchens, nothing is static. Much like the water in the harbour, everything is fluid. Tietchens traces the contour of sound without touching too much upon the sound itself." - ed. of 300
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| TONIUTTI, MASSIMO |
Cava XI.XI.86 |
CD |
\'CD reissue of a cassette released in 1987 edited by Massimo Toniutti. An unique, beautiful and mysterious work in which sounds are produced somewhere, under the earth, in a cave or cellar. Organic, out of time. Remastered from the original tapes, including two unreleased tracks created from records of the same period.\' - wonderful \"floating-concrete\" ambient noise, subtle and low fi, almost all based on sounds from metallic and other objects.. . ed. of 300 copies
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| |
Say Goodbye to the Wind |
Shelter Press 139cd |
newest work by the gifted Italian composer known for his great "Misery Lares" album, musique concrete collages with emotional depth, the title is inpired by a J:G.BALLARD story... feat. IDA TONINATO, he reaches the same intensitiy as for example. LIONEL MARCHETTI.. - lim. 500 copies, special cover
|
2022 |
€18.50 |
|
| TROUM |
Dreaming Muzak |
CD |
"The soundtrack to your Dreams" - re-mastered re-issue of TROUMs first full length release (came out as lim. MC on Cling Film Records, at the same time as the RYNA CD in Oct. 1998) with recordings from 1997, for the first time as regular CD => two long amorph droning soundtracks to be played during your dreams in endless mode... lim. 350 copies with new cover artwork
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| TSITSIGIAS, ALEX |
Contractions |
mCD-R |
new label from Hamburg with first release, same design as the mCDR-series on Taalem. To discover ! First ed. 60 copies
|
2006 |
€5.00 |
|
| UMPIO |
Molesterol |
CD |
UPSIDE DOWN CRUCIFIXION - new material (11 tracks) from the Finnish noise project, often derived from feedbacking object sounds that are turned into fast changing attacks... a mixture of HATERS and old MERZBOW ? - "Sharp, crystalline quality, yet noisy and harsh at the same time! Umpio always delivers noise that radiates energetic force..." - 6 panel digipak, somehow limited..
|
2020 |
€12.50 |
|
| UN DRAME MUSICALE INSTANTANE |
L'homme a la Camera / La Glace a trois Faces |
CD |
the re-issue series of this "beyond all genres" group continues, and this CD contains not only UN DRAME's album "L'homme a la Camera" from 1984 (realized with 15 musicians), but as a bonus the so far unreleased "La glace a trois faces" soundtrack (rec. 1983 to the silent movie of the same name by JEAN EPSTEIN) - it's hard to find anything more "difficult", original, border-crossing..
|
2020 |
€14.00 |
|
| UNKNOWN SINGING OBJECTS |
Charming Man / Handsome Devil |
7inch |
obscure anonymous project from Hamburg (somehow linked to HÖRBAR e.V. circles) with two VERY unusual low-fi acoustic "cover-versions" of these famous SMITHS songs (mainly acoustic guitar & vocals, you won't recognize the known melody) - perfect for lonely evenings in empty nightbars.. beautiful and a bit funny at the same time..
|
2012 |
€6.50 |
|
| URBAN SAX |
Fraction sur le Temps |
LP + DVD |
re-issue of the third LP (from 1985) by GILBERT ARTMANs Saxophone & Multimedia orchestra, on which they sound especially psychedelic and ethereal, including also gongs, electronics, a large choir, percussion & guitar into the orchestra, reviewers mentioned LIGETI and MAGMA at the same time! Comes again with a full bonus DVD with unreleased audio & video material, + 24 page full colour booklet, lim. 500
|
2016 |
€25.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| V.A. (VARIOUS ARTISTS) (COMPILATIONS) |
The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye (OST) |
CD |
soundtrack for the film of the same name by MARIE LOSIER about the art & life of GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE (THROBBING GRISTLE, PSYCHIC TV) and "his" wife LADY JAYE and their incredible "Pandrogyne" project (using sexual transformations to create a complete symbiosis with the beloved other); music by PSYCHIC TV, THEE MAJESTY, GENESIS BREYER P. ORRIDGE & LADY J., and other collaborations...
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Epicurean Escapism II |
CD & DVD + book |
released to the 2nd festival of the same name (Berlin, June 2013), the CD has exclusive material by the performers KE/HIL, ANEMONE TUBE, POST SCRIPTVM, TREPANERINGSRITUALEN, DIETER MÜH, CON-DOM, the DVD early super 8 short films by CON-DOM; comes with 20p. full colour catalogue/book with art & texts by various people... lim. / numb. 350
|
2013 |
€22.00 |
|
|
R L E (2021) |
CD-R |
compilation for the 2021 edition of the yearly "re:flexions sound art-festival", with all participating artists in interesting first time collaborations, very long tracks by: STEFAN SCHMIDT + EMERGE, DOC WÖR MIRRAN + THE OVAL LANGUAGE, CARSTEN VOLLMER + SPRENGMEISTER; "The same pairs played the three improvised sets of the festival, with every concert a world premiere for these line-ups."; for explorers of the true underground scene, lim. 100 (left-over copies) !!
|
2021 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Miniatures 2020 |
do-CD + BOOK |
the 40th anniversary tribute to the "Miniatures" LP, compiled by MORGAN FISHER it contained 51 pieces that lasted max. 1 minute... => this new collection based on the same idea has contributions from 124 artists (!), with some incredible names and legends from the Avantgarde & more: THE RESIDENTS, FRED FRITH, ALTERNATIVE TV, MX-80 SOUND, BEVIS FROND, BILLY BRAGG, MATMOS, HENRY KAISER, HALF JAPANESE, etc. etc + lovey 64 page booklet, DVD sized
|
2021 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
Sintomas de Techno: Ondas Electronicas Subterraneas Desde Peru |
LP |
compilation of underground "techno" tracks from Lima 1985-1991, done with simple means and true Punk / DIY-spirit: DISSIDENTS, T DE COBRE, MEINE KATZE UND ICH, etc.. - "Coinciding with the explosion of punk in Lima and the appearance of the so-called Rock Subterráneo [underground rock], these techno groups shared the same DIY spirit, performing in many punk concerts and even creating their own fanzines, and, above all, opening a space for other types of sonic experiences" - lim. 300
|
2022 |
€25.00 |
|
| 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 |
Soundtrack for the Aquarium |
CD |
"Soundtrack voor het Aquarium" appeared originally in 1993 (split CD with HYBRYDS) and was a commissioned studio work for the Zoo in Antwerp, Belgium, to be played as background ambience in their aquarium (!)... the water streaming and draining field recordings have been recorded before at the same place; lim. 400, re-mastered, and new digipak artwork
|
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| WISHART, TREVOR |
The Garden of Earthly Delights |
CD + booklet |
"Trevor's new work, inspired by the BOSCH painting of the same name. He describes this as a comic opera. It is extremely dense using the voices of the characters as starting points for complex digital manipulation. As with his two previous releases, the work is intended to be performed with an 8 - channel sound diffusion system. This is a stereo mixdown of the 8 channels." - comes with booklet, a 'tour guide through the labyrinth', with no guarantee to find the exit ;)
|
2020 |
€23.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| ZEITKRATZER + SHE SHE POP |
The Ocean is closed |
7inch |
six members of the ZEITKRATZER ensemble in genre crossing collaboration with the performance group SHE SHE POP, a 45 rpm 7" with two obscure a-cappela / choir pieces of unknown origin, "Claudio", and "Grünberg", released for their 2 1/2 hour piece and theatre tour in autumn 2017 with same name... ; "Outside eyes and ears are interested in different things, ask the right wrong questions, misunderstand the agreements and breach basic laws."
|
2017 |
€5.00 |
|
| ZIMIAMVIAN NIGHT |
Zimiamvian Night 2 |
CD |
debut-CD of this "extended minimal / drone" project known from a fabulous CDR only release on the same label; hyper-subtle drone pulsations, strangely harmonic, soft & mellow but somehow cryptic.....
|
2007 |
€13.50 |
|
| ZOVIET FRANCE |
Feedback [Mort Aux Vaches] |
do-LP |
ZOVIET FRANCE's contribution to the famous "Mort aux Vaches" series (live recordings in the prof. VPRO studios in Amsterdam), happened in August 1996 and has since then never been re-issued (only shortly after they performed in Gent, Belgium, on Sept. 7, 1996 where MAEROR TRI had their last ever live performance at the same evening;) - this is the stand-alone version with repro of the original cover art, lim. 300 copies
|
2022 |
€31.50 |
|
| 15 DEGREES BELOW ZERO |
Open Doors |
CD |
15 Degrees Below Zero is Mark Wilson, Daniel Blomquist, &Michael Addison Mersereau. The first release by this project was in 2000, so 21 years later we get to see how the project has progressed. Despite this album being started over 10 years ago it fully expresses a great maturity and beautiful diversity of styles. This is a truly epic album and I'm proud to present it to the world along with the members of the project.
Mastered by Thomas Dimuzio for full effect as well.
https://oxidation.bandcamp.com/album/open-doors
"For those unfamiliar with this project, 15 Degrees Below Zero is the work of Daniel Blomquist, Michael Addison Mersereau, and Mark Wilson (who also performs under the name Conure). This project began after the demise of Imperial Floral Assault Unit, and the structured improvisations that they have become known for would continue for the next 20 years. This album has been 10 years in the making. To give you a sense of how long it has been, a live version of "Horizon, Skyline" originally appeared on the Conure/15DBZ split cassette that was released on Danvers State Recordings in 2012. Still, this album still holds up as if it were recorded yesterday.
I have often enjoyed 15 Degrees Below Zero’s music because of its cinematic qualities. In previous reviews I've compared it to In The Nursery’s Optical Music series. One of the things that is consistent in 15 Degrees Below Zero is, ironically, their inconsistency. One album kind of reminded me of The Durutti Column with a little bit more of an edge to it. Others have a cinematic quality that sounds like it’s straight out of a soundtrack (they have often referred to their music as “cinematic isolationism”). This one is a slight departure in that the soundtrack would be for a very unhappy post-apocalyptic film where there is no happy ending. If you want a microcosm of this album, you can look no further than the first track Horizon, Skyline. This track begins with lush drone combined with a beautiful harmony. However, just beneath the surface is a wall of static that continually threatens to overrun the track. Toward the end we’ve achieved a kind of uneasy equilibrium with equal parts rumbling static and drone.
15 Degrees Below Zero enjoys messing with the listener and giving us what we don't expect. Just when you think they are moving back into beautiful soundscape territory, we find ourselves being slowly dragged back into a sea of squalling feedback and static. Sometimes the static comes completely to the forefront, as in “The Dead Sea.” In this track, we have high pitched squeal and harsh noise that would be right at home on any noise album. This is unsurprising, as I saw both Mark Wilson’s solo project Conure and Daniel Bloomquist’s solo project at this year’s Northern California Noise Festival.
This album is the best of all possible worlds in experimental music. In some ways, there is something for everyone. If you have a friend that wishes that bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor would let loose and be more experimental and chaotic, hand them this disk. This is what that would sound like. Do you know someone who is not really into harsh noise because they think it all sounds the same, or they simply want something more to it? Hand them this disk. There is all of the noise, but also all of the beauty. That is precisely what makes 15 Degrees Below Zero such an engaging act. You never quite know what you are going to get but you know it's always going to be worth getting. Highly recommended." [Eskaton, Chain D.L.K.]
"Eine offene Tür ist ein ausgesprochen vielgestaltiges Symbol, und das erstrecht, wenn es sich gleich um mehrere handelt. Sie zeigen unmissverständlich, dass der vor ihnen stehende weder ein- noch ausgesperrt ist und dass jede Wand, jede Grenze durch sie passierbar ist. Dem Auge jedoch offenbart sich in einer offenen Tür nur ein rahmenhafter Ausschnitt, der meist mehr versteckt als offenbart. Und mit dem, was man durch die Tür zu sehen vermag, steht und fällt jede Hoffnung, die ihre Offenheit suggeriert. Das Ausschnitthafte, Unbestimmte, mitunter Mysteriöse offener Türen ist beinahe ein perfektes Motto für die musikalische Erkundungsreise, die das Drone- und Noise-Trio 15 Degrees Below Zero auf ihrem vor einigen Monaten erschienenen Album „Open Doors“ unternehmen.
15 Degrees Below Zero ist das Projekt der drei Kalifornier Mark Wilson (besser bekannt als Conure), Daniel Blomquist und Michael Addison Mersereau, die in den 90ern bereits unter dem Namen Imperial Floral Assault Unit zusammenarbeiteten, und machte vor allem in den Nullerjahren von sich reden. Nach Wilsons Umzug nach Berlin und der Konzentration der Musiker auf andere Projekte wurden die Aktivitäten irgendwann seltener, und so brauchte es beinahe ein Jahrzehnt, bis „Open Doors“ fertig gestellt wurde.
Wenn es einen roten Faden auf „Open Doors“ gibt, dann dass die in den einzelnen Stücken entworfenen, meist düsteren Settings nie klar definiert bleiben, sondern immer wieder ihre Gestalt durch subtile Überblendungen und Verästelungen modifizieren. „Horizon, Skyline“ – der Opener und gleich längste Track des Albums – startet mit verunsichernden Rumpel- und Kratzgeräuschen, eingehüllt in eine mysteriöse Wolke aus dichtem Rauschen. Doch von titelgebenden Horizont dringt bald ein tief erdendes Ambientdröhnen ins Zentrum des Geschehens, intensiviert sich und verdrängt alle Kantigkeit, um am Ende Platz für weitere, perkussive Details zu schaffen, und so entpuppt sich jeder Moment, in dem man verweilen möchte, als vergänglicher Übergang zu weiteren, unbestimmten Orten.
Die abgeklärte Desolatheit, die sich bereits hier erahnen lässt, scheint in den folgenden Tracks deutlicher hervor: Im „The 5:15“ betitelten Stück breiten sich rauschende Wellen wie schwerer Atem über monotones Saitenspiel aus und mutieren zu etwas, das an gequälte Stimmen erinnert – alles scheint sich hier auf eine Eskalation zuzubewegen, während das Gitarrenmotiv stoisch unverändert bleibt, bis perkussives Klopfen für etwas Erleichterung sorgt. In manchen Stücken scheint es in emotionaler, atmosphärischer Hinsicht am Ende doch so etwas wie ein kleines Fazit zu geben.
Noch weitaus unbestimmter und wechselhafter offenbart sich der Titeltrack, der sich zunächst als knarriger Ambietdowner in die Gehörgänge bohrt. Hat man sich erst einmal eingelebt in seiner resignativen Statik, so sorgen allerhand kleine feine Bewegungen für Erleichterung: Helle Sounds bimmeln wie abstrahierte Glöckchen durch den Raum, doch das wiederum ist nur die Ankündigung für einen durch donnernde Detonationen eingeleiteten Sturm, der viel ungehörtes aufwirbelt. Interessant ist dass all diese gegensätzlich wirkenden Bestandteile der Kompositionen sich nie gegenseitig in Frage stellen, sondern in all ihrer Ambiguität zu koexistieren verstehen – vielleicht ist dies am deutlichsten spürbar in “White Sands”, dessen treibende Dynamik aus dem Hintergrund wirkt und die anrührende Melodie im Vordergrund nie antastet. es ist eines der kraftvollsten Stücke des Albums.
So haben letztlich alle Stücke ihre eigene kleine innere Dramatik, ihre eigenen Brüche und Richtungswechsel, und natürlich auch ihre Schwerpunkte. Lässt der nach dem Roten Meer benannte Track eine wuchtige Ambientwelle eine fast meditative Unbewegtheit in dem mit Klappern erfüllten Raum entstehen, so offenbart sein am Ende des Albums verortetes Pendant “The Dead Sea ” die größte Ambiguität zwischen Ruhe und Unruhe, zwischen getriebener Bewegung, schönen Synthie-Soundscapes und einem rabiaten Noise, der von etwas, das an Schreie erinnert, durchzuckt ist.
“Open Doors” ist ein ungemein reichhaltiges Album und jedes enthaltene Stück würde den Stoff für einen kongenialen Filmscore abgeben. Wenn die so untermalten Stoffe – mehrere Kollegen schrieben zurecht über postapokalyptische Dystopien – durch zahlreiche Ereignisse und zugleich durch eine nie zu eindeutige Stimmung auffallen würden, wären sie der Musik am ehesten angemessen." [U.S./African Paper] |
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| ABLINGER, PETER |
Regenstücke Vol. 1 |
LP |
"Peter Ablinger, composition. Hannes Gill, piano. Isabel Pérez-Requeijo, piano. Elisabeth Vth-Schadler, piano. Brian Archinal, percussion. You never know what to expect from Peter Ablinger: noise, silence, serious grotesque or black humor. And you always get a total opposition from what you have expected, which makes him so special and unique! On his first release for GODrec, he offers two pieces from his famous Regenstücke series: 'Ohne Titel / 3 Klaviere (1-6)' and 'Regenstück 1-6 / 6 (3) Schalgzeuger'.
'Ohne Titel / 3 Klaviere' involves one tone in changing octaves (and very seldom a few additional pitches). There are 6 sections, all in the same sequence of registers, like one piece written 6 times - a series, but at the same time there's an almost hidden development through the 6 sections. Coordinated by click-tracks, each performer plays independently within separate pulses that never meet within one piece. The piece focuses on the micro-rhythmical shifts between piano-attacks and their different location in space - an etude in listening to what is not obvious in its details as well as its silent evolution." [label info]
www.godrec.com
|
2012 |
€16.00 |
|
| ABRAHAMS, CHRIS |
Memory Night |
CD |
"Chris Abrahams' Memory Night is his third edition for Room40 - Play Scar and Thrown preceding this album. Widely recognised as the pianist for Australian liminal improvisation trio The Necks, Chris Abrahams' solo work etches out an entirely different universe. It's a place that is entirely his own, unashamedly unique and at times startling - yet always alluring. On Memory Night, Abrahams' expands his sonic palette, building on the uneasy frontiers of the highly regarded Play Scar. Never content to revisit past glories, Abrahams' charts course into unfamiliar sound spaces, where electronics and instruments meet in a constant state of tension and release. Nothing is quite what it appears upon first listen and as a result Memory Night demands an attentive ear. Recorded across 2011 and 2012, Memory Night is a haunted series of compositions that provoke and compel. Chris Abrahams has created what can only be described as a profound rendering of contemporary composition - a powerful, yet delicate evocation of sound, where instruments and electronics melt and are reformed." [label info]
www.room40.org
"Today is one of those early spring days and the doors of the balcony finally open. Birds, children playing, cars, they all enter my life again, post-winter, and I need to adjust my listening again. Certainly in 'Leafer', the opening piece of Chris Abrahams new release 'Memory Night', I am getting quite confused with the outside and the inside. Low sounds start out, with a rasping kind of sound - children outside rolling karts on the street? - but it's all in the music of Abrahams it seems. Abrahams here uses a wide range of instruments, such as piano, guitar, samples, percussion, waldorf q plus, yamaha dx 7, moog voyager, vermona mono lancet, kurzweil k2600, hammond organ and nord stage. Strange and mysterious music here, and although cut into four pieces with four different titles, you could as easily see them as four parts of the same piece. They seem to be flowing into each other, or move half way through a piece into something else. There is the seemingly out of place piano of 'Strange Bright Fact' which cuts into something altogether more noisy in the same piece. Electronic and acoustic instruments play an interesting game together, sometimes along each other and sometimes against each other, sometimes together and sometimes alone. It's music which has an excellent radio-play like quality to it, even when it's narrative is more obscured, or perhaps, better, not entirely unfolded. An excellent CD this one, full of tension, full of surprises, big and small (jazzy piano chopped up in 'Stabilize Ruined' anyone?) of something that is beyond modern classical music, improvisation, jazzy and sound art - all of that and a bit more and that bit more is what makes this a great CD. Excellent!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| ADLER, GUNTER |
Douches Dames |
mCD-R |
"Jürgen Hall? Bei so einem musikalischen Namen hätte man sich doch nicht so nibelungendeutsch umtaufen müssen. Der mit dem Grönland Orchester (mit G. Reznicek) und Augsburger Tafelkonfekt (mit S. Reier) und Soloreleases auf Staubgold und Mik unter seinem Nom de plume bekannt gewordene Aachener, der nach seinem Studium in Hamburg hängen geblieben ist, steuert zur 1000füssler-Reihe drei überdurchschnittlich attraktive Tracks bei. Das 13-min. Titelstück entstand für eine Installation im Brüsseler Bains::Connective, das in den Räumlichkeiten eines einstigen Jugendstil-Damenbads untergebracht ist. Das hat Adler offenbar zu entsprechend spritzigen Sounds und zu Unterwasserklang angeregt, durchsetzt mit knackend rumorendem Klingklang, zunehmendem Stimmengewirr und Plantschgeräuschen und einer ganz feinen harmonischen Zierlinie, zu der punktuell heptatonische Skalen getupft werden. Das kurze ‚Scheppertones‘ danach meint eigentlich einen Tauchgang auf der Shepard-Tonleiter, jenem scheinbar unendlich absinkenden Glissando aus Sinuswellenfrequenzen, das auch schon Komponisten wie Tenney oder Risset reizte und das Adler mit furzelndem Geprassel durchsetzt. ‚Mousse-Touch‘ schließlich lautmalt einen nuanciert bebenden Fond, mal flirrend aufgehellt, mal wummernd abgesenkt und von Pfeiftönen durchschwirrt aus Zeiten, als Weltraumfahrer noch Nick oder Laika hießen." [Bad Alchemy]
"Douches Dames was part of an ancient indoor swimming pool in Forest/Brussels. Today this elegant Art Nouveau building hosts the eclectic art laboratory Bains::Connective. The music, originally intended as a sound installation, is an amalgam made of field recordings from inside the building, antique heptatonic scales and synthetically produced sounds spread out painstakingly in the first movement, infinitely transposed downwards in the second (Shepard Tones) and finally hidden inside a shady atmosphere in the third, where another stimulating motif is aperiodically interrupted by sudden violent curves. In addition Gunter Adler has compiled a jumbled array of electroacoustic samples forming a zigzagged rather than streamlined path through his archives. During the roaring times, after the melting of the polar caps had begun, visual artist Isabelle Rouquette showed works on this theme from a diversity of sources and engraved them into the trapezoidal patterned floor of the pool. On the day of the opening the interior was illuminated by flowing zebra skin light projections while the music was presented in a sort of live performance, a soundtrack accompanied by a sweeping improvisation on a synthesizer and twiddling with delay effects. It has an opulent and festive character and is at home in both ancient and modern contexts.
Douches Dames 12‘55
Scheppertones 3‘31
Mousse-Touch 5‘00
About the Artist:
Born and raised in Aachen, Germany. At the age of 17 he starts experimentating with synthetically produced sounds (Commodore 64, all data lost). Moves to Hamburg, Germany in order to study physics, philosophy, music theory. From 1992 to 96 works under the nome de plume ANUBIS (see Stora Compilation from 1993). Works out his first sound installations and in 1998 co-founds the GROENLAND ORCHESTER with G.Reznicek.
Invents his alter ego GUNTER ADLER and releases his solo debut on Staubgold. Additionally works on animation film and film scores. Toured continuosly with Groenland Orchester and Gunter Adler and teams up in the duo-improv group AUGSBURGER TAFELCONFECT with Sebastian Reier since 2002. The same year he releases a split album with Klangkrieg, again on Staubgold. Following up to this his next record Minutemusic is released by the polish Mik.Musik label [run by Wojt3k from Retro*Sex*Galaxy] in 2003. Since October 2003 he is running a net label for exquisite electronic music plakatif.net. www.gunter-adler.de "
[label info]
"After reading the press text that comes with this release, I must admit I still have not much idea what it is about. It was originally intended for a sound installation and uses field recordings from ancient indoor swimming pool in Brussels. The text also mentions something about the opening, a live performance and a soundtrack, but Gunter Adler lost me there. Adler is perhaps best known as a member of Groenland Orchester (together with G. Reznicek), and later with Augsburger Tafelconfect and solo as Adler (which is not his real name). The three pieces on this release are made of highly processed field recordings, of which we no longer recognize the origins. Gliding tones, sine wave like, objects that fall to the ground and sound effects working overtime. This is quite a nice, sweet, short and highly enjoyable release, for those who love their microsound to be much more free and not tied to the strict conventions of that scene. Nice indeed." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.1000fussler.com
|
2008 |
€6.00 |
|
| AETHENOR |
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 |
|
| AF URSIN |
Trois Memoires Discretes |
LP |
"Three introspective instrumental (English horn, flute, percussion, double bass, Hammond organ) compositions performed, recorded and mixed by Timo van Luijk during 2010-2012. Edition of 400 copies." [label info]
www.lasciedoree.be
"When he has his solo hat on, Timo van Luijk calls himself Af Ursin and his favorite format of release is the LP too. His covers are beautiful, just like the In Camera releases actually, but do not contain an awful lot of information, just like the In Camera releases actually. Af Ursin's music is less based on electronics, but more along the lines of acoustic instruments. Van Luijk uses a relatively small palette of sounds and works with them. I believe not in an analogue manner, but through the use of the computer. The a-side has the side long piece 'Sylphide', which seems to be build from a trombone or trumpet sound. A simple tune, repeated over and over again, with some pauses in between. Say the way Brian Eno did his early ambient pieces of loops of varying length, but then even more stripped down, reduced, minimal and perhaps also more classical. 'Taciturne', the first piece on the b-side is with flute sounds, but also with some highly obscured field recordings of objects moving in the far distant. 'Elegie' is then another piece for another instrument. It seems an organ of some kind, like a children's organ, or a harmonium, but perhaps pitched up a bit. I am not sure, but here to we have the same layered aspects as we had on the other side and yet at the same time this layering doesn't mean it's crowded. It has that same wonderful tranquil character as the other two pieces, or, in fact the two In Camera records. I play all of this music when I got up this autumn morning, mainly playing music and watching clouds pass outside, making darkness and sunlight change all the time, in a similar slow motion. This is just perfect. I should take a day off, play all Af Ursin records, In Camera's other two records and all of the Mirror releases. Sadly that can't be." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| AGLAIA |
Three Organic Experiences |
CD |
Die zweite neue VÖ im Jahr 2003 für HIC SUNT LEONES beschert uns sehr luftigen, leichten, vorbeiwehenden Ambient der hochsphärischen Sorte dieses Newcomers aus Italien, inspiriert von griechischen Mythen... perfect late night music by this new Italian project..
„AGLAIA is a musical projekt by Gino Fioravanti and Gianluigi Toso. Gino Fioravanti is a therapist, writer, painter and musician. his touch with electronic music make it human and cosmic/amniotic at the same time. His writings and inspiration, research in different spheres like Alchemy, mythology, ortho-bionomy . Gianluigi Toso is a musician and back-school teacher. He moves through different musical styles, with Gino Fioravanti has relesed many cd for mind and spirit.
"Aglaia is one of the Chariti. The 'Cariti' are goddess of beauty, generally represented as three sisters.They live upon Olympus mountain toghether with Muses, with whom sometimes they sing chorus. They pleasently follow the tracks of Apollo, god of divination and music. Their father is Zeus, their mother is Eurinome, the daughter of the Ocean. It is generally considered that 'Cariti' exert every sort of influence upon works of mind and art.
Charis means living artís work. In some tradition they are daughters of Erebo and of the Night and love to dance under the pale moon light. The concept of AGLAIA is to create long musical instants, apparently motionless, but with inside the movement of hundred of nuances, micro-variations, pulsations. A fluid, sonoruous tapestry with a never ending motion. The music was thought like a magma of raw materials to refine throught an infinite number of sonorous passages. The listening of T.O.E. behave towards the micro-particle that compose our subtle individual plot, in a world where nothing is firm and nothing is really moving." [press release]
www.aliodie.com
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Intangible Opacity |
CD |
"Aglaia is a great project from Italy, but probably still not appreciated as much as it deserves. The artist releases his albums in Stefano Musso’s Hic Sunt Leones, and it seems that his work remains in Alio Die’s shadow. Aglaia could be even bigger, but I think that Gino Fioravanti, sometimes aided by Gianluigi Toso, doesn’t really care about worldwide recognition – I figure he’s fine with his current position.
By all means however, Aglaia isn’t an Alio Die clone. Although the points of convergence can be easily noticed, Aglaia sounds less organic and prefers to focus on electroacoustics and the creation of an atmosphere by the use of more or less sophisticated electronics. This is no different in the case of “Intangible Opacity”, one of the two Aglaia albums recently published by Hic Sunt Leones.
On “Intangible Opacity” Gino Fioravanti dares to visit the place where the Earth’s atmosphere ends and the infinity of space begins, following the physical and chemical processes that occur in the ionosphere. The sound is based on warm but at the same time somehow distanced synthetic textures, and classical “el-music” as we used to say in Poland. I suspect that Fioravanti didn’t use any other instruments or field recordings on the album. Synths only.
Despite the strict nature of the music, it has a soul. Composed of zeros and ones, enchanted in the tiny box filled with chips and integrated circuits, but not allowing for the treatment of “Intangible Opacity” as only a virtually emotional, but in fact dry and mathematical record of the aforementioned processes that continually start, progress and end tens of thousands of kilometers above our heads. There’s no blackness, the sound is painted with thousands of hues, the blue and green of the earth being the parent colors. The title composition, the second to last, probably contains the most decent amount of space; the horizon seems to stretch widely, though all the tracks remain on a relatively equal level.
After several listens, I conclude that there are earlier Aglaia releases which I cherish more and will come back to more often in the future. I miss some element raging on the surface of Mother Earth. A wind shaking the barley, or wild fires. A thimble of organic sound appears in “Protonosfera”, the last one: Gino Fioravanti, at least for a while, gets back to where you can breathe fresh air, as if in spite of the title.
It’s still worth buying a ticket to the place from where there’s still a possibility to return. Aglaia still holds the fashion." [Stark / Santa Sangre]
aliodie.bandcamp.com/album/intangible-opacity
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| AJNA |
Inevitable Mortality |
do-CD |
Previously, "Inevitable Mortality" was released in a microprint of just 50 CDR copies thanks to Reverse Alignment.
This edition of the 2 CD contains the same material, extended by another 6 hitherto unpublished compositions, created in the same period. Chris Sigdell (B°TONG) again handled the mastering. Thanks to this, the album sounds coherent and is a great complement to the discography with a position that has been difficult to obtain until now. For fans of the AJNA project, it is an absolute "must have". Its qualities will also be appreciated by listeners who like to lose themselves listening to dark ambient music of the highest quality. "Inevitable Mortality" was created in a rather interesting and publishing period of the American musician, when his project was becoming more and more recognizable among fans of the genre. A moment later, the double "Black Monolith" is released, recorded in collaboration with Dronny Darko, with which both artists have established their position on this scene. So far, AJNA has cooperated, apart from the aforementioned Reverse Alignment, with e.g. Winter-Light, Cryo Chamber, or Cyclic Law.
Edition on 2CDs in a 6-panel eco-pack with a new graphic design. Edition of 300 copies.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/inevitable-mortality-extended-edit
|
2023 |
€16.50 |
|
| AKATOMBO |
Trace Elements |
CD |
" In common with all swim releases this album is hard to pin down to a genre. One could define this as a very urban sound with it's roots in hip hop and close observation would reveal this statement to be entirely true BUT without listening this would create an entirely erroneous view of what this album is. The author & main protagonist Paul Kirk is in fact an ex-patriot Scot living in Hiroshima and the album crackles with the urban displacement of a stranger in a strange land. It is a music which is not separated from the place in which it is made, disembodied voices, street sounds, telephones, bad connections and urban detritus are constant reminders of the Japanese cityscape. Paul Kirk says - "Trace Elements came about through a fascination with the layering of sound - any type of sound - from any source. Not necessarily those that most of us think of as musical". He goes on to say - "Each song on the album was written, recorded and mixed on the same day of it's conception - in Hiroshima, in a studio that specializes in soundtracks for TV adverts with the help of an engineer who didn't speak English." Paul also employed a few musicians to add to the effect those include the former bass player of Long Fin Killie, Colin Greig and some mates from his days running the Human Condition label (which actually put out Idlewild's first single but we won't hold it against them!) Grant MacNamara & Gavin Henderson. Meanwhile, guitarist Masaru Saeki actually toured with Japan & Roxy music!"
[label info]
www.swimhq.com
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Sometime, never |
CD |
Following on from his critically acclaimed False Positives and Editions Mego collaborations with E.G. Lewis of Wire / Dome, ex-pat Scotsman and long-time resident of Hiroshima Paul Thomsen Kirk delivers his fourth album—ten tracks full of atmospheric, powerful, beat-driven, electronic-based compositions. From the persuasively percussive-led to dark ambient soundscapes to sleazy, wide-screen, full-on, bass-bin rumblings, Sometime, Never has it all… just because. “[A] meld of post-punk toxic ambient angst (à la Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire) with contemporary rhythmic models…. Akatombo is big on alienation and … generally conveys a feeling of being close-up to events and places while at the same time feeling disconnected and uncomprehending of them…. [A] brilliantly compelling, adrenalin-soaked antidote to the tranquil hedonism into which electronica has been too apt to lapse in recent years.” —David Stubbs, Resident Advisor “[Paul Kirk’s] beatscapes hearken back to the industrial pioneers of the mid-’80s, but his sound is decidedly contemporary, a mix of drums, bass, bleached tones and samples that veer from dub to club…. The best tracks display more than mood; they reverberate with sass.” —Richard Allen, A Closer Listen “A killer collection of programmed beats, layered samples, dark atmospheres, thick guitars, and droney-ambience, sounding at times like Muslimgauze, or like a more chill Necro Deathmort, or one of those bands who might have shared a compilation with Techno Animal or Sidewinder back in the day. The vibe is definitely on the isolationist tip, murky and claustrophobic, the beats are crunchy and caustic, more often lurching and lumbering than skittering or shuffling, and those beats are set amidst thick swells of grim sinister ambience, and blackened late-night atmospheres….. A sort of dubbed out downtempo dance music that’s not so much for dancing, but lurking, hanging out in the shadows, in empty clubs in empty cities, everything crumbling and decayed, a seriously dystopic soundtrack for some wasted scorched earth future.” —Aquarius
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| ALDINUCCI, GIULIO |
Disappearing in a Mirror |
CD |
talian sound artist GIULIO ALDINUCCI drops his 2nd album on Karl: “Disappearing In A Mirror” is again a truly masterfully composed and sound-designed ambient masterpiece and a more than worthy follow-up to the critically acclaimed “Borders And Ruins” which made it onto several year’s best lists for 2017.
Over the course of four solo albums on labels like DRONARIVM plus EPs and collaborative albums (a.o. with IAN HAWGOOD), GIULIO ALDINUCCI successively has been refining his skills as composer and sound designer. His elegant style which blends ambient and field recordings came to full impact on his 2017 album “Borders And Ruins” which gained the Italian sound artist a lot of critical praise and made it onto several year’s best lists, a.o. Acloserlisten.com. ALDINUCCI’s latest effort is again not only a musical masterpiece of sublime beauty and sacral majesty, it also deals with philosophical concerns. Where “Borders …” was a reflection on the instability of borders - borders as an extreme attempt to discriminate and rationalize that turns into a source of chaos and cultural ruins on both sides - and their impact on the relationship between people and territory, “Disappearing In A Mirror” raises the very personal question of identity. In the words of ALDINUCCI himself:
“ ‘Disappearing In A Mirror’ focuses on the fluidity of the identity concept, highlighting the harmonious coexistence of contradictory elements and the transitional features that characterize every transformation. It is a reflection on the current situation of change and disruption and at the same time it is a gaze into the human timeless soul and its inner soundscapes.”
https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/disappearing-in-a-mirror
"Apart from his various collaboration and split releases, Disappearing In A Mirror is Giulio Aldinucci's follow-up to 2017’s Borders and Ruins, and it is his second release for Karl Records. If you thought Borders And Ruins depicted a rather dark view on the state of the world, you’d better be ready for this new album. “Where [Borders and Ruins] was a reflection on the instability of borders and their impact on the relationship between people and territory, 'Disappearing In A Mirror' raises the very personal question of identity." Aldinucci manages to create a sonic version of a hall of mirrors, where you can get completely disoriented from the images of yourself trying to find a way out. In a striking combination of gritty distorted sounds and distant orchestral and choral arrangements that sound like a stretched Beethoven symphony, the first two tracks present a frightening dystopic view. But from there, Aldinucci [somewhat] restores the balance with 'Notturno Toscano', as if he doesn’t want to scare the listener too much. But even in this track the intensity slowly increases again. There’s no way out of the mirror maze, it seems… "Disappearing In A Mirror focuses on the fluidity of the identity concept, highlighting the harmonious coexistence of contradictory elements and the transitional features that characterize every transformation. It is a reflection on the current situation of change and disruption and at the same time it is a gaze into the human timeless soul and its inner soundscapes." If the sweat in the palms of my hand is an indicator of emotional intensity, this album definitely belongs on the top the list!" [Headphone Commute] |
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| ALGOL |
All these Worlds are yours |
CD |
A fifth full-length album by _Algol_ brings to you digital and analog sounds combined with some soothing guitar tunes. A conceptual and contemplating album for virtual cosmic journeys. Enjoy!
Instruments and mastering by Daniil Kazantsev.
Album Design SeasofBlack & Kati Astraeir (inner layout)
Released by Ksenza Records
www.infinitefog.ru
_Algol_ is a project name belonging to Siberian soundscaper (scientist, traveler, photographer...) Daniil Kazantsev, who is currently based in the UK. "All These Worlds Are Yours" album is out since the middle of June 2016 as a collaborative release between Russian labels Ksenza Records and Infinite Fog Productions. My attention was immediately caught by a catchy 4-panel digipak featuring splendid artwork by Italian artist Michele Carnielli working under his moniker of Seals Of Blackening (also a vocalist and guitarist with doom metal band Kröwnn) and by our kindred soul from the Sonoran Desert, Kati Astraeir, who is credited for additional inner layout. Nice work, guys!!!
4 and a half minutes long "Accelerated Descent" reveals the journey with slightly balladic, nearly medieval-like tides, where persistently spiraling patterns commingle with aeonianly emerging, droning and evanescing, intangibly rawer vistas. "Under The Starlit Sky", clocking to 7 minutes, glides gracefully towards nocturnally fascinating realms, masterfully bridging ethereally enrapturing dronescapes with quietly permeating transcendental glimpses. "Hidden Behind The Light" is invaded by monochromatically immense expanses, intricately guarded by clandestinely sneaking ambiguous siren calls. Breathtakingly infinite sceneries fully unfold here! "Frozen Plateux" safely remains on the path of utterly enveloping amorphousness, splendorously diving into the deepest ends of atmospheric tranquility, meticulously reinforced by occasional cyber-tech breaths. Exquisitely monumental magmas, jaw-droppingly flatlined, are insistently counterpointed by warmly undulating mirages, while intriguing desolate dissonances percolate here and there. A stunningly immersing 10-minute composition, one of the pinnacles!!! The next piece, "The Sands Of Tatooine", dives into enigmatically labyrinthine domains, merging calmly enveloping panoramic quietudes with sinuously twisted reverberating vestiges. A deep space voyaging at its most engrossing continues! "The Windswept Terrain", with 11:33 the longest piece, attracts wit its mysterious dronesculpting, where static surroundings commingle with intenser nuances, displaying evocatively enveloping passages, slightly disruptive hissing undercurrents and euphorically climaxing epic magnitudes. A very good one! 8-minute closer "The Dune Sea" delves deeply into unfathomable depths, superbly amalgamating majestically droning monochromatism with spellbindingly growling and buzzing traceries and thrillingly mind-bending meridians. Enter now the gates to abyssal nothingness!!! Obviously a grand finale!
"All These Worlds Are Yours" CD, which is limited to 333 copies, is certainly a very strong debut by _Algol_ on a glass mastered format, so don't hesitate to grab your own copy, I guarantee you won't be disappointed!!! And the digital version includes 7-minute bonus track "A Fading Planet". If I am right, discography of _Algol_ features another 5 digital albums, one of them "Heaven Debris" (2011) was released also on a CDr format via Snowy Tension Pole label from Poland, but I believe this one is sold out already. And one of the digital albums, "Goldilocks Zone" was released on earthMantra. Not to forget, Daniil Kazantsev is also the mastermind behind dark ambient project Stuzha with two acclaimed albums, "Siberian Sketches" and "Butugichag". The first one was released as a CDr by Snowy Tension Pole during 2011 and now, few days ago, reshaped and reissued on CD format in a 4-panel digipak on Ksenza Records. Limited collector's wooden box is available as well. On the same label is available also "Butugichag" CD album (2015), which elaborately deals with Kolyma Gulag labor camp theme. If you are a connoisseur of venturous dark ambient explorations, don't miss these two powerful works!!! And to make the story complete, Daniil has most recently released via earthMantra his newest digital album entitled "67P" under his newest moniker Black Wanderer. A batch of exciting releases awaits to be carefully examined!
Richard Gürtler (Nov 01, 2016, Bratislava, Slovakia)
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE |
Hidden Spring |
CD |
"HIC SUNT LEONES presents Winter Solstice’s Spores. A reprint of two classic albums !
Two milestones of Alio Die's discography are available again after a long hiatus. This new edition offers two superb collectible digipaks printed in black on silver, in collaboration with the American graphic artist Joseph Uccello. This combination of music and artwork is an ideal celebration of this time of the year, as the Sol Niger approaches.
“In the course of life we encounter a kind of special state of consciousness – a moment at the threshold of a deep spiritual experience. At the border of the conscious mind (and perhaps with an initial feeling of disorientation), emerges a strong attraction toward a newly encountered state of being: a state that we feel is crucial in some way, and toward which we subconsciously strive, over the protests of normal rationality. On the other side of this threshold, beyond that apprehension, there is a sedimental layer of inner preparation which makes us ready for that moment. The energy evoked during artistic creation has always held similar qualities to this process; and listening again to these early works, it becomes clear to me just how vital to my music’s flow is this process of transformation and awakening. I feel that this same process informs the art of Joseph Uccello, which elegantly accompanies the music of these two re-releases.
Sit Tibi Terra Levis/ Introspective and The Hidden Spring satisfied completely this desire of immediate expression; truth calls for realization, and the feeling of 'spring water' contained in these albums has for me still something magic after such a long , long time.”
Alio Die, December 2008"
[label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & FRANCESCO PALADINO |
Angel's Fly Souvenir |
CD |
Immer wieder kollaboriert ALIO DIE mit neuen, uns noch unbekannten Musikern und schafft so eine Erweiterung seines typischen Ambient-Trance-Stils .... hier besonders bemerkenswert die vollen Zither-Sounds und ost-europäische Choräle, die wunderbar eingebunden werden...
“ 'Angel's Fly Souvenir': a CD by ALIO DIE & FRANCESCO PALADINO with contributes by IN GOWAN RING and JACK OR JIVE An album out of any definition, music at the same time dreamy and deep, a concrete and ethereal journey, born from the pleasure to experiment, the project was starting from acoustic sounds and voices recorded throw a long tube with zither loops, flutes, and different sonorous objects not identified at all and from the 'nose' sounds by Francesco Paladino. The album contains seven tracks, two of that are enriched by the epic collaboration track with In Gowan Ring in 'Ancient Consciousness of the End', and with the voice by Chako of Jack or Jive in 'Flowing Out from the Core of the Mountain'.
Francesco Paladino apart from his passion with video art, it's active in music from early seventies and was a member of Doubling Riders.
The recordings of Angel's Fly Souvenir were started in spring 2003, and now the Cd is finally come out to the light, with its bright and dark abisses, and its own night meditations.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€13.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| ALL SHADOWS AND DELIVERANCE |
Partus |
LP |
"New album by this drone/noise project from Kortrijk (BE). A trip through a cold and loveless world with subdued and repressed fears and demons. It takes you back to the classic Swedish death industrial sound that many loved and loathed in the 1990s (think Cold Meat Industry). The added field recordings, razorsharp feedback, machinery noises and vicious vocals (courtesy of Jenci Vervaeke of VVOVNDS) only add to the hellish and dark atmosphere.
With this new album, All Shadows And Deliverance firmly puts itself in the same filthy corner of the musical spectrum where people like PRURIENT, PHARMAKON and BRIGHTER DEATH NOW reign supreme." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2015 |
€17.00 |
|
| ALTAIR TEMPLE / EXPO '70 |
split |
LP |
"Justin Wright’s Expo 70 is back, this time sharing vinyl space with French duo Altair Temple for a trip headlong into the bonged up psych-drone ether. On Wright’s side we’ve got a jam from the same sessions as his righteous Death Voyage outing, and he sculpts swirling dark masses of sound with heavily effected guitar and Moog, sometimes underpinned by the steady pulse of an analog drum machine. Flip it and Altair Temple deal out some gently pulsing mid-end synth drone that’s most relaxing and mystical-sounding, with subtle playful melodies right on the periphery to tease you deep into the hypnotic swells as it slowly builds and morphs. It’s sending me into a right old trance. Both sides of this fine split provide some of the best in finely detailed drones for the connoisseur. Well worth investigating." [Mike/Norman Rec.]
www.radarswarm.com
"On the for me unknown Radar Swarm Records three releases. I had a hard time reading the track titles on the split LP. I don't understand fonts like this. Its a split, so I learn from the label's website of Expo 70 and Altaïr Temple. The first is Justin Wright, who plays guitar, analog drum machine and moog and his piece 'Land Of The Midnight Sun' spans the whole side. It sounds a bit like an ongoing jam, but it does sound coherent. Slow drums, spacious guitar sounds, fine use of the moog. It slowly evolves and expands into the darker realms of psychedelic music. The other side has three pieces by Altaïr Temple, a duo of Fred (guitar, effects, synth) and Johan (analog synths, computer and audiomulch). Three excellent pieces of drone music that is quite synth/effect heavy, more than being based on the guitar sound. I was remembered of some of the old Windy & Carl stuff here. Quite static in approach, but with gentle melodies meandering just below the surface. Quite dark, but never unsettling, this is some fine mood music. Tow new names, for me, and both are quite good." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| ALUK TODOLO |
Archives Vol. 1 |
LP |
"Archives vol.1 is a collection of unreleased / rare material documenting the first decade of the band's existence : raw, unpolished rehearsal captures, bizarre recording experiments, early or alternate versions of existing pieces, these 8 tracks, selected from the band's private tapes, are compiled in an unchronological order, forming a whole and unveiling new apects of Aluk Todolo's musical quest."
www.templeoftorturous.com
"Laut ihrer Bandcamp-Seite residieren Aluk Todolo derzeit in Paris. Neben der vorliegenden Archiv-Zusammenstellung vom März 2017 haben sie zwischen 2006 und 2016 neun Alben veröffentlicht, darunter auch ein Konzertalbum.
Die finsteren und geheimnisvollen Stimmungen der instrumentalen Stücke und das Artwork der Alben führen dazu, dass man als um die stilistische Einordnung stets bemühter Review-Schreiber die Musik von Aluk Todolo als durch die okkulte Gedankenwelt des Black Metal beeinflussten Krautrock auslegen möchte. Als ein Hinweis in diese Richtung kann auch das „Occult Rock“ genanntes Werk aus dem Jahre 2012 dienen.
Dieser Eindruck wird durch „Archives Vol.1“ eindrucksvoll bestätigt. Das Album enthält bisher unveröffentlichtes Material aus den letzten 10 Jahren der Bandgeschichte. Darunter finden sich unbearbeitete Fragmente aus den Bandproben, „seltsame Aufnahme-Experimente“ (so der Infozettel) sowie frühe, oder alternative Versionen der bereits veröffentlichten Stücke.
Anlässlich der aktuellen Veröffentlichung von „Archives Vol.1“ habe ich mir tatsächlich fast alles von Aluk Todolo auf Bandcamp angehört, weil ich die Band zunehmend interessant fand. Je älter die Aufnahmen, umso finsterer, experimenteller und Black Metal-artiger werden die Jams des französischen Trios.
Die treibenden Rhythmen und der repetitiv-energetische Charakter von „IV XII MMX“ ziehen den offenen Hörer in seinen Bann. Das kurze „XXVI IX MMX“ klingt für mich nach gezielt übersteuert-noisigem, apokalyptischem Jam. Rau und rotzig geht es im Jam „XVIII I MMVI“ zu. Eine scheinbar ungewohnt gestimmte akustische Gitarre sowie schwer definierbare Klänge (irgendwo zwischen Synthesizer und Dudelsack angesiedelt) bestimmen „XV V MMVIII“, das als Soundtrack zu einem bizarren Ritual dienen könnte. Mit „XXVII XI MMIV“ nähert man sich unvermittelt der atmosphärischen Dark Ambient-Musik. Die Bezeichnung „Dark Space Jam“ kommt mir bei „XVII I MMVI“ in den Sinn. Das Avantgardistische an „X IX MMVIII“ gleicht mit den Industrial-Noise-Klängen fast schon einem Besuch in einer Stahlfabrik.
Okkulter Krautrock mit einer Prise Black Metal und Elektronik? Was auch immer Aluk Todolo da spielen, für mich klingt es interessant. Wer ungewöhnliche und experimentelle Musik mag, der sollte sich mal mit „Archives Vol.1“ beschäftigen." [Siggy Zielinski /Babyblaue Seiten)
www.babyblaue-seiten.de/album_16370.html
|
2017 |
€22.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| AMACHER, MARYANNE |
Petra |
LP |
Maryanne Amacher (1938 - 2009) was a composer of large-scale fixed-duration sound installations and a highly original thinker in the areas of perception, sound spatialization, creative intelligence, and aural architecture. She is frequently cited as a pioneer of what has come to be called “sound art,” although her thought and creative practice consistently challenge key assumptions about the capacities and limitations of the genre. Amacher’s work anticipates some of the most important developments in network culture, media arts, acoustic ecology, and sound studies, yet due to its expansive interdisciplinary nature it has rarely been documented. Following two CDs for Tzadik and her inclusion in the monumental collection OHM: The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music (1948-1980), this publication of Amacher’s 1991 piece Petra marks her first commercially available instrumental work as well as the first time her music has ever been available on vinyl.
Petra was originally commissioned for the ICSM World Music Days in Boswil, Switzerland. Written for two pianos, the piece is a unique example of Amacher’s late work, a direct extension of her working methodologies for electronic composition taken into an acoustic realm that alludes to the music of Giacinto Scelsi and Galina Ustvolskaya. Petra is a sweeping, durational work based on both Amacher’s impressions of the church at Boswil and science-fiction writer Greg Bear’s short story of the same name, in which gargoyles come to life and breed with humans in a post-apocalyptic Notre Dame.
This solemn interpretation of Petra was recorded at its 2017 American premiere at New York’s St. Peter’s Episcopal Church with pianists Marianne Schroeder, who originally performed the piece alongside Amacher in 1991, and Stefan Tcherepnin, who performed it alongside Schroeder in 2012 at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. Weighing tranquilizing passages of glacially-paced serenity against stretches of dilapidated, jagged dissonance, the recording illuminates a crucial node in the constellation of Amacher’s enigmatic oeuvre.
Artistic director of the Giacinto Scelsi Festival in Basel, Marianne Schroeder is a Swiss composer and pianist specializing in the interpretation of New Music. She has collaborated with and premiered work by John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Dieter Schnebel, Anthony Braxton, Morton Feldman, Pauline Oliveros and Giacinto Scelsi, with whom she studied. She is currently a professor at Hochschule der Künste Bern, and has also taught at the International Summer Courses in Darmstadt.
Stefan Tcherepnin is an American electronic music performer, contemporary artist, and composer in fourth generation, continuing the family heritage of his great-grandfather Nicholas, grandfather Alexander, and father Ivan Tcherepnin. As a family friend of Amacher’s and a student of hers at Bard College he is uniquely qualified to navigate the labyrinth of Amacher interpretation.
https://soundcloud.com/blankforms/maryanne-amacher-petra-1
|
2019 |
€28.00 |
|
| AMBARCHI, OREN |
Raga Ooty / Nilgiri Plateau |
LP |
"Raga Ooty unearths three previously unreleased works (each titled with reference to the area in south India where his mother was born) from Oren Ambarchi's archive, showcasing the rawer side of his solo work between 2006 and 2011. The side-long Raga Ooty unspools a twisting, skittering thread of gritty guitar harmonics over a bed of buzzing tambura drone, creating the same paradoxical impression of simultaneous stasis and forward propulsion achieved by minimalist masters such as Henry Flynt, to whom this work is dedicated. The Nilgiri Plateau generates an 8 minute wash of gleaming overtones from a 12 string acoustic guitar played with motors, continuing the experiments first made public on the 2007 Stacte Motors LP. The closing Raga Ooty (Slight Return) returns to the distorted guitar harmonic hysterics of the opening piece, this time elaborated over a wash of Ambarchi's signature Leslie cabinet tones, building relentlessly over the course of 12 minutes recorded live in Basel late last year." [label info]
www.boweavilrecordings.com
|
2012 |
€20.50 |
|
| |
Live Knots |
do-LP |
"Oren Ambarchi captured in two exceptional live performances. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M. Pressed on double 140g vinyl & CD. Photography by Traianos Pakioufakis and artwork by Bill Kouligas.
'Live Knots, Oren Ambarchi's first release for PAN, presents two live realizations of 'Knots', the epic centrepiece of his Audience of One (Touch, 2012) release. Built on the interplay between Ambarchi's swirling, guitar harmonics and the metronomic pulse and shifting accents of Joe Talia's DeJohnette-esque drumming, the piece merges the organic push and pull of free improvisation with an overarching compositional framework.
'Tokyo Knots' presents the complete recording of a duo performance of the piece by Ambarchi and Talia recorded at Tokyo's legendary SuperDeluxe in March 2013. The performance builds gently on the foundation of Talia's insistent ride cymbal and the shifting tonal bed of Ambarchi's rich overtone-drenched guitar, eventually going into a free rock free fall of buzz- saw harmonics and crashing drums. From within the maelstrom, Talia picks up a pulsing motorik rhythm that leads the piece back to where it began, with the addition of the shuddering, elastic tones of a hand-played spring reverb unit. Krakow Knots' works with the same basic structure but stretches it out to nearly twice the length and adds strings played by the Sinfonietta Cracovia, led by Eyvind Kang on viola. The strings expand the piece's textural range with lush chordal blocks, uneasy dissonances and occasional Ligetiesque swarms of micro-activity, the swelling string tones intensifying the ecstatic nature of the piece as it moves towards its mid-point crescendo in which Ambarchi unleashes a particularly malicious continuum of stuttering harmonic fuzz. The strings then enter with a series of swelling chords, announcing the piece's final movement, and reaffirming the uniqueness of the tonal and compositional language that Ambarchi has patiently developed over the last two decades, in which the influence of post-minimal composers such as Alvin Curran, Gavin Bryars and David Behrman can be felt alongside the inspiration of raw free jazz, harsh noise and academic psychoacoustics. The final moments of the performance pit Talia and Crys Cole's amplified objects and spring reverb textures against a field of gently gliding string glissandi before the audience erupts in much-deserved applause.' Francis Plagne" [label info]
www.pan-act.com
|
2015 |
€29.00 |
|
| AMBARCHI, OREN / LASSE MARHAUG |
Worried Friends |
7 |
"october 2007 release; a pair of “piano music” pieces, acting as the debut collaborative single from two of contemporary experimental music’s most prolific/consistently rewarding practitioners; oren ambarchi and lasse marhaug... those of you expecting something on par with maurizio pollini’s reading of satie’s gnossiennes might be a little shocked to find instead a fierce 12+ minute inside-piano scrape-fest, hedged with bursts of live-electronic feedback & a “hot” fidelity familiar from any number of david tudor recordings... yet at the same time not too far removed from the new blockaders’ whole gesamtnichswerk; this is anti-music at its finest... not something for strict followers of oren’s friendly/subdued sine-guitar throb, nor lasse’s harsh wall of electronic sound; but definitely one for those whose preferences fall in the noisier end of the electro-acoustic composition/improv spectrum... "
[Mimaroglu]
www.picadisk.com
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| AMENRA / CAVE IN / MARISSA NADLER |
Songs of Townes van Zandt Vol. III |
LP |
listen: https://neurotrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/songs-of-townes-van-zandt-vol-iii
Neurot Recordings in conjunction with My Proud Mountain announces the third record of the Songs of Townes Van Zandt series, which was started in 2012, featuring various artists covering the works of beloved American singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. Songs of Townes Van Zandt Vol. III features new renditions of nine classic tracks as interpreted by AMENRA, CAVE IN, and MARISSA NADLER.
Steve Brodsky of CAVE IN stated about being part of the record, “In the winter of 2010, I did a solo tour with Scott Kelly of Neurosis and Bob Wayne. It was the three of us and Ansgar Glade traveling in Bob's ‘green machine’ van around the UK and Ireland. At every show, Scott played the song ‘Caroline’ and each time I heard it, I found myself enraptured. This was my introduction to Townes Van Zandt. Pretty cool that ten years later, Ansgar has given me and CAVE IN this great opportunity to show our love for TVZ's music.”
Lennart Bossu of AMENRA says, “Being Belgians, the very American folk and country of Townes Van Zandt is not exactly the music we grew up listening to, but upon discovering his songs in our early twenties, they immediately struck a chord with us. Even people who do not understand the lyrics can probably tell that they are listening to someone who has lived and suffered, and, oddly enough, at the same time find deep comfort in his soothing voice. It is the kind of comfort that often defines great music or art in general, and it made the prospect of trying our own hand at a few of his songs no less daunting. Nonetheless, when we were asked to be part of this collection of Townes Van Zandt cover songs, we felt excited and compelled to be part of it, as, in a way, it offered us a chance to do something in return for the great songs he has given us, and also be a part of a series of albums that are almost exclusively comprised of artists we deeply respect.”
Marissa Nadler offers, “I’ve been a fan of Townes Van Zandt’s music for nearly as long as I’ve been writing songs. When I was starting out, a friend introduced me to Townes’s music, and I pretty much instantly fell in love with both the rawness of his songs as well as the intense sense of longing expressed within them. His lyrics are haunting and evocative and have inspired me endlessly. These melodies will linger with you, year after year, and hopefully keep you company along the way.”
|
2022 |
€25.00 |
|
| AMINI, SIAVASH |
Serus |
LP |
" “Every night is two nights, according to Maurice Blanchot. The night the body spends in sleep is not the same as the night the dreamer spends in dreams. The sleeping body may lie under the stars, and the dreamer may dream of the stars—even of a journey to the stars—but the night of the dream is a night without stars.”
From Siavash:
The Idea of this album, when I first started drafting it, was to continue what struck me as very interesting yet simple idea; night. I became interested in different definitions of what night is, our perception of it and what night means physically to us as well as symbolically.
I came across the idea of ‘other night’ described by Maurice Blanchot, during my research. It started me recognising night as something we experience as ‘the night of sleep’; it is night that we resist in sleep, by way of dreaming.
Things became more interesting for me during many nights of not sleeping and intoxication, and an eventual nervous breakdown. This experience, culminating in me spending three days in ICU, gave me pause to think about Blanchot’s words.
Slipping in and out of consciousness my mind, which had already experienced a blurring of what one might call the ‘other night’ and the night itself, by being in half sleep most of the time. I felt myself far way from all my surroundings and at the same time being very attentive to some details in the objects around me. It was as if my body and mind where in an in-between state. I can only describe this as being distant or more precisely being in the dark. Objects and people showed themselves out of proportion and mostly dim.
A feeling to describe this sensation, the word for which I only came across later, is ‘Serus’. There was a sense of repetition and familiarity in some feelings and emotions that I had towards some objects like sensing I knew them but not exactly from where or when. It was as if my body was resisting sleep and my sleepy mind was resisting being awake, only to dream of another type of the world that I could be awake in."
https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/serus
"Crushingly dark and ominous avant-classical nocturnal scapes from Tehran-based Siavash Amini, marking his debut with Lawrence English’s Room 40. Amini’s work in ‘Serus’ is often scowlingly serious, but not without its moments of spacious, harmonic relief that bring the album’s underlying themes about sleep and dreams to life in suitably heavy-lidded, edge of nightmare fashion. One to be filed in your New Iranian Electronics folder, and another strong release in what's proving to be a vintage year for Room 40. |
2019 |
€26.00 |
|
| |
A Mimesis of Nothingness |
LP |
"Siavash Amini returns to Hallow Ground with A Mimesis of Nothingness, his fourth album for the Swiss label. Following up on Harmistice (HG 1902LP, 2019) together with fellow Iranian artists 9T Antiope, the six tracks were conceived in close collaboration with another artist and see the prolific composer intensify his interdisciplinary approach. The six tracks enter a dialogue with the photographs of Nooshin Shafiee, an acclaimed artist whose work capturing their hometown Tehran becomes the starting point for one of Amini's most visceral and haunting records. A Mimesis of Nothingness translates the ephemeral situations and melancholic moods of Shafiee's pictures into suspenseful soundscapes that masterfully navigate between the concrete and the abstract. A Mimesis of Nothingness is a disquieting record precisely because it is a quiet one. Working with field recordings, Amini sculpts dynamic portraits that create an atmosphere of tangible suspense that is never fully released. Even when string-like sounds enter the picture as they do on the third track "Moonless Garden" or when the abstract and glacial noise on "Observance (Shadow)" demand the listener's attention, the six pieces take hold of the subconscious rather than trying to be direct and confrontational. It is sound conceived not as a description, but a circumscription of spatial relations and the eeriness embedded in them. Includes eight-page booklet."
"Zu den interessantesten Versuchen, einen Ort im künstlerischen Medium, sei es Bild, Text oder Klang, erfahrbar zu machen, zählen jene, die den Blick auf eher untypische Aspekte lenken. Ein solcher Fokus richtet sich an ein aktives Publikum, das die präsentierten Details mit dem vorhandenen Wissen zu einem kaum festschreibbaren, hypothetischen Rahmen synthetisiert, und er umschifft ganz nebenbei eine Menge Klischees. Das ganz seiner Heimatstadt Teheran gewidmete neue Album von Komponist und Producer Siavash Amini befasst sich mit Details des Ortes, die zunächst wenig zu den Projektionen passen, die der Medienkonsument abrufen kann, seien diese den Nachrichten oder den Resten eines verklärenden Orientalismus geschuldet. Amini, den Leser unserer Seiten sicher von seiner Zusammenarbeit mit 9T Antiope kennen, ist zudem ein leidenschaftlicher Kollaborateur, und so ist „The Mimesis of Nothingness“ erneut eine Gemeinschaftsarbeit, diesmal mit der ebenfalls in Teheran lebenden Fotografin Nooshin Shafiee.
Amini und Shafiee trafen sich vor einigen Jahren zum ersten Mal in der Emkan Gallery im mit diversen Art Spaces gespickten Zentrum der Stadt. Sie stellte dort gerade eine Reihe digitaler Fotografien aus, während Amini im Raum nebenan Soundevents organisierte. Aufgrund ihrer gemeinsamen Ansätze – ein Sinn für Raum, fürs Fragmentarische und Experimentelle – ließ die Idee zu einer Kollaboration nicht lange auf sich warten, und so wurde der Grundstein zu „A Mimesis of Nothingness“ gelegt: Die Stadt sollte sich quasi selbst porträtieren mit wie zufällig aufgeschnappten “nichtigen” Objekten und Soundschnipseln, aber auch mit der diffusen Atmosphäre, die sie zu erzeugen weiß. Die beiden Künstler sollten dabei mehr wie Medien fungieren, durch deren Ohren und Augen der Ort spricht. Dass Teheran dabei weder als romantischer Sehnsuchtsort, noch als Schauplatz weltpolitischer Konflikte erscheint, mag mit einigen westlichen Vorstellungen brechen, den Nerv der Einheimischen trifft das aber sicher umso mehr.
„A Mimesis of Nothingness“ führt sein Publikum in ein Teheran, durch dessen Häuserschluchten und Alleen, über dessen weite Plätze, Parks, Fabrikgelände und Ruinen ein eisiger Wind weht, ein Wind, der Hagelklötze und Staub und Erinnerungen transportiert und all dies sprunghaft in die unterschiedlichsten Richtungen weht. In den Fotos mag die kühldunkle Atmosphäre impliziert sein, im langsam heranschleichenden Dark Ambient-Sound Aminis ist sie mehr als deutlich im gesampleten Wind und Regen zu hören, und doch scheint dies und das Echo undefinierbaren Donnerns und Detonierens eher das Innenleben des Ortes und seiner Bewohner wiederzugeben. Auf den Bildern sind Objekte zu sehen, die Kontext und Charakter erst beim genaueren Hinsehen implizieren: Zeltplanen, Vorhänge und andere ausladende Textilien kehren leitmotivisch wieder in den dunkel ausgeleuchteten Tableaus, hängen auf Wäscheleinen oder bedecken Treppen, Möbel und manchmal auch den ganzen Schauplatz, und alles, was unter ihrem Stoff verdeckt wird, wirkt außer Betrieb, im Standby, und jede direkte menschliche Präsenz würde deplatziert wirken.
Die Musik und die Bilder arbeiten (auch) immer wieder sehr stark mit dem, was sie gerade nicht präsentieren. Immer gibt es Aussichten auf ein diffuses Dahinter, auf Baum- oder Häusergruppen, diffuse Übergänge auf weitere Räume sind zu sehen. Wohin führen diese Öffnungen, Wege, freien Flächen, was ist oder passiert dahinter oder daneben? Die Frage nach dem größeren Rahmen des nur ausgeschnittenen Raumes ist so evident wie ein eingeblendeter Schriftzug oder eine Stimme aus dem Off. Auch bei den kreisenden, rauschenden, rumpelnden Bewegungen der elegant gestalteten Musik kommt immer wieder die Frage nach dem Was, dem Woher und dem Wohin auf, doch geheimnisvoll ist das Szenario nicht nur wegen des fragmentarischen Charakters und der nur gelegentlich ortbaren Sounds, sondern auch wegen des immer wieder Spannung überzeugenden Wechsels von melancholischen und harschen, gewaltsamen Passagen, die meist recht plötzlich in Form bohrender Loops oder eisiger Lärmlawinen einbrechen.
Die Streicherparts im unromantisch betitelten “Moonless Garden” halten die schönsten, aber auch die desolatesten Momente des Albums bereit, und letztlich sind es doch die Anzeichen des Lebens, die die Szenerie auflockern: zeternde Vögel, deren Krächzen keineswegs betulich wirkt, Schritte, die von einer tiefernsten Klangfläche begleitet eine Treppe herauf oder herunter gehen, gegen Ende sogar menschliche Stimmen, die den Hörer sofort, trotz Sprachbarriere, in einen anderen kommunikativen Modus bringen.
An der meist nur bedingt fassbaren Stimmung, die selten mit derart klaren und eindringlichen Mitteln hervorgerufen wird wie hier, ändert auch das nichts – auf „A Mimesis of Nothingness“ fühlt man sich an einem unbekannten Ort ausgesetzt, den man über das zufällig vorgefundene erkundet. Wenn es so etwas wie ein Wesen eines Ortes gibt, so kann man dieses vermutlich so besser erfahren, als durch ein vorgefertigtes Set an Dingen, „die man gesehen haben muss“." (U.S.) AFRICAN PAPER
africanpaper.com/2020/08/29/siavash-amini-the-mimesis-of-nothingness/
|
2020 |
€22.00 |
|
| AMM |
AMMMusic 1966 |
CD |
“74 Minuten Material der AMMMUSIC-Session, die jeweils am 8. und 27. Juni 1966 stattfand. Die CD ist um zusätzliches Bonusmaterial erweitert, welches aus derselben Session stammt. It „allows the listener to hear prefigurations and continuities of the music which makes for a new and a more enhanced experience than the original album material.“ (from the booklet) Die Improvisationen von AMM schaffen lange ruhige Distanzen zwischen Eruptionen krachiger E-Gitarre und begleitend bis störend eingesetzten Transistorradios. Piano und Perkussion im Zusammenhang mit Cello, Saxophon, Akkordion und Klarinette steigern sich wellenförmig höher und lassen die Musik urplötzlich in ruhige Passagen fallen. Es scheint, die Zeit sei stehen geblieben, während die Musiker kleine Punkte und schmale Linien in diesen konstanten Strom eines Stillebens zeichnen. Im Original 1967 als LP
veröffentlicht.
This CD contains 74 minutes of AMMMUSIC recorded on the 8th and 27th june 1966. Some unreleased material made at the same session is inclused. It „allows the listener to hear prefigurations and continuities of the music which makes for a new and a more enhanced experience than the original album material.“ (from the booklet) Improvisation music with pretty long distances between eruptions of noise streams from electric guitar and transistor radio. Cello and percussion together with piano, saxophon, accordion and clarinet culminate in waves and suddenly remain in quiet parts. It seems the time has stopped, while the musicians are painting small dots and lines in this constant stream of a standstill. Originally released as an LP in 1967.“ [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records]
“Repressed. Monumental debut recording (originally issued by the Elektra recording company in far different times). "The classic first recording from 1966, with Cornelius Cardew, Eddie Prevost, Lou Gare, Keith Rowe and Lawrence Sheaf. One of the first attempts to bring Noise improvisation (radios, scraped guitars, prepared pianos) into popular culture. Essential and historic." [label info]
|
1989 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Uncovered Correspondence |
CD |
"John Tilbury - piano. Eddie Prévost - percussion. Recorded at the concert hall of the Jasielski Dom Kultury (Jaslo Cultural Centre) in southern Poland on 15th May 2010. Th e performance represented by this CD took place on 15th of May 2010 in the concert hall of the Jaslo Cultural Centre in southern Poland. I had spoken to John Tilbury in 2007 about the possibility of AMM performing in Jaslo, but for various reasons the project did not come to fruition until three years later. We had not planned for a CD release of the concert; in fact, we only spoke about recording the day before. There was no opportunity for the usual setup procedures. The recording was only intended as a document of the occasion. The concert began with John Tilbury using the piano to produce a gamelan-like quality, which was quickly followed by Eddie Prévost bowing a cymbal producing subtle metallic sounds. One could feel an electric atmosphere of concentration and note the exceptional care and elegance with which the performers selected even the tiniest details of the complex sound structure. Intriguing phrases from the prepared piano and sonorous tones from percussion instruments waft ed around the huge expanse of the hall — whose excellent acoustics let the audience immerse themselves in the music — savouring the subtle sounds emerging from the silence. e changes within the slow stream of improvisation occurred in such a natural way introduced by either musician by turn. Sometimes a highly abstract motif seemed to be a logical development rather than a step into the unknown — which in reality it was. The dominant impression was that such an advanced level of intuitive understanding between the two performers was the result of many years of collaboration. In my view each sound produced during the concert was not only ‘desirable’ but also essential (inevitable) and created its own profound aesthetic justification. Especially noteworthy was the compelling way in which both musicians made use of silence, whose role in AMM is as important as sound. Th e performance of a shorter or longer period of silence entailed the same creative intervention as did playing a sound or motif. The moments when the sound structure intensified and thickened became less frequent yet did not disappear completely. Particularly embedded in my memory are two moments: one was an exceptionally loud and shattering fragment of sound when dust could be seen rising out of the piano. And, when Eddie got up from his percussion and went to the wood-panelling, playing the wall with a beater generating a very low and vibrating sound — a convincing demonstration that any object may be used as a means to create music. It is only because I attended the concert, and can recall it in my mind, that now when listening to the recording I can identify the sources of those extraordinary sounds. The music presented on this CD requires a serious commitment from the listener. However, anyone familiar with the music of AMM would expect nothing else. To uncover the hidden beauty of these lovingly craft ed improvised sound abstractions requires an appropriate level of concentration on the part of the listener. Such effort will be rewarded by a profound aesthetic experience. In organising this concert I feel honoured I have been able to contribute, albeit inadvertently, to the release of another AMM CD. Andrzej Serwa — August 2010" [label info]
www.matchlessrecordings.com
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| AMON |
Nona |
maxi-CD |
Nach langer Veröffentlichungspause gibt es nun immerhin eine maxi-CD bzw. 10“ von einem der besten dark ambient-acts. NONA ist eine faszinierende Soundreise in präverbale Sphären, mysteriöse & wunderschöne Klänge die sich in langsamen, aber dynamischen Wellenbewegungen durch Zeit und Raum bewegen...
After a long release-pause here’s a new maxi-CD / 10“vinyl from one of the best dark ambient- acts. NONA is a fascinating soundjourney into pre-verbal spheres, mysterious and truly beautiful noises move in slow but dynamic waves through time and space..
The CD version is lim. to 500 copies and comes in an oversized 10” fullcolour cover with artwork by Daniel Crokaert (Mystery Sea).
“Nona" takes inspiration from a case of xenoglossy (the ability to speak in an unlearned and unheard foreign language, often associated with past-life recall, states of trance or hypnosis and mediumship) discovered in Great Britain around the early Thirties when a woman in state of trance expressed herself in a language which was recognized as ancient egyptian. This voice from the past was called "Nona" or "The One Without a Name".[from the press-release]
|
2003 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Nona |
10" |
Nach langer Veröffentlichungspause gibt es nun immerhin eine maxi-CD bzw. 10“ von einem der besten dark ambient-acts. NONA ist eine faszinierende Soundreise in präverbale Sphären, mysteriöse & wunderschöne Klänge die sich in langsamen, aber dynamischen Wellenbewegungen durch Zeit und Raum bewegen... auf der vinyl version ist ca. 10 Minuten mehr Material als auf der maxi-CD !
After a long release-pause here’s a new maxi-CD / 10“vinyl from one of the best dark ambient-acts. NONA is a fascinating soundjourney into pre-verbal spheres, mysterious and truly beautiful noises move in slow but dynamic waves through time and space..
Limited edition on clear vinyl, with artwork by Daniel Crokaert (Mystery Sea). On the vinyl version is about 10 minutes more material than on the CD !
“Nona" takes inspiration from a case of xenoglossy (the ability to speak in an unlearned and unheard foreign language, often associated with past-life recall, states of trance or hypnosis and mediumship) discovered in Great Britain around the early Thirties when a woman in state of trance expressed herself in a language which was recognized as ancient egyptian. This voice from the past was called "Nona" or "The One Without a Name".[from the press-release]
|
2003 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| ANDERSSON, PETER |
Music for Film and Exhibition II |
CD |
"Like baking a sweet cake or cooking an indian dish you need good ingredients and spices to get the right mouthfeel and the splendid flavor of your desire. 'Music for Film and Exhibition II' is just like that: a levelled declitre of raison d'être, a brimful tablespoon of Atomine Elektrine, a couple of teaspoons of Necrophorus and a little bit of this and little bit of that, mixed into a perfect blend of many tastes. Peter Andersson, well-known from projects like Raison d'être, Stratvm Terror, Necrophorus and Atomine Elektrine, shows here broad spectrum of sonic atmospheres, like if all of his different music projects were combined into one. From ambient-drone-textures and electronic chill-out to concrete sounds to even pure atmopsheric piano tunes. 'Music for Film and Exhibition II' is the sequel of 'Music for Film and Exhibition' (Yantra Atmospheres, 2007). While the previous output contains collected works from different exhibition projects and movies spanning from 1999-2005,
this sequel is focused on one single project; an exhibition. Peter Andersson has lately worked as a media producer at Swedish Air Force Museum and being involved with their new large permanent exhibiton about the Cold War.
Within this project Peter has worked with sound design and movie production in particular.
The sonic results are presented on 'Music for Film and Exhibition II'. Some of the tunes are used as soundtrack for exhibition movies while the main part are sonic atmospheres and soundscapes to create the ambience of the exhibition rooms. The music is presented here as stand alone productions, displaced from its original context. To fully experience the music in its environmental Raison d'être there is no other way but to travel to the Swedish Air Force Museum. Until then, you may enjoy the music on its own. The CD comes in a six panel digipak covered with beautiful Sunset painting by italian artist Christian Montagna/FLOODSart.
For same samples go here :
http://www.oldeuropacafe.com/main.php?nav=pd&prdct=10127" [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
|
Golden Temple |
CD |
"anemone tube’s third release of the 'suicide series' tetralogy is an immersive industrial music album and the most ambitious and complex work yet, a long-term project of no less than 6 years, pursuing a highly sophisticated approach full of cross-cultural and historical references. painting a sonic landscape, 'golden temple' is perfectly real and dreamlike at the same time, endorsing archaic, mythological and worldly ideals alike. beauty and evil, the profane and chaos, apocalypse and hope - anemone tube keeps account and observes the antagonist forces of life. composed of raw urban field recordings collected in japan and china, combined with layers of piercing feedback and sinister hovering synth melodies, 'golden temple' confronts you with an all-embracing atmosphere of aggrieving darkness and glorious harshness, fathoming the possibilities of the genre. to ensure due impact, it has been sharply engineered to perfection by mastermind james plotkin. pursuing radical psychological effects of sound, the 13+ minutes initiation 'l`homme et les sirenes' is a mind-bending journey into the human psyche, a slowly emerging sinister landscape evoking man’s intrinsic imbalance with (its own) nature, followed by the noisy debris and crushing buildup of 'apocalyptic fantasy' as well as 'tower of evil', which is the central piece of the album, conceptually and musically, multi-layered and sample-heavy, related to tokyo’s roppongi hills mori tower, which is regarded by natives as a symbol for the uninhibited commercialization of life. 'negation of myth' descends into a barren, metallic darkness, radiating an equivocal sense of melancholy, before 'sea of lights (golden temple)' ascends in sparkling brightness and divinity. the evanescent bleakness of 'anthropocene - the dark abyss of time' finishes the main part of the album on a perversely promising, almost calm, spiritual note. under the heading 'arcadia - dreamland and myth', which constitutes a coherent sequel to the album, anemone tube explores questions pertaining our longing for a return to the realms of myth and emotion. whereas the sinister seething 'i, death, rule even in arcadia' picks up the first piece’s topic of sirens and conjures up the dionysian reunion with the innermost depths of nature and chaos, the psychologically strenuous 'tojinbo - tranquil sea of equanimity' composed by radical sound artist dave phillips (switzerland, schimpfluch-gruppe), using field recordings of the country’s most notorious suicide spot, demands the ultimate choice: how far to go to find your peace of mind. after the purely fantastic 'dream landscape' conjuring up an apocalyptic vision and the dark, brooding landscape of 'death over china' slowly spreading as thick smog (as a consequence for china’s uncompromising economical and societal development causing irreparable environmental harm), the semi-fictional work 'golden temple' is the series’ logical sequel . it suggests a (meta)physical landscape, here in form of global cities and metropolises proudly and brightly soaring in darkness, and bestowing golden radiance and divine beauty. with its alluring metaphorical world of images, symbols and sounds it is the very symbol of our innermost longings, desires and fears and our attempts to escape from a disconcerting reality. the 'golden temple' is comforting and threatening at the same time: consoling as it promises to reveal the secrets of beauty, threatening as it becomes a mirror of our secret death wish. strongly influenced by pasolini’s cinematic masterpiece 'medea', which evolves around the subject matters of estrangement from traditional values, the loss of contact with the mythical and the sacred in an increasingly rationalized and consumerist society, anemone tube brings matters to a head with an invocation of religiously charged symbolism, with the 'golden temple' acting as more than a singular viewpoint, but as a meta-sign, functioning in its paramount acknowledgement and acceptance of complex, sometimes contradictory subject matter. supported by the use of ancient and contemporary imagery, literary and cinematic references reproduced in the lavish accompanying booklet anemone tube creates different narrative levels, juxtaposes contemporary western and long-standing asian culture, plays with symbolic meanings and values - however, while doing so, never takes an unequivocal stand. anemone tube with his varied interests and approaches always strives to present a holistic work of art, and 'golden temple' works on many levels accordingly. the considered use of field recordings and samples, the arrangement of old masters’ paintings, contemporary photos and a variety of quotes from literature and movies - nothing is random, everything is part of the big picture. 'golden temple' is a multi-facetted recording, absorbing and inspiring as well as a complex concept waiting to be discovered. quality time lies ahead for those who get involved and visit the golden temple! the cd comes with a beautifully designed 6 panel digifile with golden print on black paper and a lavish 12-page booklet." [label info]
"Im Zentrum von Tokyos Bezirk Minato erhebt sich die Skyline der Roppongi Hills, einer Gruppe von Bürotürmen um den mächtigen Mori Tower, den die kritisch gesinnten unter den Einheimischen in leicht abergläubischer Weise den bösen Turm nennen. In ihrer Wahrnehmung steht er für die Macht, die das Kapital und der entfesselte Konsum auf alle Lebensbereiche ausweitet. Für den Musiker Anemone Tube, der vor einigen Jahren Japan bereiste und am Fuße der Türme das Covermotiv und nicht wenige der Sounds seines aktuellen Albums „Golden Temple“ aufnahm, ist der Ort ein Symbol der kapitalistischen Spatmoderne, der Tower of Evil, den er im gleichnamigen Stück besingt, ist eine Allegorie, die nicht nur in Japan ihre Manifestation hat.
„Golden Temple“ – man mag beim Titel an Mishimas Temple of the Golden Pavillon denken, woraus im opulenten Booklet zitiert wird – ist der dritte Teil von Anemone Tubes „Suicide Series“ und somit Nachfolger von „Dream Landscape“ und „Death Over China“. Ein weiteres mal geht es um Landschaften, die sich in der Spätform unserer Zivilisation herausgebildet haben und die zugleich ihren selbst hervorgerufenen Kollaps symbolisieren. Auf „Golden Temple“ ist all dies noch stärker als zuvor mit textlichen und ikonischen Zitaten und Anspielungen unterfüttert, die viele Fragen stellen und gelegentlich auch die eine oder andere Antwort in den Raum stellen.
Noch deutlicher als auf „Death Over China“ dreht sich auf „Golden Temple“ alles um das Thema der Entfremdung und ihrer apokalyptischen Dimensionen, und wie es scheint wird ein historisches Panorama entfaltet. Im eröffnenden „L’Homme et les Sirenes“ wird gewissermaßen die Ursünde der Entfremdung abgehandelt, der Trick des Odysseus, dem verführerischen Gesang der Sirenen zu widerstehen, oder allgemeiner: durch scheinbare Disziplin, die in Wirklichkeit eine Selbstfesselung ist, über die Natur und ihre Geister zu triumphieren. Dieser Akt, von Homer gefeiert und noch in der Dialektik der Aufklärung als Sternstunde der Zivilisation gewürdigt, erscheint hier als Auftakt einer fatalen Dystopie, zumindest lässt der knochentrockene Schleifsound, der seine destruktive Wirkraft erst nach und nach entfaltet, nichts anderes vermuten.
Von der Irrfahrt des Heroen bis zum finalen Anthropozän in „Anthropocene – The Dark Abyss of Time“ mit seinem an apokalyptisches Flammengeprassel erinnernden Rauschen ist es ein weiter Weg, und der ist mit Marken versehen, die so etwas wie einen Kampf zwischen Sein und Entfremdung anzudeuten scheinen. Auf musikalischer wie textlicher Seite herrscht der Nihilismus des all-encompassing destroyer aus dem zentralen „Tower of Evil“. „Apocalyptic Fantasy“ knüpt mit fatal dröhnenden Kreisbewegungen und einem Sound, der an Gitarrensoli diverser Metalgenres gemahnt, an die vorab veröffentlichte EP „In the Vortex of Dionysian Reality“ an, und schon dass hier auf Fantasy und nicht auf Nightmare verwiesen wird, unterstreicht das Lustvolle, dass dieses Untergangs-Narrativ bis zum kaum verständlichen Sprachample durchzieht – wie im Tarot Crowleys ist der Turm, der hier durch brettharte Noisewände evoziert wird, eine dem Einsturz geweihte comfort zone, deren Implosion gefürchtet und zugleich erhofft wird.
Nach einer eindringlicheren Version des schon auf dem Vortex-Tape enthaltenen „Tower of Evil“, hier mit dem Zusatz „The Ultimate Truth“, führt uns „Negation of Myth“ in die etwas filigraneren Regionen der Anemone Tube-Kosmos, was allerdings nur heißt, dass die nosigen Sounds weniger verwaschen und die einzelnen grobkörnigen Partikel deutlicher herausgearbeitet sind. Wer vergleichbare Passagen auf „Death Over China“ oder auf der Split mit Dissecting Table kennt, weiß, dass solche Tracks immer noch niederdrückend sind, und hier ist es v.a. das kosmische Hintergrunddröhnen, das den Eindruck von etwas Verlorenem aufrecht erhält. Vielleicht ist es diese Evokation von etwas ungreifbar Verlorenem, die auch den vielleicht schöngeistigesten Track „Sea of Lights (Golden Temple)“ so eindringlich macht.
Anemone Tube war stets an einer angemessenen allegorischen Aufmachung interessiert, doch diesmal ist das Booklet besonders reichhaltig gefüllt. Auf der bildlichen und paratextlichen Seite, die hier entfaltet wird, erwacht eine hetrotopische Gegenwelt, die so etwas wie ein nicht entfremdetes Sein zum Thema macht. Teil dieser Gegenwelt, wenn auch auf sehr radikale Art, ist zumindest der erste der beiden Bonus-Tracks, die wie eine integrierte EP unter dem Titel „Arcadia – Dreamland and Myth” angehängt sind: „I, Death, Even Rule in Arcadia” greift das Motiv der Odysse wieder auf und deutet eine alternative Erzähung an, in der der Held dem Ruf der Geister nachgibt und – auf tragische Weise, der Entfremdung jedoch entrinnend, wieder mit seiner eigenen Natur verschmilzt. „Tojinbo – Tranquil Sea of Equanimity” wiederum ist besonders doppelbödig, scheinen die vom schweitzer Soundaktivisten Dave Philips abgemischten Feldaufnahmen aus der Nähe einer für zahlreiche Selbstmorde bekannten Felsenklippe in Japan doch eher wieder eine Folge der Entfremdung statt ihre Alternative zu beschwören.
Letztlich bleibt es eine Frage der Interpretation, ob man die schönen Seiten des in „Golden Temple“ beschworenen als eskapistische Gegenwelt, als Einklagen einer veschmähten Kostbarkeit, als reine Dokumentation oder als vorsichtig hoffnungvolle Zukunftsaussicht auf ein Danach lesen will. Nietzsches Umschreibung des Dionysischen als „Ja zu Leben in all seiner Tragik” kommt mir dabei allerdings nicht aus dem Sinn. Sicher ist, dass das immer etwas links klingende Wort Antikapitalismus und das immer etwas rechts klingende Wort Antimodernismus selten so sehr überblendet wurde, wie auf diesem an Andeutungen und Anspielungen reichen Album, das den Geist Pasolinis wie ein Kontrastmittel über die Goldenen Tempel unserer Zeit gießt – und damit selbst die namenlose saufende Schönheit zu Füßen der Kolosses aus Glas und Beton zum Strahlen bringt." (U.S./AFRICAN PAPER]
www.raubbau.org
"The second chapter in "the suicide series" from Berlin's Anemone Tube is a suitably grim offering of machined noise, discordant feedback, and industrial field recordings of urban sprawl from a protracted visit to China a few years back. Anemone Tube's inclusion of these Chinese sounds comes from a very conscious decision to express the unfortunate side of the human condition to lay blame of current ills on the foreigner, the other - as Sartre explored in The Stranger. These recordings of locomotive engines grinding against the tracks, jet-engines surging into the sky, and the deafening roar from turbines are not unique to China, but the acceleration of environmental decline through such activities should also be seen as a mirror to the European civilization, whose cities have complex histories to war, famine, death, and disease. Hence, the title refers more to the gleaming optimism of human progress when everything points to another conclusion. Anemone Tube captures this in an immersive construct of these revolving field recordings, compounded by sinister synth passages and haunted drone, that keep us thinking of the likes of Morthound and Megaptera, in the death-industrial realms." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
|
In the Vortex of Dionysian Reality |
CD |
Related to Nietzsche`s notion of the Wagnerian music drama as a revelation of the abysmal truth about man, “In the Vortex of Dionysian Reality” allures us into the Dionysian dreamland, where tragedy reigns, in pursuit of the ultimate oneness. With its washes of noise and layers of piercing feedback on a subbase of wavering synths, it is a maelstrom of sound generating a hallucinatory reality. The atmosphere oscillates between destructiveness and aggravating frenzy, between the archaic and the sacral, between frenzied passion and abyssal melancholy, serving the mythical experience of music in a world where language has failed as a method of communication and music figures as the primordial form of expression.
As he considers humanities to have reached their limit, young Nietzsche hopes to find ultimate spiritualization and idealization in the reborn myth. Music alone (“our German masters”), as the primeval form of poetry and revelation of true Dionysian wisdom, may achieve triumph over the Apollonian shallow world of apparition.
With his timely musical rendition of mythical experience as “In the Vortex of Dionysian Reality”, Anemone Tube conveys an emotionally and mentally charged album which reveals his soft spot for progressive post rock metal acts like Amusement Parks On Fire, Blut Aus Nord or O.L.D. Their special approach of dreamy melodies vs. atonal, discordant sounds is skillfully recreated through polyphonic synths lines, which are then modulated into feedback and added for good measure.
Carrying the same title as the 2015 cassette EP release on The Epicurean, this CD with its 40+ minutes total length and five all new, yet unreleased tracks is less a mere re-release, but rather a full stand-alone album, featuring Ukrainian dark ambient artist Monocube on one track, as well as including sounds by Russian avantgardists Post Scriptvm and sound processing by French sound artist Pacific 231.
epicureanescapism.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-vortex-of-dionysian-reality-2 |
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
In the Vortex of Dionysian Reality |
LP |
Related to Nietzsche`s notion of the Wagnerian music drama as a revelation of the abysmal truth about man, “In the Vortex of Dionysian Reality” allures us into the Dionysian dreamland, where tragedy reigns, in pursuit of the ultimate oneness. With its washes of noise and layers of piercing feedback on a subbase of wavering synths, it is a maelstrom of sound generating a hallucinatory reality. The atmosphere oscillates between destructiveness and aggravating frenzy, between the archaic and the sacral, between frenzied passion and abyssal melancholy, serving the mythical experience of music in a world where language has failed as a method of communication and music figures as the primordial form of expression.
As he considers humanities to have reached their limit, young Nietzsche hopes to find ultimate spiritualization and idealization in the reborn myth. Music alone (“our German masters”), as the primeval form of poetry and revelation of true Dionysian wisdom, may achieve triumph over the Apollonian shallow world of apparition.
With his timely musical rendition of mythical experience as “In the Vortex of Dionysian Reality”, Anemone Tube conveys an emotionally and mentally charged album which reveals his soft spot for progressive post rock metal acts like Amusement Parks On Fire, Blut Aus Nord or O.L.D. Their special approach of dreamy melodies vs. atonal, discordant sounds is skillfully recreated through polyphonic synths lines, which are then modulated into feedback and added for good measure.
Carrying the same title as the 2015 cassette EP release on The Epicurean, this CD with its 40+ minutes total length and five all new, yet unreleased tracks is less a mere re-release, but rather a full stand-alone album, featuring Ukrainian dark ambient artist Monocube on one track, as well as including sounds by Russian avantgardists Post Scriptvm and sound processing by French sound artist Pacific 231.
LP comes with different design than CD version and exclusive track “Tower of Evil (Sovereign Over All)”.
https://epicureanescapism.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-vortex-of-dionysian-reality-lp
https://epicureanescapism.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-vortex-of-dionysian-reality-2
|
2017 |
€17.00 |
|
| ANOFELE & LOGOPLASM |
Gravescapes |
mCD-R |
Für field recording-Fans höchst empfehlenswert: Zwei italienische Projekte mit Aufnahmen aus einem unterirdischen Kloster-Tunnel, der mit Steinen, Stöckern & Knochen übersät war… auf der mini-Cd befinden sich drei Stücke, je eines mit den Bearbeitungen von ANOFELE und LOGOPLASM, und einmal die Originalaufnahmen. Geheimnisumwitterte Geräusch-Trips voller steiniger Details…
“We are happiest to bring you this collaboration between Anofele (Adriano Scerna, better known as one half of the italian experimental duo Kar) and Logoplasm (Paolo Ippoliti and Laura Lovreglio from Ariccia, Rome) which comes in the form of a 3" MiniCD-R.
Logoplasm didn't release any music at all during the last few years, so we are particularly glad to be part of their return to the scene, and we're truly hoping that this won't remain an isolated episode.
"Gravescapes" is a very particular release whose origins starts back in 2003 during a week-end in springtime, when Adriano, Paolo and Laura got almost lost in the woods of Central Italy, after a visit to a local theravada buddist monastery.
As they were walking around the monastery, at some point the trees disclosed the ruins of what instantly appeared like an abandoned graveyard bearing the signs of an awful lot of time and almost completely overgrown with weeds.
Underneath the graveyard they soon discovered a short subterranean tunnel. The tunnel was slightly illuminated by the piercing sunlight and their curiosity won over unrational fears, so they decided to explore it.
Inside the tunnel they found a few open loculi which contained small heaps of human bones. More bones were spreaded on the ground along with stones, sticks, branches, etc.
They took some recordings with two portable MiniDisc machines, using their discoveries as the main sound sources. Such recordings were subsequently manipulated and assembled using computer technology and softwares, and turned into "Gravescapes".
"Gravescape One" is Anofele's rendition of the original recordings, which is presented as "Gravescape Two". "Gravescape Three" is Logoplasm's take on the same source material.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
| ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS |
The Crying Light |
CD |
Drei Platten die wir auch mit Drone anbieten wurden vom PITCHFORK Magazin (zur Zeit wohl DIE Referenz im Alternativ-Bereich) zu den "besten Platten des Jahres 2009" erkoren: SUNN O)))s "Monoliths & Dimensions", JIM O'ROURKE - "The Visitor", und "The Crying Light".
Zurecht, denn dies ist das Meisterstück des aussergewöhnlichen Sängers mit der fragilen Stimme und den herzzereissenden Arrangements!
"Mit seinem dritten Album "The Crying Light" setzt der Songschreiber, dessen empathisch emotionaler Kopfgesang kein Geschlecht kennt, aber dafür die Tiefe menschlicher Gefühle, einen intimeren Fokus. Im Interview mit der britischen Musikzeitschrift "Wire" spricht Antony von einem "inneren Garten", dessen Mauern er nun überwinden möchte, weil es dahinter ja noch viel mehr zu entdecken gibt - "the landscape beyond my inner landscape". Es ist eine Meditation über das Paradies, das für Antony viel mit der Entfaltung der Natur und ihrem Formenreichtum zu tun hat. 30 Songs hat er in den letzten sieben Jahren für das enorm geschlossen wirkende "The Crying Light" geschrieben - und schließlich trotzdem nur zehn davon verwendet. Ein Prozess der Verfeinerung. Auch bei den Arrangements wurde alles Überflüssige gestrichen. "Dust And Water" klingt deshalb so pur wie schwebender Morgennebel, und hinter dem gesamten Album steht offensichtlich mehr eine suchende Zen-Haltung als ein exaltiertes Pop-Ego. "Her Eyes Are Underneath The Ground", der erste Song des Albums, weckt Erinnerungen an Schubert und das deutsche Kunstlied. Da ist vor allem Antonys Stimme, dazu ein sacht ertastetes Klavier und eine Ahnung von Violinen und Cello im Hintergrund. Erst ganz zum Schluss drängen sich harsche Bässe in den Vordergrund, wie Gewitterwolken an einem heiteren Nachmittag. "Epilepsy Is Dancing" tänzelt hoffnungsvoll und verspielt "One Dove" schält sich ganz langsam aus dem Nichts, wie viele Stücke hier. Später setzten Dissonanzen ein, mehr und mehr Instrumente tauchen auf und verschwinden wieder, bis nur noch seltsame Tierstimmen zu hören sind. "Kiss My Name" schwelgt dagegen in einem orchestralen Klang- und Melodie-Reichtum, der fast schon an Freund Rufus erinnert.
Der Höhepunkt, "Another World", ist ein hellhäutiger Blues und ein banges Abschiedslied auf die Welt: "I need another place, will there be peace? I need another world, this one is nearly gone." Es folgt eine Liste der Dinge, die der Sänger in einer anderen Welt vermissen würde: die Bäume, das Meer, den Schnee, die Bienen und überhaupt alles, was wächst - "I'm gonna miss you all". "Aeon" mit seiner rauen Gitarre ist dagegen fast schon ein Rocksong, aber eben nur fast. Zu "The Crying Light" kann man nicht tanzen, und das Album gehört auch nicht zu den Platten, die einem mit packenden Refrains durchs eigene Leben helfen. Die Schönheit dieses bisher reifsten Antony & The Johnsons-Werks liegt darin, dass es nach der Seele sucht, wo andere nur in den Spiegel blicken. Ein Meisterwerk, eine andere Welt und ein Refugium für alle, die es zu schätzen wissen." [Jürgen Ziemer, Rolling Stone]
"Zeitlos und doch aktuell: das lang ersehnte dritte Album.
"The Crying Light" heißt das lang ersehnte dritte Album von Antony and The Johnsons. Auf "The Crying Light" legt Antony seinen Fokus auf ein neues Thema und gibt uns einen Einblick in seine Beziehung zur Umwelt. Der Album-Opener "Her Eyes Are Underneath The Ground" ist ein liebevolles Zwiegespräch mit Mutter Natur und Ausdruck des Wunsches, dass sie am Ende über ihre Zerstörung siegen wird - "no one can stop you now!" Darauf folgen der schwindelerregende Walzer "Epilepsy Is Dancing" und das herzzerreißende "One Dove", dessen detailreiche Instrumentierung Antonys Stimme - bildlich gesprochen - regelrecht umarmt. Mit "The Crying Light" ist Antony and The Johnsons ein zeitloses Meisterwerk gelungen, das uns die folgenschweren Entwicklungen in der Welt und unsere Rolle darin ins Bewusstsein ruft. Es kann zum Sinnbild dieser turbulenten Zeit werden; eine Momentaufnahme und ein Anstoß für uns alle, Courage zu besitzen und uns sowohl in unserem persönlichen Kosmos als auch in der Welt als Ganzes rücksichtsvoller zu bewegen."
[Indigo]
"ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS' breakthrough second album "I Am a Bird Now" won the UK's prestigious Mercury Prize in 2005. The success that followed introduced many to a pioneering soul singer unafraid to explore themes that traversed darkness and light, life and death, male and female. Antony's inimitable voice sparked the interest of artists ranging from Bjork to Hercules and Love Affair, resulting in a series of critically acclaimed collaborations. "The Crying Light" is the highly anticipated full-length follow-up to "I Am a Bird Now". Here, Antony shifts the thematic focus and explores his relationship with the natural world. The intimacy of the Johnsons' sound is enveloped by avant-classical composer Nico Muhly's symphonic arrangements. The record's centerpiece, "Another World" traces the singer's dispair in the face of a vanishing landscape. Antony and the Johnsons' music bridges the gap between avant-classical music and the blues, and the band's sold out performances have resulted in standing ovations from Carnegie Hall to the Apollo. "The Crying Light" is a soul-stirring new work with its daring compositions and captivating vocal performances. Antony and the Johnsons have created a subtle and timely work that brings a magical and yet changing world to the forefront of our consciousness." [press release]
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| ANTUNES, JORGE |
Savage Songs |
CD |
Hochinteressanter brasilianischer Pionier der elektronischen Musik, der in den 70ern auch zum Kreis des GRM vorstiess. Diese Zusammenstellung enthält 14 Arbeiten aus dem Zeitraum von 1961-1970 - bereits mit 19 Jahren verewigte er seine erste Komposition, die nach ältesten vorstellbaren elektronischen Klängen klingt: träge Sinustöne und Modulationen, Frequenzphrasierungen, Klick- und Halleffekte, Tape-Loops; im laufe der Zeit angereichert durch diverse Geräuschexperimente und -objekte, Orchesterinstrumente und seine Farb-Sound-Theorie...
Erinnert an frühe Experimente von OLIVEROS, DOCKSTADER, etc...
"Jorge Antunes (b. 1942, Rio de Janeiro) studied violin, composition and conducting at the University of Rio de Janeiro, as well as studying physics at the same institution. He further studied composition with Alberto Ginastera and Luis de Pablo. From 1970-71 he attended the University of Utrecht (Gotfried M. Koenig). From 1972-73 he worked with Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris. In 1962 he began his research in electronic music thus becoming a pioneer in the development of this field in Brazil. He is the director of the Electronic Music Laboratory and the conductor of Orquestra da Universidade de Brasilia." [label info]
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| APOPTOSE |
Ana Liil |
CD |
"Ana Liil doesn't want to be your friend – she lives in an entirely separate world. Maybe at night you see her shape behind a grimy window in the neighbourhood, or you hear her singing from afar. But you will never get closer to her. “I don't know who she is,” Apoptose says. “One day she just emerged. Like a thought that sounds logic in your dreams but completely strange in daylight.” Apoptose’s “ana liil” plays with your expectations. This album spins within close range of those dark ambient realms that Apoptose became known for since the early 2000s. Songs like “meer der ruhe” or “schnee” still bear this signature. But at the same time they show a new quality of songwriting. Both feature the frail singing of a girl who keeps the dusty shadows at bay . On “forget your face”, “adrenalin” or “ich verbrenne” Apoptose replaces the reverb charged tracks by songs full of voices and haunting melodies. But beware: all is not as it seems. The album will be available on CD, vinyl+CD and download. The CD is housed in a stylish spot varnished six-panel cardboard pack including a twelve-pages booklet and a separate CD-sleeve. The LP+CD version comes in an altered design with copper foil blocking and printed inner sleeve. Don't miss!" [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
"Wer ist ANA LIIL? "Sie will nicht mit Dir befreundet sein – sie lebt in ihrer ganz eigenen Welt." So steht es in der kurzen Beschreibung zum neuen APOPTOSE-Album. Ich könnte mir gut vorstellen, dass ANA sich diese Eigenschaft mit RÜDIGER, dem Mann hinter APOPTOSE teilt. Wohltuend zurückhaltend präsentiert sich der Musiker, den wir seit einiger Zeit begleiten. Rund vier Jahre nach "Bannwald" (Besprechung und Interview) legt er, ganz unaufgeregt, im Mai mit "Ana Liil" auf TESCO ein neues Album vor; wir durften es vorab schon hören.
Trotz vieler Änderungen in den vergangenen Jahren – von den rituelleren Alben "Nordland" (2000) und "Blutopfer" (2002) über das industrielle "Schattenmädchen" (2007) und den Post Punk-Ausflug "Warrior Creed" (2008) wieder zurück in waldigere Gefilde auf "Bannwald" (2010) – blieb ein gewisser APOPTOSE-Sound immer erkennbar. Dies gilt auch für "Ana Liil", hier finden sich erneut die leicht orgeligen, langgezogenen Synthietöne. Ansonsten hat sich allerdings eine ganze Menge getan. Zum Beispiel arbeitet RÜDIGER auf einigen Songs mit Gesang, die Trommeln von früher liegen wohl endgültig im Keller, und die Musik mit eingängigen, starken Melodien könnte als minimaler Synthiewave durchgehen.
Schon "Meer Der Ruhe" (01) birgt die erste Überraschung: Zu einer ruhigen, traurigen Synthiemelodie mit neoklassischer Anmutung singt eine Kinderstimme, anrührend und auf Deutsch. Gemeinsam mit dem angesprochenen, speziellen Klang ergibt sich etwas Märchenhaftes – wir reden allerdings von den düsteren, morbiden Märchen, in denen es um Geister, Tote und andere Dimensionen geht. So kommt der Song trotz der Kinderstimme sehr gut am Kitsch vorbei. In "Ich Verbrenne" (02) wandelt sich die Sängerin vom Mädchen zur Frau. Die weiterhin ruhige Synthie-Ambientmusik mit dezentem Rhythmus im Hintergrund erinnert mich – hier und an anderen Stellen – an elektronische Musik der 1980er/90er, zum Beispiel an die frühen WOLFSHEIM. Der Titeltrack (03) schlägt zum ersten Mal wirklich düstere Töne an: dronige E-Gitarre, Percussion und englische, gesampelte Vocals. KRAFTWERK oder deren aktuelle Version ATOM™ scheinen in "Fernsehen" (04) zu grüßen (und auch das nicht zum letzten Mal): sanfte, jetzt sehr modern wirkende Elektromusik mit TV-ähnlicher Ansagerstimme ("Fernsehen macht dumm ..."). Die moderne, computerisierte Anmutung bleibt für die nächsten beiden Tracks bestehen: "Adrenalin" (05) mit mächtigem BACH-Chor im Hintergrund und "I Say Seven" (06) mit einer dronigen, mächtigen Melodie, analogem Schlagzeug, Synthielayern und der technisierten Frauenstimme, welche Zahlen präsentiert – mein Favorit. "Hiding" (07) ist eines von zwei Stücken, bei denen mir "Twin Peaks"-Lieder von JULEE CRUISE in den Sinn kommen (mit mehr Drive und Rhythmus), auch die Kinderstimme im Abschlussstück "Schnee" (09) bringt mich dorthin zurück. Dazwischen liegt mit "Forget Your Face" (08) ein Track, bei dem ich kurz – ich hoffe, RÜDIGER verzeiht mir das – an die PET SHOP BOYS denken musste.
Extrem packende Ambientmusik, die inhaltlich durchaus an frühere Alben von APOPTOSE anknüpft, vor allem "Schattenmädchen" und "Bannwald". Auch Kinderlieder und Gesang gab es vor allem schon auf letzterem. Musikalisch allerdings geht "Ana Liil" in eine andere Richtung. Die Nähe zur Natur ist nicht mehr so deutlich hörbar, die starke rituelle Komponente fehlt, die Trommeln spielen überhaupt keine Rolle mehr. Das aktuelle Werk ist in seiner fast ausschließlich elektronischen Anlage durchgängiger, die Stücke sind sich ähnlicher und häufig mit Gesangsstimmen versehen. Nach und nach umspinnt die Hauptdarstellerin den Hörer mit Einsamkeit und Verlorenheit – und trägt ihn davon.
Das Album erscheint als CD, LP und als Download und kommt laut Beschreibung von TESCO mit aufwändiger Verpackung..." [Michael We./NONPOP]
|
2014 |
€14.50 |
|
| AQUAVOICE |
Nocturne |
CD |
" 'Nocturne', the second AQUAVOICE offering on Zoharum, is a successor to well-received last year's "Grey." The material for both albums was created around the same time and was divided according to the following key: "Grey" - more experimental and coarse compositions; "Nocturne" - more dreamy, low-key and soothing ambient textures. The new album includes 11 new songs clocking in at 50 minutes, songs a bit darker and colder than before where one can find inspirations taken from Scandinavian art.
This 3-panel ecopak release is strictly limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Things in Poland seem to be booming, for quite some time actually. Monotype is a very active label, when it comes to releases, and Zoharum follows neatly. Zoharum is a label that specializes in anything that is dark and atmospheric, but not without beats. We start this particular journey with the second release by Aquavoice, the musical project of Tadeusz Luczejko, whose debut was reviewed in Vital Weekly 896. Here Aquavoice further explores the boundaries of starry nights, of nocturnal soundtracks, with dreamy synthesizer sounds, mild sequenced rhythm - more ticking than beating - an occasional voice well placed here and there. Exactly the same references as last time pass by: S.E.T.I., Biosphere, Pete Namlook and no doubt you could add many others from the field of ambient music that comes with a bit of rhythm. I don't think Aquavoice had a re-thought of what he was doing after 'Grey', but simply decided to carry on what he was doing so well already. Maybe the addition of 'real' instruments - piano, violin - is something that is new around here? Maybe not. So, perhaps nothing much new, and then what? There is nothing wrong with that. Luczejko simply explores further what he does best, what is in a tradition from Eno, via ambient house, to microsound and he delivers another fifty minutes of some excellent music. I very much enjoyed this nocturnal, cosmic ride." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| ARANOS |
Crow Eye Hint |
CD |
"This is a drone record. Piano sustain pedal depressed and released activates resonanacy in all strings. Microphone placed inside the piano records these as a moving aural landscape punctuated by giant footsteps of the pedal. 5 minutes deep in this world a burst of sound of one note ripping forwards and backwards cuts into pleasant reverie for a few seconds, than melancholy of vivisected piano returns and increases in intensity. Upon reaching it's conclusion, single note of the same piano replaces it. Through rhythmical permutations this note creates a drone inviting strings. Pedal adds a forward movement. At a given point whole body of sound shifts up a semitone, changes colour, keeps increasing in complexity until final climax.
Crow eye hint comes on CD pressed from a glass master in a case handmade from pine veneers and canvass. Includes two woodcut prints."
[label info]
www.aranos.org
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Tangomango |
CD |
Ziemlich obskure Musik kredenzt Herr ARANOS uns hier, rauher Gesang & Violinen & Akustikklampfen zuhauf, irgendwo zwischen Obskur-Folk und seltsamer Geräuschmuziek, auch zarte drone-Sphären tauchen auf, erinnert manchmal an D.D.A.A. oder VOLCANO THE BEAR, ist aber so eigenständig exzentrisch und einmalig dass es jedem Vergleich spottet..... in super-handgemachter / genähter überaus edler Stoff-Hülle.... real Avantgarde !!
“Aranos is a master of the stringed instrument, a frequent collaborator with fellow Irish countryside dweller Steven Stapleton, and the creator of a string of idiosyncratic experimental albums that, like most great works of art, defy categorization. This solo full-length is the follow-up to 2001's Magnificent! Magnificent! No One Knows the Final Word, an album unique not only for its unconventional musical content and homegrown organic packaging, but also for its "experimental anarchy distribution," a sort of honor system where Aranos shipped the album at his expense to anyone who wanted it, asking each listener to decide how much the album was worth. Tangomango continues down the same path as Magnificent, but somehow manages to be even more willfully eccentric. Lovely passages of emotively played strings are overdubbed with shambolic percussion, occasional forays into electronics of uncertain origin and Aranos' gravelly vocals, free-associating long strings of unhinged Dadaesque lyrical couplets. Aranos creates a one-man chamber quartet, overdubbing layers of plucked and bowed violin, viola and double bass, his melodies fondly recalling the Eastern European gypsy music idioms of his heritage. Sometimes the effect is a sort of avant-garde chamber pop, as on "Julio Cruz," which sounds not entirely unlike mid-1970s John Cale. Other times, Aranos' techniques are so unorthodox that the music sounds like nothing else, as with the strange organic kaleidescope created on "All The Lost Turbans Will Be On That Speaker," which utilizes musique concrête effects to create an unsettling piece of psychedelic tape music. On "Worryism," the album's only guest player, Jon Whitney (editor of this rag), contributes a series of distended bleats on a didgeridoo, forming the foundation for a distinctly ritualistic excursion that ends Tangomango on a somber note. Halfway through the oddly named "69 Walton's Yamamoto Noodles," Aranos strikes the gong and unleashes a series of mindbending electronic pulses. "Broken Eights" is a fractured military ode constructed from martial drums and layers of vacillated vocal overdubs. The album's title could not be more appropriate, as Aranos is able to reference the improvisatory feel of Can's masterpiece, while impregnating it with his own organic sense of rhythm. It's a little bit fun, and a little bit fruity. The album comes packaged in a lovely handmade royal purple silk purse with a beaded clasp and a lyric booklet adorned with many beautiful photographs. Tangomango is a rare album that truly feels like a pure, unmediated foray into one man's peculiar and joyful vision of music, and it's a rewarding trip at that.”[Jonathan Dean / Brainwashed]
www.brainwashed.com/aranos
|
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
| ARCANE ART |
KritaRan |
CD |
Eine Art langsamer, melancholischer “industrialized post-rock” von diesem Seitenprojekt von VEILED ALLUSIONS. Nice price.
“This is the full length, instrumental version of the MCDR put out by Fossil Dungeon. Soundwise this album goes in the direction of experimental post rock vs. industrial dark ambient. "KritaRan" is a melange of improvised and structured sounds that range from the gothic to experimental post-rock fused with avant-garde ambient atmosphere from Karsten Hamre of Veiled Allusions/Penitent/Dense Vision Shrine fame.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| ARCANE DEVICE |
Devices 1987-2007 |
do-CD |
Texturen aus Sirenen-Klängen und Sinuston-Feedbacks, repetitive Patterns aus Extrem-Frequenzen, Effektgerät-Übersteuerungen bilden seltsame Klangkegel aus, elektronische Cut-Ups formen Kaskaden aus befremdlicher Rhythmik. Und alles basiert nur auf einer Soundquelle: Feeback! Auf dieser russischen Kollektion des emsigen MONOCHROME VISION-Labels findet sich älteres rares Material von längst vergessenen Compilations, aber auch neue Stücke von 2007, welche nahtlos an die Vergangenheit anknüpfen, insgesamt aber weniger noisig & offensiv klingen. Very special stuff!
"Anthology of rare and previously unreleased tracks by Arcane Device, recorded within the 20 years. It is divided into two parts. The first one consists of tracks from compilations issued by Subterranean Records, Tragic Figures, SFCR Tapes, and Generations Unlimited, but also unreleased material remastered and/or remixed in 2007. The second one is subtitled as "Feedback symphony" and based on various recordings, presented in four movements and finished in 2007. One more chance to approve the exceptional skills and compositional/ technical talent of David Myers who can control the electrons by will, creating fantastic soundscapes. Arcane Device is the unique project of american graphic designer and musician David Myers, active between 1987 and 1995. His creative output is going beyond any categorization, because it’s possible to re-arrange and demonstrate such many styles of modern music with only one thing that is feedback. This effect usually happens when you shortcut the input and output of any electric device. It’s hard to believe but this almost uncontrolable beast became the driving force for Arcane Device music, armed by self-made bank of delays and filters. Looking like inward sound research, decorated with finest web of random processes and microvariations, it becames the peculiar feature. Endless circulation of electrons, never repeating routes and always having some chance for individual life inside of any macrostructure." [label notes / credits]
"....I might be wrong, but the oldest guy here is David Lee Myers, also known in the mid eighties as Arcane Device and one of my heroes of the time. Myers created his own feedback machines long before someone thought of 'no input mixers'. Myers controlled his feedback with all sorts of sound effects, which made him sound differently than say the average industrial musician. No wonder his first release was on Recommended/ReR records, known for improvisation rather than noise. In the time span of less than eight years Arcane Device released a bunch of CDs, a LP, a double 7" pack and some cassettes (many of them these days available from http://www.pulsewidth.com). For Monochrome Vision, Myers went to his archive to pick some rare (from various compilations on Subterranean Records, Tragic Figures, SFCR and Generations Unlimited) and unreleased for his double CD. I admit straight away that it has been a while since I last played a CD by Arcane Device, but hearing this feast of recognition, prompts me to pull them all out and play them again in the next weeks, when time allows me. The strength of Arcane Device, to work with such unmusical sounds in such a musical form, hasn't lost any of his magic to me. Unlike say the current wave of no input mixers, who like to be microsound, minimal or overtly harsh, but nothing musical, I only know of one equivalent to Myers and that's Marco Ciciliani, who I once saw play a no input mixer in such a musical manner. Great stuff!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2007 |
€17.00 |
|
| ARCHETTI, LUIGI / BO WIGET |
Low Tide Digitals II |
CD |
Zweiter Teil der Collaboration, wieder sehr dichte Stücke, atonal & dronig, dann aber auch dunkel „herausgespielt“ mit Gitarre, Cello, Electronics, und teils auch eher frickeliges Zeug, von diesen Urgesteinen der Impro & Psychedelic-Szene....
“Low Tide Digitals II is the sequel to this non-Norwegian duo's acclaimed 2001 debut album of the same name (RCD 2019). As with the debut, this is an Eno-esque, extremely fine-tuned mix of acoustic instruments and electronic elements. Switzerland-based musicians Luigi Archetti and Bo Wiget have created an album of sensitive, electronically-tinged free improvising. With cello, guitar and electronics, Archetti and Wiget weave a beautiful, detailed and fragile soundscape. Most see references to ambient, electronica and contemporary music but basically this release is beyond categorization. Archetti is a multi-media visual and sound artist, who has been active in both free improv groups and experimental rock since the late 1970s. Currently known as a member of the psychedelic group Guru Guru and also acclaimed for his work as a painter, Archetti has improvised with artists such as Urs Voerkel, Ellen Christi, Magikami Koichi and many others. Possessing a similar rock background, the last decade has seen Bo Wiget working with numerous improvisers including legendary Swiss free saxophonist Werner Lüdi, Czech singer/violinist Iva Bittova, and Japanese guitarist Taku Sugimoto.” [press release]
|
2005 |
€15.00 |
|
| ARMAROLI, SERGIO |
Mahler (in/a) Cage / Casetta di composizione |
CD |
The Mahler (in/a) Cage field recording work involves the recording, in situ, from the Casetta di composizione (Composition house) in Dobbiaco/Toblach (Bozen), of the soundscape in which Gustav Mahler composed his last works from 1909 to 1911 and in particular The Song of the Earth (Das Lied von der Erde). The recording session took place over two summer days, from July to August 2020 from 5 am onwards, in the period of the year in which Mahler himself re sided in Dobbiaco to compose at the beginning of the century.
Mahler (in/a) Cage is a field recording work, a process of possible reconstruction of a hypothetical and natural soundscape, within Mahler’s music or rather his musical imaginary following some archetypal signals (e.g. cowbells, birdsongs). All this is traced back to the composition of John Cage Sculptures Musicales (1989): “Sounds lasting and leaving from different points and forming a sounding sculpture which lasts” (Marcel Duchamp). An exhibition of several (sonic sculptures), one at a time, beginning and ending “hard-edge” with respect to the surrounding “silence”, each sculpture within the same space the audience is. From one sculpture to the next, no repetition, no variation. For each a minimum of three constant sounds each in a single envelope. No limit to their number. Any lengths of lasting. Any lengths of non-formation. Acoustic and/or electronic [Peters Edition EP 67348].
Tracklist:
1. The sound of the earth: at dawn – [0:00 to 7:31]
2. Characters – [7:31 to 19:16]
3. Variant and shape of water – [19:16 to 24:41]
4. Nel mezzo – [24:41 to 34:54] ~ Dialectical Cesura
5. Zoo: animal symbolism – [34:54 to 43:39]
6. Casetta di composizione – [43:39 to 46:39] / 6A [46:39 to 49:17] ~ Subjective \ “… nervous susceptibility”
7. The long look: forever \ Ewig
(A Musicall Banquet, 1610, no. 10) – [49:17 to 1:14:00]
https://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=18985
|
2021 |
€14.00 |
|
| ART BEARS |
Winter Songs |
CD |
Re-Release of second LP from 1978 !
„Die Songs von "Art Bears" haben mit Rock-Idiomen kaum was gemein, das Trio bedient sich auf "Winter Songs" überwiegend der Konzepte der Avantgarde und der Klassik des 20ten Jahrhunderts. Kalt, dunkel und dissonant, nur beiläufig mit den allseits beliebten Schönheitsidealen flirtend ("The Hermit"), beschwören Art Bears eine Stimmung unterschwelliger Spannung herauf. Dazu trägt maßgeblich der unvergleichliche Gesang von Dagmar Krause bei. Die sparsame Instrumentierung besteht aus ungemein kreativem Schlagzeugspiel von Chris Cutler, der bekannterweise auch verschiedenste Effekte, wie z.B. präparierte Tonbänder einsetzt, und aus songdienlich eingesetzter Gitarre, Keyboards und Geige des Multiinstrumentalisten Fred Frith, der gelegentlich auch zum schrägen Gitarrensolo ansetzt. Nur selten bricht hier offene Aggression aus, wie beispielsweise auf "Rats&Monkeys".
Inspiriert durch die Skulpturen der Kathedrale von Amiens, vermittelt "Winter Songs" mit der schön-bizarren Gnadenlosigkeit etwas von der Atmosphäre des Mittelalters, allerdings anders als man es vielleicht gewohnt ist. Allen Henry Cow/Canterbury-Sympathisanten zu empfehlen, Gentle Giant-Jünger dürfen auch mal ruhig reinhören.“
[Siggy Zielinski / Babyblaue Seiten]
“New digipak version; originally released 1978. "The Art Bears' second album consists of twelve songs of various tensions: rest vs. speed, improv vs. pulse, space vs. density, Dagmar Kraus' vocals vs. everyone else. As usual, Chris Cutler's lyrics tell political allegories through medieval-tinged stories: slaves, castles, and wheels of fortune (and industry) dominate. Fred Frith explores discordance through his guitar, and European folk figures through his always enjoyable violin. Though not as confrontational as their other work, the centerpiece has to be the frantic 'Rats and Monkeys' with three minutes of teeth-gritting, out-of-control insanity as all three players are plugged into a wall outlet and let rip." [label info]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| ARTEFACTUM |
Sub Rosa (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
"Drone Records is very proud to present the first vinyl-release of the enchanting ARTEFACTUM project from Poland! Described by herself as "Female Esoterica", SUB ROSA opens a vast space filled with tons of different sounds coming from very far away, as nebulous melodies, whispers & voices & choirs, little clicks & cracks, with soft percussive structures appearing on Side B. The two pieces named ROSA ALBA and ROSA RUBEA (white & red rose) have a strong metaphorical alchemistic background, meaning the end point of all alchemistic transmuations. The overall release including the beautiful artwork gives the impression of an almost fabulous acoustic phantasy, so refined & almost caressing yet secretful at the same time. A record filled with "sonic magic" !
Filed under: Alchemistic Drones / more info: www.myspace.com/artefactum
PINK VINYL. SPECIAL HANDMADE COVERS USING DECOUPAGE TECHNIQUE; COVERS CLOSED WITH A PINK BOWED RIBBON" [label info]
www.dronerecords.de
"...ARTEFACTUM ist eine One-Woman-Show aus Polen. Seit 2001 tritt MERISSA D'ERLETTE in der Regel unter ihrem Projektnamen auf und war in diesen sieben Jahren, bei genauerer Betrachtung, äußerst umtriebig. Sie veröffentlichte eigene Werke auf OLD EUROPA CAFE und BEAST OF PREY, war beteiligt am "Père Lachaise"-Sampler (STEINKLANG und DIVINE COMEDY RECORDS) und an "...Where Tattered Clouds Are Stranding" (THE EASTERN FRONT, Besprechung hier). Außerdem unterstützt sie ihre Landsleuten von HOROLOGIUM und hat bereits diverses Split-Material veröffentlicht, unter anderem mit MOAN und DESIDERII MARGINIS.
Das Interesse von ARTEFACTUM gilt alchemistischen Formeln und Erkenntnissen, die musikalische Umsetzung geht als solider Dark Ambient durch. Besonders gelungen sind einige überraschende Ausnahmen, wie "The Night Waltz In Vienna", einem Beitrag zur Geburtstags-Box von OLD EUROPA CAFE: Hier dominieren weiblicher Gesang und Geige, klanglich in den ersten Jahrzehnten des vergangenen Jahrhunderts angesiedelt.
Als 'Alchemistic Drones' wird die aktuelle Single vom Label einsortiert; Dark Ambient zwar, aber gleichfalls mit Überraschungen und deshalb sehr erfrischend. Die beiden Songs sind zwei alchemistischen Umwandlungsprozessen gewidmet: Die 'Weiße Rose' ("Rosa Alba") beschreibt den Übergang von Materie in reines Silber, die 'Rote Rose' ("Rosa Rubea") in reines Gold. Neben der typischen Atmosphäre von hohen, leeren und unheimlichen Räumen wartet der 'silberne' Track mit einer Reihe von sakralen Elementen auf. Mal wispert ein elektronischer Mönchschor, mal – kurz vor dem Ende der Verwandlung – scheinen sich Engel zu Wort zu melden. Ein Schimmern umgibt das Stück, das wie die hörbar gemachte Schwingung von Steinen, Kristallen oder anderem alchemistischen Handwerkszeug wirkt. Die 'goldene' B-Seite ist aufgeladen mit Energie: Lichtstrahlen treffen aufeinander, Geisterwesen einer Science-Fiction-Stadt halten eine Versammlung ab. Aus dem Gedankengewirr schält sich am Ende ein repetitiver Trommelrhythmus, der natürlich den rituellen Eindruck noch verstärkt.
Sehr angenehm zu hören, dass Dark Ambient nicht immer nur düstere Trostlosigkeit mit viel Hall sein muss. Wer sich für ein paar Minuten auf einen Flirt mit der Alchemie einlässt, kann in zwei Momentaufnahmen von Beschwörungsritualen versinken. Die gestanzten Herzchen auf dem Cover fallen auch wirklich kaum auf." [Michael We. / NonPop]
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Foxglove & Bluebells |
CD |
"Lie down on the soft summer grass, deep in the woods just before twilight, and perhaps you will be lucky enough to encounter some good-natured tiny beings of pleasing appearance.
Under their spell you may want to fall asleep, but you may also want to... dance!
Being one of the very few representatives of what might be labelled as feminine ambient music, Artefactum remains the embodiment of unique characteristics: deep and warm ambient intertwined with sounds of nature, ritual bells, remote drumming and sensual vocals?
in the case of Artefactum you simply can’t mistake the music for any other artist’s work.
Merissa d’Erlette’s new opus “Foxgloves & Bluebells” has at last taken its final shape after five long years since the release of “Rosarium Hermeticum” ? her last full-length album. The music is richer and more varied than anything else she has ever made ? while still within the borders of ambient, the release contains at the same time a collection of beautiful songs inspired by old poetry and mysterious folklore. With wonderful guest appearances from neo-medieval THE SOIL BLEEDS BLACK, British folk singer ANDREW KING (Duo Noir / Sol Invictus) and neo-classical DAWN & DUSK ENTWINED, “Foxgloves & Bluebells” is a must-have release for anyone into esoteric post-industrial music. Released in collaboration by by Old Europa Cafe and Ur Muzik as a 6 pannel digipack and limited to only 300 copies." [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| ARTHUUR EN ENNO |
Made in Hilversum |
mCD-R |
Dritte Veröffentlichung von diesem Projekt von ex- MØHR und ENNO VAN DEN GRAAF, die sich selbst gerne auch als "droning future jazz duo" bezeichen. Wir meinen: Seltsame Klänge aus der (mindestens) 5.ten Dimension, wobei sie eine ordentliche Menge an Radio-Quellensounds verwursten. Betörend & Berauschend!
Kommt in dünner DVD-Box mit handgemachter Artwork.
www.arthuur.de
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE (AMT) |
Boto [Encantado] |
LP |
"ini.itu is releasing a new vinyl LP, composed by Artificial Memory Trace. Artificial Memory Trace is the long standing musical project of Slavek Kwi, who was born in Czechoslovakia, lived for 14 years in Belgium, and since 2000 has been based in Ireland. Slavek has been
making music for more than 20 years under the label Artificial Memory Trace. His works are precise combinations of restructured (mostly) environmental sounds, where the notions of perception, sensation, cognition, and ultimately reality are questioned, notably through the use of musique concrète techniques
and graphics scores, sometimes combined with elements of performance. He has collaborated with many other musicians, working on the articulation of industrial music, field recordings and musique concrète, among them PBK, Brume, Eric La Casa, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe. Since 2007 Slavek has assisted Francisco López in his Mamori workshops in the Amazonian forest, which is where some of the
source material present on this LP originates. Coupled with being a sound artist and composer, Slavek Kwi also facilitates workshops for autistic children, based on sound experiencing.
What Artificial Memory Trace proposes here is 2 sides of “decomposed and recomposed” landscapes and details, mostly centred around the Boto ( Inia geoffrensis geoffrensis ) also known as Amazon River Dolphin or Pink Dolphin. Just as the Boto is rumoured to undergo human-like transformations, most of this record is about transformation: sounds are isolated, cut, scaled up or down, modified and finally reassembled in a delicate and quite peaceful
collage. Slowly twirling around its object, time is taken to examine and explore the environment, including all other sound sources, creating a cubist perspective which is thoroughly unfolded. At times enigmatic, intimate and pastoral, it is a work that will slowly reveal its nuances. For those who need to know, the liner notes include extensive descriptions of the source sounds and a short essay on metamorphic animals." [label info]
www.iniitu.net
"On the backside of this LP you can read: 'you have the choice to consult or not some extra information on the insert. This information would influence they way you are experiencing the sounds. No comprehension whatsoever is required to access this work'. Which is actually something I like. You can choose to take in the information, or not. The information on the insert is printed in mirrored writing, so I am sure if its not really necessary to read it anyway. For the reviewer there is of course a small summary on the press text, and I learn that the sound sources are from the Boto, the Amazon River Dolphin or Pink Dolphin (making it one of the first records on ini.itu to move away from the Indonesian context that the previous records have). This record is another fascinating look in the world of Slawek Kwi, the man behind Artificial Memory Trace. Much of his work sounds like a collage of sounds, long moves and some abrupt changes. None of that on this record. The sounds are just in
long moves, and it seems a bit silent - of course that is intentional. I have no idea how the Boto sounds in the natural environment, nor any clue of the kind of processing applied by Kwi here, and oddly enough the music here sounds like insects, cicadas, chirping at night. A very meditative work, ambient if you will, slowly moving around, revealing some of its beauty only if you turn up the volume a bit more. Maybe also a strange record, for both Artificial Memory Trace and maybe also for the label. In a way I am reminded of the excellent record by Francisco Lopez for the same label. Quite mysterious, but a very good one. One of things were you keep wondering." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Paradox of Paradox / Interception I |
do-CDR |
"Over the course of more than two decades, Slavek Kwi aka Artificial Memory Trace has developed a body of work that encompasses live performance, sound installations, music and sound workshops with autistic children, and of course a large number of recordings published by small labels around the globe. This double CD in Attenuation Circuit’s Reissues series makes available again two albums originally published in 2004 that are characteristic for Artificial Memory Trace’s style of electroacoustic music that is characterised by a very elegant use of field recordings.
As the project name says, Artificial Memory Trace is always conscious of the fact that field recordings from nature are never natural in themselves, but become artificial in the very process of recording. Thus, even the toads that can be heard on “Paradox of Paradox” are not simply left to speak for themselves or “nature” per se, as in many pieces of “acoustic ecology” recordings. Instead, the recordings are subtly arranged to make an abstract compositional statement. Other sound sources include Christmas carols, a dysfunctional piano, and, on “Interception”, a dialogue of whistles between Kwi and an autistic child. One theme of both albums then seems to be an investigation into the ways that communities of different species, from amphibians to humans, make sense of their condition through sound. Philosophical considerations apart, the musical attractiveness of these works is based on the treatment of the field recordings which always retain just enough crispness to be recognisable as ambient noises, keeping the listener’s ears pricked up trying to find out their possible origins, while at the same time constantly being on the verge of vanishing into singing oceans of frequencies at times reminiscent of the later phases of Alvin Lucier’s “I am sitting in a room”." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"Planktone Unlimited Editions was the label by Slawek Kwi, better known as Artificial Memory Trace. I must admit I didn't know this, so I have no idea why he is no longer working as such. Two of the works released on that label find now their way on a double CDR by Germany's Attenuation Circuit. Like much of his work, if not all, here too we have field recordings at the very foundation of the compositions. Compositions, because its Kwi's idea to use field recordings, alter them a little bit, and put them together, and not present them as pure phenomena of sound. Its music that one doesn't take too easily. There are lots of moments when sound drops to a low volume and for some time stays there, with just the sound of chirping insects. But then it cuts with a loud sound/event into something new and then a whole new world opens up. Its not easy to say what kind of techniques are used, but my best guess would be that its simply the result of layering various sound events together and then find the right compositional balance with these sounds, through editing, cutting and fading. Throughout, the music of Artificial Memory Trace isn't very loud so one has to keep full attention to this. Which makes these two discs, one that lasts seventy-six minutes and one that lasts fifty-eight, not something one would digest in one go easily, unless you either fully concentrate or 'use' it as ambient music: let it come as it comes. Either way of perceiving this music I think is pretty valid. It contains lots of beauty, poetic beauty actually, like the some what cryptic notes on the cover. Long in duration, massive in beauty." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Attracted by Light (Collection 7) |
CD |
"Track 1: Originally the 4-channel composition was constructed from sounds of crustaceans, mollusks and soniferous fish (rec. underwater in Tasmania, Australia 2011), army ants attacking recording device and walking inside machine, termites and ants recorded with contact-microphone from inside tree-nests, inside nest of stingless bees (rec. Xixuau Xiparina and Mamori, Amazon, Brazil 2008-2009; inside ant-nest rec. with Francisco Lopez and inside bee-nest by Chris Fleeger and Kwi), inside of bee-hive (rec. with Vlastislav Matousek, 1994 in Novy Bydzov, Czechie), wind in chimney, fire and ice (rec. 2003-2008, Ivy Cottage, Ireland) and New Year 2008 fireworks (UK). Dedicated to Vlastislav Matousek and his beloved shakuhachi.
Track 2: Based on underwater recordings from Mamori and Yuma 2007–2011: subaquatic insect (recorded in ultrasonic range, some detected only in ultrasonic spectrum), fresh-water crustaceans (probably Decapods, crackly sounds) and electric field of Gymnotiform fish (the tonal-like sounds reminiscent of electronic sine and square waves), includes also sounds of water-pump, propellers, boat-engines and dolphins "tucuxi" (Sotalia fluviatilis).
Track 3: Based on ultrasonic echolocation and social calls of various micro-bats and insects recorded in Mamori, 2007–2011.
All sounds in Track 2+3 (and partially in Track 1) were recorded during Mamori Sound Project of Mamori ArtLab in Amazon, Brazil by Slavek Kwi. Special thanks to Francisco Lopez and Asier Gogortza for kind support." [label info]
www.semperflorens.net
"The year ended with Artificial Memory Trace and it starts with it, now on a CD release from Russia's Semper Florens. Three pieces of quite varying lengths, six, twenty and forty seven minutes, and all deal with field recordings, like almost all of Slavek Kwi's work. Much of this was recorded during the Mamori Soind Project in the Amazon, Brazil but also, in the title piece, from Tasmania and Czech Republic and even fireworks from the UK. The music from Kwi may be based on field recordings, it's never a purely, untreated piece of sound. Artificial Memory Trace uses his recordings as bricks to build a place, palace perhaps, of sound. Sometimes he treats these sounds, by fiddling around with the EQ and gets out more bass or more high end, whatever is required, and collages these chuncks together into a fine piece of musique concrete. It's quite minimal music at that. You can listen for a few or more minutes to chirping insect sounds, bees, waters, ants or what have you, but then slowly
something else is added to this biotope and without chnaging the scenery too much these two co-exist and the other may take over. You could hear in all of this the survival of the fittest perhaps, but I rather take a more positive view and would rather think of this as a journey. A journey which takes you as easily from the amazonian rain forest in summer time to the new year's eve fireworks in the UK, only to find yourself, within minutes, to be diving to the world of crustaceans, mollusks and soniferous fish in Tasmania - while along you may still hear a bit of that rain forest, which you will find on the map totally somewhere else. That's what this music does: create artificial journeys to various places at the same time. There is hardly human interference here, except for the role of the composer himself, who creates this journey. It's the natural world at the same time. In the shortest piece here, 'Pegamorsego', even in a fine musical fashion of glissandi from insects and bats, made audible in nicely gliding scales. A long journey, at some seventy-five minutes, but a most rewarding one. Excellent!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| ASIA NOVA [=ASIANOVA] |
Magnamnemonicon (SOLD OUT) |
10inch |
Die Nr. 2 in der neuen 10“-Reihe SUBSTANTIA INNOMINATA von Drone Records zum Thema „das Unbekannte“ ist von ASIA NOVA, dem US-Duo aus San Francisco mit URE THRALL: Experimentelle, dunkle ethno-ambience mit Frauengesang. Abgründig und ätherisch, gepresst auf pinkem / rot-weiss marmoriertem Vinyl !
“Info about this release SUB-02: ASIA NOVA is a project of Californian artist URE THRALL [ex VOICE OF EYE, etc.] and PAMELA PASSMORE with guest musicians. Paul Valsecchi and Marlon Porter "Magnamnemonicon" contains 6 parts of music spread on 2 sides, more
than 30 minutes of material: The mind as an abyss of supressed memories. Voices & sounds arise from the own dark continent, materializing in strong emotions of loss & yearning for the un-reachable. The Unknown as an eerie entity in our selves? Artwork by Gregor Schultz. Red-white / pink marmorized vinyl in a first edition of 500 copies. 33 rpm.
General info about this new series: „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.” [press release]
www.substantia-innominata.de |
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| ASTRID & RACHEL GRIMES |
Through the Sparkle |
LP |
"Through the Sparkle is a collaboration between French ensemble astrïd and American pianist and composer Rachel Grimes.
Rachel Grimes is best known for her chamber music project Rachel’s, a hugely influential group formed in 1991 in Louisville, Kentucky, releasing six studio albums between 1995 and 2005. She has also released a string of contemporary classical works in recent years on labels such as Temporary Residence. astrïd is a collective of four musicians based in Nantes, releasing records on Rune Grammofon and Home Normal.
After years of mail and email back and forth over the ocean, from Nantes to Kentucky, astrïd invited Rachel to come for a residency to make music together and play shows in France. They gathered for a few days, here and there, in 2012 and 2013 to write songs in Cyril and Vanina's home studio in the countryside.
The compositions found on Through the Sparkle glow with a unique, connected energy and a pure, instinctive musical understanding. Considered contributions from all sides allow the pieces to unfurl naturally. Each note and phrase feels like it simply couldn’t be placed anywhere else in the album.
Charming, gentle and cinematic sounds are found here in abundance. Melodies circle and reveal themselves without force, allowing the listener to focus and explore the depths of what is on offer. Musically, Through the Sparkle is an expansive and evocative album. There is a presence to be felt throughout, from Cyril Secq’s emotive tremelo’d guitars of M5 to the darker, more haunting mood of The Theme, to the tension in Mossgrove & Seaweed. Strings and woodwind coalesce around intricate piano and guitar movements creating a wealth of harmony and melancholy.
Through the Sparkle is a record of miniature symphonies, of elegant restraint. A gracious and generous offering from a group of musicians at one with each other and at the top of their game."
www.gizehrecords.com
https://gizehrecords.bandcamp.com/album/through-the-sparkle
"Man, that’s devastating! If the reverb-drenched guitar on this record’s second track doesn’t move you to tremble with tears, then the soaring strings on “M1” surely will.
Pianist/composer Rachel Grimes follows up her best-of-2015 The Clearing solo outing with the magnificent Through The Sparkle, a seven-song collaboration with the French chamber ensemble Astrïd, out today digitally, on CD and on vinyl through U.K.-based Gizeh Records. This thing’s gotta be heard to be believed.
Striking, again, with some of her finest work, Grimes’ piano flashes more contemporary flourishes than the heart-wrenching Romanticism of her landmark years with Rachel’s, everyone’s favorite post-classical ensemble. While there are still gentle, lulling notes – I’m looking to the album-closing “Le Petit Salon” and, again, the epic “M1” – Grimes’ metronomic figures on “The Herald en Masse” and “Mossgrove & Seaweed” positively pulsate with life, lending a record laced with restraint loads of emotional force.
This says nothing of Astrïd multi-instrumentalist Vanina Andreani, whose violin wraps its fingers around Grimes’ ephemeral melodies in much the way Christian Frederickson’s viola did in Rachel’s. Guillaume Wickel is brilliant on bass clarinet, drummer/percussionist Yvan Ros does a fine job anchoring the melancholy, and didn’t I already mention the eerie repercussions of Cyril Secq’s guitar? This ensemble, featuring Grimes, seems to have a beautiful way of making even the most composed moment seem instinctive, lending a gentle humanity to the proceedings.
There are less “classical” and more “post-classical” moments on the record, too, like the haunted “The Theme,” which starts with an emotive bass clarinet figure and kalimba, and expands, more often through the space between notes than the notes themselves, with an electric guitar right out of Hotel2Tango in Montreal. Or there’s “Hollis,” which punctuates Grimes’ refrains with more kalimba, subtle bass, and a shuffling, jazzy backbeat before descending into a field of mathy beeps that could be summoned from piano and, maybe, a Fender Rhodes.
The whole record is breathtaking gossamer – definite year-end-list material." [Justin Vellucci/Popdose]
|
2017 |
€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 |
The Flower and the Vessel |
do-LP |
French poet and ASMR auteur Félicia Atkinson has frequently fixated on the elusive interwoven relationship between microcosms and macrocosms – how even the quietest creative act ripples outward in unforeseen ways, a whisper with no fixed meaning. Her latest work pursues this notion in a more literal and lasting fashion, as it was crafted while pregnant on tour, in impersonal hotel rooms in foreign cities. She describes it as “a record not about being pregnant but a record made with pregnancy.” Each day and night, finding herself far from home, she asked herself “What am I doing here? How can I connect myself to the world?” The answer gradually revealed itself: “With small gestures: recording my voice, recording birds, a simple melody.”
In truth there is nothing simple about The Flower & The Vessel. The album’s 11 songs span a vast pantheon of whispering textures, opaque moods, and surreal spoken word, leading the listener through a mirrored hall of beguiling mirages. Atkinson cites a trio of French classical compositions from her childhood as formative influences on this particular collection: Maurice Ravel’s “L’enfant et les sortilèges” (“a scary opera for kids”), Debussy’s “La Mer” (for its union of narration and music) and Erik Satie’s “Gymnopédies” (as an exercise in negative space, irony without cynicism, and “melody with doubt”). There’s certainly a shade of classicism woven within these tracks, however veiled, abstracted, or unorthodox. Melancholic piano motifs repeat then retreat into a radiant frost of shivering frequencies; processed voices recite cut-up poems and interviews over delay-refracted Rhodes and Wurlitzer; iPad gamelan patterns flutter from meditative to melancholic and back again, offset by pointillist patches of delicate software synesthesia.
Although much of Atkinson’s past discography is shaped by speech and the lyricism of language, The Flower & The Vessel ventures farther into silence, absence, and voiceless wilderness. Among her sources of inspiration were “women who wonder, dream, and create vacant spaces in their art,” as well as Ikebana flower arrangements, which reflect her own relationship with listening: “structure combined with everyday noises, selecting them to make a sparse music bouquet.” Field recordings from Tasmania and the Mojave Desert murmur beneath hushed reverberations of gong, vibraphone, marimba, softly processed into an elegant emptiness, alternately eerie and serene.
Her mode of minimalism has long been one of reduction, riddles, and curation, but here Atkinson’s synergy feels close to apotheosis, emotive but ambivalent, a ceremony of expectation and invisible forces. The 19-minute closing collaboration with SUNN O))) guitarist Stephen O’Malley, “Des Pierres,” is one of the album’s few pieces tracked in a proper studio (Music Unit in Montreuil, France) but it broods and burns with the same subliminal majesty as the rest of The Flower & The Vessel: an ember in amber, seeds planted in shifting sands. Atkinson’s voice flickers like a flame, framed by slabs of shadowy feedback. Her process may be personal is but its impact ripples to the edges of existence: “How does the act of creation connect us, not only to history, but to the cosmic? It’s a process of taking, and then giving back. It makes us belong to the world.”
The Flower and The Vessel features original artwork by Julien Carreyn, and is mastered by Rashad Becker at D+M.
https://shelterpress.bandcamp.com/album/the-flower-and-the-vessel-2
|
2019 |
€29.00 |
|
| |
The Flower and the Vessel |
CD |
French poet and ASMR auteur Félicia Atkinson has frequently fixated on the elusive interwoven relationship between microcosms and macrocosms – how even the quietest creative act ripples outward in unforeseen ways, a whisper with no fixed meaning. Her latest work pursues this notion in a more literal and lasting fashion, as it was crafted while pregnant on tour, in impersonal hotel rooms in foreign cities. She describes it as “a record not about being pregnant but a record made with pregnancy.” Each day and night, finding herself far from home, she asked herself “What am I doing here? How can I connect myself to the world?” The answer gradually revealed itself: “With small gestures: recording my voice, recording birds, a simple melody.”
In truth there is nothing simple about The Flower & The Vessel. The album’s 11 songs span a vast pantheon of whispering textures, opaque moods, and surreal spoken word, leading the listener through a mirrored hall of beguiling mirages. Atkinson cites a trio of French classical compositions from her childhood as formative influences on this particular collection: Maurice Ravel’s “L’enfant et les sortilèges” (“a scary opera for kids”), Debussy’s “La Mer” (for its union of narration and music) and Erik Satie’s “Gymnopédies” (as an exercise in negative space, irony without cynicism, and “melody with doubt”). There’s certainly a shade of classicism woven within these tracks, however veiled, abstracted, or unorthodox. Melancholic piano motifs repeat then retreat into a radiant frost of shivering frequencies; processed voices recite cut-up poems and interviews over delay-refracted Rhodes and Wurlitzer; iPad gamelan patterns flutter from meditative to melancholic and back again, offset by pointillist patches of delicate software synesthesia.
Although much of Atkinson’s past discography is shaped by speech and the lyricism of language, The Flower & The Vessel ventures farther into silence, absence, and voiceless wilderness. Among her sources of inspiration were “women who wonder, dream, and create vacant spaces in their art,” as well as Ikebana flower arrangements, which reflect her own relationship with listening: “structure combined with everyday noises, selecting them to make a sparse music bouquet.” Field recordings from Tasmania and the Mojave Desert murmur beneath hushed reverberations of gong, vibraphone, marimba, softly processed into an elegant emptiness, alternately eerie and serene.
Her mode of minimalism has long been one of reduction, riddles, and curation, but here Atkinson’s synergy feels close to apotheosis, emotive but ambivalent, a ceremony of expectation and invisible forces. The 19-minute closing collaboration with SUNN O))) guitarist Stephen O’Malley, “Des Pierres,” is one of the album’s few pieces tracked in a proper studio (Music Unit in Montreuil, France) but it broods and burns with the same subliminal majesty as the rest of The Flower & The Vessel: an ember in amber, seeds planted in shifting sands. Atkinson’s voice flickers like a flame, framed by slabs of shadowy feedback. Her process may be personal is but its impact ripples to the edges of existence: “How does the act of creation connect us, not only to history, but to the cosmic? It’s a process of taking, and then giving back. It makes us belong to the world.”
The Flower and The Vessel features original artwork by Julien Carreyn, and is mastered by Rashad Becker at D+M.
https://shelterpress.bandcamp.com/album/the-flower-and-the-vessel-2 |
2019 |
€16.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| ATOMINE ELEKTRINE |
The Antikythera Mechanism |
CD |
"A container of all the knowledge about the universe. The motion of the gears deeply intertwine a link between micro- and macrocosm. A mechanism that simulates cosmology and senses characteristics of an eclipse, with color, size and associated winds.
Define a question, and there will be a calculated answer, even capable of astral divination. Is it an all-seeing eye, or perhaps something beyond even that; a magic entity capable of creating the cosmic events that it is supposed to measure and foretell.
If so, is it by nature auspicious or ominous. Or is it merely a representation and extension of ourselves and our senses, trying to reach both the celestial and the intrinsically unobtainable.
Winter-Light warmly welcomes Peter Andersson to our label, with his 'Atomine Elektrine' project and a stunning new studio album 'The Antikythera Mechanism'.
Here we are invited or compelled even, to delve deep into the intricacies and finely tuned mechanics of this mysterious, all-encompassing machine.
Infinitely extending it's influence across multi-dimensions of time and space, constantly calculating, cogs ever turning, gears whirring, mapping, learning, storing and moving ever onwards. Leaving in it's wake, a vast ocean of unimaginable cosmic events, left to ripple through time until they too fade away to become yet another click in the eternal cycle of 'The Antikythera Mechanism'.
Difference between the CD/Digital and vinyl version
'The Antikythera Mechanism' has a small degree of randomness built-in to the sounds which means that the output of each rendering becomes slightly different. The tracks on the vinyl are of a different rendering than the tracks for the CD/Digital version. This is a natural glitch in 'The Antikythera Mechanism' and it is more or less noticeable.
The sounds are the same but the positions in the sounds are time offset in an arbitrary mode. Any further inequalities are due to the fact that a different mastering technique has been utilised for the vinyl version, than for the CD/Digital version.
As well as there being a different final rendering for the vinyl version, the DLP also comes with an additional and exclusive track, which clocks in at 19:52."
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/the-antikythera-mechanism
"This mechanism Peter Andersson is referring to in the title of the new Atomine Elektrine offering is considered as the first analogue computer. The device was constructed by the ancient Greeks to predict future astronomical occurrences and phenomenas. Even this day it’s an object of scientific researches and studies as its technological sophistication is still unexplained for XXI century scientists and scholars. One of the greatest enigmas in the history of mankind and… what an inspiring theme for a dark ambient artist to explore through music.
It’s not a secret that Peter is a truly versatile musician within the electronic underground, always efficient, no matter if he seeks more noisy approach or more atmospheric one. Atomine Elektrine was born of his fascination of science and instead of wandering through lost cathedrals and desolate wastelands we explore the secrets of space and quantum physics. Clearly, it’s not just the words in the titles and press releases, but the music is unlike his other projects as well. For 25 years the foundation of Atomine Elektrine sound was the use of analogue synthetisers, the old-school instruments cherished by the German masters from the 70s. His music was constantly developing over the years, in all projects, apart from Atomine Elektrine also Raison d’etre, Necrophorus, Bocksholm and several others. Often the inspirations were morphing one through another (for example Necrophorus’ “Imprints” has a one hundred percent Atomine Elektrine vibe), but in general high quality is practically always guaranteed.
I have to admit that while my favourite Peter’s “non-raison” release is “Drifting In Motion” by Necrophorus, it is Atomine Elektrine I value the most as a whole. Maybe not exactly the very first albums, like “Elemental Severance” where it was Jean Michel Jarre a godfather rather than Klaus Schulze, but “Nebulous” or “Laniakea” are very frequent guests in my CD player, up to this day.
Can’t declare today that “The Antikythera Mechanism” will also regain its place in my personal pantheon of all Peter’s releases as it is quite crowdy over there, but yes, it is good, it is goddamn good! The opening dark space of “Arcturus Alpha Boo” made me think of the cosmic vacuums generated by some of the Loki Foundation maestros as the deep rumblings and the feeling of an infinite expanse made me feel small and irrelevant. It calms down after a few minutes and brings a mystery of a titular mechanism to the forefront. From the universe entirety to this tiny device that can capture its secret.
I’m in love with “Metonic Spiral”. You know why? Because it’s like taken straight from “Drifting In Motion”, those delicate synth passages combined with weird bubbling and swirling sounds recall the atmosphere of that masterpiece. Yet while that one had this overwhelming aura of sadness and solitude, in “Metonic Spiral” I hear… a hope that the wonder of what hides behind the ionosphere can be comprehended by the human mind. That feeling is intensified by the second half of the track where these slow melodies and analogue sequences take it one step closer to the old-school German electronica.
In the following track, “The Exeligmos Pointer” all these rhythmic pulsations may recall a working mechanism, while the majestic background textures compliment the structure as a subject of that work. They’re huge and beautiful, they can be compared to the sun/moon eclipse, watched by you, predicted by the device. Subtly disturbing “Time Dislocated By The Mechanism” is. It may sound bizarre, but this piece have something in common with what Penjaga Insaf did on their “Sama Sadja”. While conceptually both projects couldn’t be more distant one from another.
The organic aura of “Epicylic Gearing” is represented by these cyclic sequences, coming and going, pulsating like a bloodflow, later that bass rumblings appears, like a heartbeat. And that simple repeated melody, combined with the mentioned elements develop a tremendous track, which brings another name to my mind. Predominance. Remember that one? Yes, as you can see, that Loki reference few paragraphs ago wasn’t accidental.
Such albums like “The Antikythera Mechanism” deserve an epic ending, yet one must have in mind that Peter Andersson doesn’t really like to finish his albums with a bang. “Fragment F” is not a praise of a human mind, the awe of its endless powers and capabilities. No, it’s a cosmic space, quiet, soulless, without beginning nor end.It’s like the blackest shade of black, it’s probably Peter’s most oppressive finale since “The Eternal Return And The Infinity Horizon”.
And probably one of his best works, at least within the last couple of years. This reference may sound funny, but he’s like Stephen King of dark ambient and I know that a lot of folks grumble that “it’s not the same, his older novels were classic and now he’s just reaping the benefits of his older efforts.” Not true, “The Outsider” or “Sleeping Beauties” are as good as the novels from his so-called “golden era”. Same goes with Peter Andersson, I heard more than once that what he does now is not the same as 20-25 years ago. Wrong. Don’t let nostalgia speak for you. He’s still in a very good shape and the astounding sound of “The Antikythera Mechanism” is its brightest, or rather darkest example." [Santa Sangre]
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| AUME (SCOT JENERIK & ALEPH OMEGA) |
CQ CQ |
USB-stick / wood-box |
AUME’s first album Agere Urendum Mentis Epode was described as “the soundtrack playing in my head while I’m falling through a wormhole on my way to creation… to rebirth…” Their second full release, Elemental, extended the wormhole to the visual realm through non-representational film and surround sound. Their new release CQ CQ continues to explore the abstract non-representational aural/visual realm through the use of headphones. Though the album sounds great on speakers, the immersive environment created from deep listening in headphones once again sends the listener through a visual wormhole.
CQ CQ refers to the shortwave radio abbreviation for “calling any station”. This theme came about from a disillusionment created by the overwhelming amount of information being transmitted. That any individual voice falls on deaf ears in the midst of a maelstrom. That one is never more isolated than when everyone is talking at the same time. CQ CQ is full of vocal transmissions, most of which are indecipherable. They are failed attempts at communication. Those voices that are understood depict unintended mutations that lead to the disintegration of communication. Despite this, humans have the ability to adapt and resonate in the physical world. To transform isolation into a breath of silence.
USB Flash Drive + Digital Album
Handcrafted Box with USB and scroll. 24bit album, 16bit album, Transmission video, Transmission video Mix audio, and more.
Listening Instructions
1 - Substance of choice (optional)
2 - Put on headphones
3 - Turn out the lights
4 - Lay down
5 - Hit play
6 - Enter the wormhole
7 - Regain consciousness
8 - Repeat
Transmission video: youtu.be/7F5mFP9C65w
Featured in the 2018 International Drone Cinema Festival
produced and curated by Kim Cascone of Silent Records
silentrecords.bandcamp.com
Cover image: Radio transmitter of Che Guevara
Photographed at the Museum of the Revolution, Cuba
https://aume.bandcamp.com
|
2018 |
€30.00 |
|
| |
CQ CQ |
CD |
AUME’s first album Agere Urendum Mentis Epode was described as “the soundtrack playing in my head while I’m falling through a wormhole on my way to creation… to rebirth…” Their second full release, Elemental, extended the wormhole to the visual realm through non-representational film and surround sound. Their new release CQ CQ continues to explore the abstract non-representational aural/visual realm through the use of headphones. Though the album sounds great on speakers, the immersive environment created from deep listening in headphones once again sends the listener through a visual wormhole.
CQ CQ refers to the shortwave radio abbreviation for “calling any station”. This theme came about from a disillusionment created by the overwhelming amount of information being transmitted. That any individual voice falls on deaf ears in the midst of a maelstrom. That one is never more isolated than when everyone is talking at the same time. CQ CQ is full of vocal transmissions, most of which are indecipherable. They are failed attempts at communication. Those voices that are understood depict unintended mutations that lead to the disintegration of communication. Despite this, humans have the ability to adapt and resonate in the physical world. To transform isolation into a breath of silence.
https://aume.bandcamp.com
|
2018 |
€14.00 |
|
| AUN |
Full Circle |
10inch |
"Der EP-Nachfolger zum AUN Meisterwerk "Phantom Ghost" aus dem Jahr 2011. Der Titel und die Songtitel dieser Drei-Track-EP geben einige Hinweise darauf, in welcher Geistesverfassung die Band die Aufnahmen gemacht hat und welche Einflüsse die Schöpfer ihr Eigen nennen. Wie Fans jetzt bereits von der Band erwarten ist ,Full Circle" wieder ein ganz andersartiges Soundabenteuer, das aber immer noch eindeutig den AUN Stempel trägt. Auf der A-Seite findet sich das passend betitelte ,Return To Jupiter Jazz", ein Dumais Solostück, während die B-Seite mehr ein Gemeinschaftsprojekt ist - mit langsamen, melancholischen Gitarren und dem Keyboard von ,Floodland" und dem ersten Track, bei dem sich AUN zusammen mit Frederic Arbour an Synthies und Gitarre als Trio zeigt. ,Family Man" wartet auch mit Gitarrenarbeit des Familienfreundes Eric Quach von THISQUIETARMY auf. Im dicken Sleeve mit Downloadcode, limitiert auf 500 Stück." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| AUTECHRE |
Peel Session |
maxi-CD |
"As with most red-blooded facsimiles of human life, it's hard to fathom Autechre music being released on Trent Reznor's Nothing label. Even Cleopatra could conceivably be better. And it's not like it's even a penny cheaper than the Warp version. But I suppose the possibility exists that Trent himself laced up one of his leather boots while stepping on your copy of this release, so line up and take your chances. It will never taste the same again. This Peel Session features 3 previously unreleased tracks -- 25 minutes of music. Originally recorded on 10/13/95 on John Peel's UK Radio 1 show. Track list: "milk dx"/"inhake"/"drane"." [label info]
|
1999 |
€12.00 |
|
| AXEBREAKER |
Brutality in Stone |
CD |
"Brutality in Stone is a record that rages from beginning to end and uses aggression to create questions and form answers as to why the world is currently standing on a knife’s edge." - Scene Point Blank
"Brutality in Stone is a dark and foreboding record that takes plenty of surprising turns. Listeners who enjoy being decimated by noise, take note. Listeners who own MAGA hats, good luck surviving." - Svbterranean
"The album name refers to the 11-minute documentary film by Alexander Kluge & Peter Schamoni of the same name, a film that parallels the design and scale of Nazi architecture with national socialist ideology. Axebreaker’s political bent is overt, clearly critical of power electronics, a subgenre that historically can be almost hilariously apolitical about atrocities like genocide, sexual violence, and race-based lynchings." - Ears to Feed
https://axebreakerpowerelectronics.bandcamp.com/album/brutality-in-stone
|
2019 |
€10.00 |
|
| BABYLONE CHAOS |
Les machines ecarlates |
CD |
The project of BOTCHAN KARISEN (Belgium) with a new work, a deep tour de force into a electronic / technological chaos-music, with influences from Industrial, Collage-Sounds and even Electro-Acoustic, dark & ecstatic & dangerous !
"A man with a fish eye stared at me when I satisfied my computer with this CD. The artwork on this release is awesome, something which is thoughtful to do when you release your CD in a DVD case. On the front of “les machines ecarlates” stands a man pierced through his forehead with a huge piece of piping. On the back a man with a fish eye gives me a look, which keeps me away from the track listing underneath it. I must say, it pleases me to receive such artwork, I could write a good review about the artwork alone.
Babylone Chaos is new to me, not only as an artist, but the music is very new to me too. Listening to the first track “Dissect me” I got very enthusiastic. This artist knows how to frighten someone with sounds. Electronic heavy sounds flow back and forth while strange ‘ahhh’s and ‘oohh’s can be heard. A shivering breath, winds and strange electronic drums complete the picture. Shocked awake by a heavy pound on a barrel and a cracking door. Where am I at this point? The gruesome sounds I heard before are overtaken by heavenly sounds, birds and some vocals. But it was a short victory, the dark sounds kick in again and the beat starts to get back at me. I am stunned, this is not music, this is straight on sound-engineering! The second track “Scared datas” goes like the first track, but gets more of a triphop sound. Dark triphop, that could become a trend. Count me in for that genre, because what Babylone Chaos is doing here is new, refreshing and awesome. The third track “Blood on thorns” gets a lot noisier than the previous tracks and is suddenly petrifying when circus music starts. (I always had something against the circus and clowns, don’t ask why.)
Listening to the CD I found that Babylone Chaos can be compared, in a strange way, with Aphex Twin. You can hear beats, but they never last longer than a few measures. That is one of the reasons why this CD sounds so great. Babylone Chaos doesn’t care about being tagged with a genre; the artist just does what he wants. The CD isn’t one you listen to on a regular occasion. Listening to “les machines exerlates” is a trip. A trip to the beautiful, the ugly, the frightening the heaven and the hell. As I continued my exploration, I found even more interesting material. The piano pieces in the fifth track “Death crusade” are so strange. It doesn’t fit with the music, but in some way it jet [i]does[/i] fit. The tender background sounds are divided and shattered to pieces by deep noisy scrapes, pounds and scratches. This is music which can be compared with using acid. But please dear reader; don’t use it at the same time!
The tracks go well into each other, although that isn’t hard with such experimental music. Track eight, “Paranoiac morons”, made me think of a scene in the Kubrick movie “Full metal jacket”, where Joker tries to find the sniper who turns out to be a woman. I’ve always found that scene and especially, the music, incredible. But I think “Paranoiac morons” would be even better as a soundtrack to that scene.
As an overall thought I must say that this release surprised me muchly. The packaging is awesome, although I can’t stand it when a CD doesn’t fit between the regular jewel cases and digipacks. The music is refreshing and “les machines ecarlates” is more like a piece of art then a CD filled with songs. “Les machines ecarlates” brings you to the verge of your life, a leap of faith, a trip to hell and back and leaves the unprepared to wonder. This isn’t my regular “sing along in the shower” CD, this is something I admire, treasure for the special moments and certainly use in tiny portions. All those experimental fans out there, beware! “Les machines ecarlates” gives you the journey of a lifetime." [Heathen Harvest]
label-website: www.opn.fr
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| BAD ALCHEMY |
No. 74 (August 2012) |
mag |
"HAFENSOMMER WÜRZBURG: ELLIOTT SHARP - 17 HIPPIES - STIAN WESTERHUS - NILS PETTER MOLVÆR - SUPERSILENT FEAT. JOHN PAUL JONES - ARNOTTODROM - GABBY YOUNG & OTHER ANIMALS; spezielles Österreich-Feature: INTERSTELLAR - DILEMMA - ZACH - GOD (BLESS THIS MESS)... ; OPEN CAGE: VOICES & ORGAN; DIE WELT IST DRÖHN: Gedröhn für die einsame Insel; Neues von BORING MACHINES - DISCORPORATE - MOONJUNE - PNL - RER MEGACORP - TZADIK - UTECH - CUNEIFORM - INSUBORDINATIONS - INTAKT - JAZZWERKSTATT - LEO - LIBRA - das DVD-Label PANREC - PFMENTUM - RUNE GRAMMOFON - ALREALON MUSIQUE - ATTENUATION CIRCUIT - SPECTRUM SPOOLS - STUDENTS OF DECAY - TOUCH - D'AUTRES CORDES - EMPREINTES DIGITALES - KENDRA STEINER EDITIONS - MONOTYPE - BÔŁT - TESTCARD..."
www.badalchemy.de
|
2012 |
€3.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| BAILEY, THOMAS BEY WILLIAM |
La Production Interdite |
MC |
Thomas Bey William Bailey is a researcher and author of several books (e.g. "To Hear The World With New Eyes," "Micro Bionic") as well as a dedicated sound artist: in whatever medium he chooses, he focuses upon the extremes of information in order to determine both their liberating potential and their hidden dangers. Over a period of time that has seen him collaborating with the sonic arts communities of Japan, Central Europe and several distinct regions of the United States, he has developed an unorthodox style not beholden to any single popular or ‘avant garde’ genre: his embrace of the whole sonic spectrum has, in recent years, resulted in a high-intensity form that cohesively joins bracing noise and sidereal ephemera to seductive silences.
TBWB’s debut for Elevator Bath, "La Production Interdite," carries on a tradition of albums themed around under-reported ‘threshold’ states of consciousness. Following on the heels of the previous year’s "A Desperate Expediency" - an ‘enhanced interrogation’-themed
album on Brazil’s Seminal Records - "La Production Interdite" takes its inspiration from the phenomenon of autoscopy, i.e. the visualization of doppelgängers or phantom doubles. Split into a purely instrumental half-hour side and a vocally-enhanced side in which TBWB narrates accounts of autoscopic events, this new album oscillates between moments of narcotic consolation and moments of sharp poignancy in an attempt to present the many different emotive 'faces' of autoscopic phenomena. A full complement of analog and digital tools, including the famous Buchla modular system at Stockholm’s EMS studios, are brought into play in order to make this a thoroughly compelling listen. Ambience and anti-ambience symbolically vie for dominance throughout, in the same way as one might struggle to determine whether their ‚primary’ self or their autoscopic double is the 'real' source of their consciousness.
"La Production Interdite" is expertly mastered by Elevator Bath alumnus Alex Keller, and comes in a lush pro-printed cassette package with original collage artwork by TBWB in a limited edition of just 50 copies. A seven-page PDF text supplement is included with the download.
https://elevatorbath.bandcamp.com/album/la-production-interdite
|
2018 |
€10.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN |
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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| BALDINI / BIGAZZI / FERRI |
Alfabetiere Majakovskij ! |
BOOK + CD |
"Alfabetiere Majakovskij!" is another piece in the trans-media (and also trans-publishing) project conceived by Arlo Bigazzi and dedicated to the futurist poet. Initially conceived as a musical reading with and for the actress Chiara Cappelli - who edited the translations from Russian - it then became the double album "Majakovskij! Il futuro viene dal vecchio ma ha il respiro di un ragazzo" (Materiali Sonori), which includes a CD with the theatrical sequence in which, among others, musicians such as Blaine L. Reininger, Mirio Cosottini, Mirko Guerrini and Guido Guglielminetti took part, and one with instrumental versions of some of the pieces.
Subsequently, the book "Majakovskij! Cantata per Vladìmir Vladìmirovič" (Editrice Zona) was published, containing the text of the play, short essays on Majakovskij by authors such as Francesco Forlani, Luciano Del Sette, and Mirco Salvadori, two graphic novels drawn by Riccardo Cecchetti and Monica e Zeoli, and five poems that were not included in the play. As other pieces of this ever-changing work, eight videos published on the web and even two t-shirts and six art prints from the graphic novels were made.
With the participation of the photographer Lucia Baldini, the "Alfabetiere Majakovskij!" was created for Silentes, interweaving Bigazzi's original project with the Alfabetieri published by the photographer: real self-produced art creations for her “domestic publishing house”, In Alto Edizioni, artist's books produced in limited editions, numbered and signed.
The characteristic of these original editorial works is that each title is built on the sequence of an alphabet where each letter that composes it, is associated with a word or a short phrase that dialogues with an image that is not immediately clear. In this case, however, with Chiara Cappelli, the characters have been defined and expressed not in the succession of the Cyrillic alphabet but by creating a different sequence, matching the individual letters with whose included in the line of the poem "Ascoltate!". For this volume, the photos were taken using various Samsung smartphone models, using a modified app.
If Lucia Baldini's photographic alphabet is freely constructed on the verses of Majakovskij's poem, the music was created by deconstructing five tracks from the double CD, where - by freely intervening on Bigazzi's music - Flavio Ferri reworked and constructed new and unexpected sound paths. Given the harmony that arose during the creative process, the two went even further, creating "L'Alba del 28 Febbraio" and "Poeti Estinti". As Mirco Salvadori - who contributes to the project with an in-depth prologue - wrote, "the music that emerges is purity that contaminates and seduces at the same time. Musical passages that pass through the trajectories of the dream are impregnated with the substance that supports it and expand to infinity in a listening experience that would aim to be unlimited. They break down the barriers of what has already been heard and immerse themselves in the poetic-dreamlike matter using highly effective electro-acoustic mixtures, succeeding in bringing to life the images and phrases that our gaze tirelessly continues to observe."
|
2022 |
€25.00 |
|
| BARDOSENETICCUBE |
Noosphere |
CD |
Die Interaktions- und Energieform "IGOR POTSUKAILO (BARDOSENETICCUBE)-> KAPUTTES LAPTOP -> HOLOGRAFISCHES UNIVERSUM" manifestiert sich hier auf ungeahnte & einmalige Weise. Auf NOOSPHERE offenbart sich der "Fehler in der Maschine" in einem, in endlosen vibratohaften Wallungen und Drehungen zerfliessenden, Sphären-Drone. Der fast halluzinogene Wahrnehnmungseffekt dieses Wummerns ist absolut erstaunlich, es wird einem regelrecht schwindelig! Die Aufnahme (ein langer One-Tracker von 67 Minuten Länge) entstand in einem glücklichen Augenblick und ist nicht reproduzierbar...
"Russian project BARDOSENETICCUBE is well known in Europe and USA due to numerous releases by various labels like Blade Records, Athanor, Steinklang etc. They are always open to experiments of any kind, so each new album is different and unpredictable. This particular album deals with theory of russian scientist
Vladimir Vernadsky about collective consciousness, emerging from the interaction
of human minds. The universe is full of endless and omnipresent information fields, different in their energy/meaning potentials. Some of them are accessible for people who are using it extensively, others are intended only for machines that seem to be their source and destination at the same time. This soundpiece
is pure improvisation by Igor Potsukailo (BARDOSENETICCUBE) and a Toshiba Satellite A-110 laptop (BARDOSENETICCUBE).
The laptop is the leading performer here, created by unknown system error and playing the music of solar wind, derived from the information field that is not accessible to anyone else. Igor Potsukailo uses a kind of feedback circuit, adding the elements of human presence into this music and modifying the
energy/information balance in that powerful field near our planet Earth called Noosphere..." [label info]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| BARTC |
Insubstantial as Ghosts |
CD |
BArTc is London based experimental electronic audio visual artist Jason Barton, with his nom de plume comprising the symbols for three chemical elements - Boron (B), Argon (Ar) and Technetium (Tc) - while also giving nods to both Hungarian composer Béla Bartók and his own surname.
'Insubstantial As Ghosts' is Barton’s debut album and contains fourteen highly atmospheric soundscapes. Taking the title from a William Gibson novel that was also used in a citation about Sleeping Sickness (‘they neither conveyed nor felt the feeling of life; they were as insubstantial as ghosts, and as passive as zombies’), he comments that “I have always loved the phrase as for me it perfectly describes minimalist, other worldly dark ambience.”
Initially inspired by instrumental electronic records in his father’s record collection by titans such as Tangerine Dream, Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre, Barton soon gravitated towards underground ‘industrial’ icons such as Coil, Einstürzende Neubauten, Chris & Cosey and Skinny Puppy, as well as digging deeper into the work of early German electronicists such as Cluster, Musique concrète pioneers Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, plus the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Citing sound recordist (and Cabaret Voltaire co-founder) Chris Watson as another influence, adding that “I have always loved environmental sounds and often carry a field recorder on my travels which I use to create texture in my pieces.”
Further explaining his modus operandi, Barton explains: “I build layers to create something abstract yet strangely beautiful, mixing source material, organic and experimental sounds plus field recordings that are heavily distorted with various effects. For me, creating music is a form of meditation, and to lose oneself in an improvisation is a wonderful experience. I just need to remember to hit record!”
Having collected synthesisers and made music (both alone and with friends) for several years, Barton subsequently started the project Less Than One to create accompanying videos that he began posting on Instagram. Initially solely for his own work, he soon earned plaudits from a worldwide community of electronic artists that in turn has led to commissions from the likes of Daniel Avery and Alessandro Cortini.
Much of ‘Insubstantial As Ghosts’ was recorded in January 2021 while the UK was in lockdown. “I participated in an annual Instagram music making challenge, where artists post a short piece of music every day using the hashtag #jamuary2021. Recording my contributions at the same time every evening (22:23), I amassed many minutes of music and ideas. Some of these were expanded to become tracks for the album or inspired further recordings through the dark winter nights.”
ICR's Colin Potter heard some of Barton’s work and agreed on a releasel. He has handpicked several of the pieces included on ‘Insubstantial As Ghosts’ and also mastered the album.
https://icrdistribution.bandcamp.com/album/insubstantial-as-ghosts
|
2021 |
€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 |
|
|
Cascade |
CD |
"Cascade and The Deluge are variations on the latest tape-loop and delay composition from the inimitable William Basinski. In Cascade, a single ancient lilting piano tape loop repeats endlessly carrying one along in its tessellating current. In The Deluge, the same loop is processed through a series of feed-back loops of different lengths creating a spiraling crescendo of overtones that eventually fade away to silence. In the denouement, a series of limpid piano loops leads to an urgent orchestral theme that builds and gradually dies away." [label info]
|
2015 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
92982 |
CD |
"This reissue of William Basinski's 2009 album finds the composer doing what he does best, creating haunting loops and drones that have a way of burrowing into your life.
When you travel to 351 Jay Street on Google Maps you’re greeted with the image of a nondescript office building. On its ground floor is an art supply store. The rest of the scene is anonymous. Much of Downtown Brooklyn looks like 351 Jay: brutalist buildings of medium height that evoke industry and bureaucracy. Thirty-six years ago, in this building, William Basinski lived in a loft space that he called the Music Laboratories. He moved in at the beginning of the 1980s with his partner, the artist James Elaine.
Most of the work Basinski released in the 2000s consisted of remixed, reworked, and wonderfully garbled homages to the archive he started to build in the Music Laboratories. While there he made hundred of tape loops, organizing the ribbons of magnetic tape on a tree branch he kept near his mixing desk. The loops were a combination of recordings of his own compositions and incidental noise that seemed to come his way from the whirl of urban life outside his window or from the whisper of radio broadcasts seeding themselves into his recording equipment. He didn’t release his experiments at the time, choosing to record, finagle, connect. The impulse was a natural reaction to the time and place, as he later said: “I was getting all this great stuff. It was just coming from the sky.”
One day in September of 1982 he was experimenting on the fly, collecting fragments, and maybe hours later the backbone of a piece was made. He called it 92982, a clinical name designating the date of the composition, as if it was just a file to be tucked away. He released the recordings for the first time in 2009, long after he garnered widespread acclaim for his monumental 9/11 elegy The Disintegration Loops. Seven years after its initial release, 92982 has been remastered and reissued as 2xLP set of startlingly crisp and veritably haunted music.
92982 is over an hour long, and the original improvisation makes up the first two tracks, while the back half of the album includes an extended rework of a piano-based piece from Variations: A Movement in Chrome Primitive and another loop constructed from the 1982 material. Given the sources, the tracks present in 92982 seem almost unstuck from time, floating between dates and points of inspiration. The continual cutting up, editing, and processing of a tape loop was something closer to necromancy than normal composition. It’s a quality that actually infects the overall feeling of the music, creating an environment for free-floating listening.
The album’s opening track, “92982.1,” drifts, separates, grows quiet, and then rumbles loudly. The wash of noises is teeming with potential, a quality that defines the inner workings of 92982. All four tracks are open canvases, they invite the rest of the world’s sounds to participate in making the experience of listening different each time. The sound of a helicopter whirling in the atmosphere and the Doppler splatter of a police car’s siren on “92982.2” mix into the sounds of banal moments, like laying in bed, listening to the buzz of an air conditioner, the honking of cars, the rustle of leaves, the drip of an open faucet. The drifting of “92982.4”’s piano loops hang like flickering presences hovering above a room. Overall, a disembodying and strange thing slowly happens as this album keeps playing: it sucks the noises of your environment into the loop. What’s contained here is sometimes not exactly a piece of music but an experiential filter.
Basinski’s music is constantly toying with the idea that rote moments in life can be engulfed with emotion, and it has a way of burrowing into your life. As his perpetual loops drift across the surface of experience, they are incredibly porous, and invite a listener to complete them by taking a walk around their block or just go about their day. 92982 accomplishes this more successfully than much of Basinski’s work; compared to The Disintegration Loops, it’s more open to interpretation and devoid of the same weight of history or narrative. It is an extremely plastic and pliant piece of music, an eternally empty vessel that gets filled up from listen to listen." [Pitchfork]
"These 4 tracks, built upon signature William Basinksi loops date back to September 29, 1982 (hence the title), and like so many of his recent releases of archival material, they ask the question, "why did it take you so long?" The answer may not be as interesting as the
question itself, but the nostalgic look back for Basinski to his own past certainly resonates beyond any notions of solipsism and speaks to something downright universal: an optimism of a half-remembered past. Unlike the masterpiece of the Disintegration Loops, the tracks on 92982 don't crackle and crumble apart as the pieces move forward; but the dust, hiss, and fuzz that have been the trademarks of Basinski loops are all present. The first track centers on a loop of a spacious piano waltzing out of the softened drones of accumulated hiss and soft focus white noise pushed deep into the shadows. The second is a graceful swoon of a composition with delayed rhythmic pock that phases against a swelling ambient loop and occasional interjections of police sirens and helicopters, presumably recorded directly out of Basinski's open window. Another piano loop grounds the third track; this one painfully sad and lilting and made more so by the patina of tape hiss, soft static, and degradation of the source material. An elegant two note loop with a hallowed drone of floating dust completes yet another fantastic William Basinski record. Fans will not be disappointed!" [Aquarius Records review]
|
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| BATCHELOR, PETER |
Kaleidoscope |
CD & DVD-R |
"This release of electroacoustic music by composer Peter Batchelor contains the original (and preferred) 8 channel versions of the works (DVD-ROM) along with stereo versions (CD) for easier/speedier listening.
The idea for the Kaleidoscope works came from the composers? memories of playing with the prismatic toy of the same name as a child. The toy, of course, consists of colored beads in a tube of mirrors, whose reflections generate complex symmetrical patterns that change dramatically in density and texture as the tube is turned. With these pieces the aim was to emulate such dynamic spatial activity through sound, distributing fragmentary materials in space and immersing the listener in a rich and ever-changing sonic environment. They have been composed for an eight-channel listening environment, the speakers arranged equally in a circle surrounding the audience, and the spatial language consists of peripheral, rotational, oppositional and envelopment activities and relationships (in contrast to left/right and back/front as in stereo works and traditional concert diffusion). The works should therefore be spatially and musically coherent irrespective of audience position or orientation, and listeners should receive similar subjective weightings (relative levels) of front, sides and rear wherever they happen to be situated (even if the positions and trajectories of spatial gestures are perceived differently by each).
Peter Batchelor is a composer and sound artist living in Birmingham, UK. He has studied with Jonty Harrison and Andrew Lewis and lectures at De Montfort University, Leicester. Predominantly working with fixed-media, his output ranges from two-channel 'tape' compositions for concert diffusion to large-scale multi-channel installation work."
[label info]
www.pogus.com
"..The DVD has the original 8-channel piece of 'Kaleidoscope', but I don't have the playback for such a thing, so I am stuck with the stereo version. I never heard of Batchelor, who is a composer from Birmingham, UK and who studied with Jonti Harrison and Andrew Lewis. He works 'predominantly with fixed-media, his output ranges from two-channel 'tape' composition for concert diffusion to large-scale multi-channel installation work'. Playing with a prismatic toy as a kid inspired ‘Kaleidoscope’ and perhaps it's not difficult to see that relating to the music piece. Just like light makes different colours of different intensities, so that this music move back and forth, from front to back and back, top to bottom, left to right. I can surely imagine how this sounds on an 8-channel set-up: even better than it does on a stereo version, I imagine. This is from the world of serious electronic composing, say the world of Canada's Empreintes Digitales, but whereas works released over there are not always to my liking, I surely liked this one a lot. The gliding of tones, the processed white noise, the overall vibrancy of the pieces, the constant motion of the sounds used. This is all in the world of computerized sounds, I would think, and whatever went in to generate this sound material is something we not longer can hear. And perhaps it's also something that one should not care about? It's the result that matters and that result is great." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| BATES, MARTYN |
Chamber Music I : Song Setting of James Joyce Poems |
CD |
"Like Barry [Gerald Barry], singer – songwriter Martyn Bates (founder, with Peter Becker, of the 80s pop group Eyeless In Gaza) has turned for inspiration to Irish folk music, and also to the poems of James Joyce. Chamber Music One is the first part of a project to set the complete poems to music. The publicity claims, rather anti-climactically, that Martyn Bates is ”one of the great English songwriters (in the tradition of Nick Drake). The song settings are simple and often same-sounding: haunting, mournful, folkish. The voice gets treated to varied reverb, and you have to get used to the shaky intonation and vocal swoops to depths he can’t manage. The prettiest and most folksy track is ’Go Seek Her Out Courteously’ with its hammered guitar backing. ’From Dewey Dreams’ – with solo harmonica and oceanic Ambience – is almost bluesy. The Ambient background is a key feature – on nine of the 27 tracks that’s all there is. An attractive and definitely not unexpressive release.” [Andy Hamilton / Wire] |
1994 |
€14.00 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
Imagination feels like poison |
CD |
„Einigen Dark-Ambient-Freunden könnte M.BATES von seiner Zusammenarbeit mit M.J.HARRIS (LULL) ("Murder Ballads") bekannt sein. Schon seit vielen Jahren ist er aber auch als Solo-Artist und mit EYELESS IN GAZA aktiv, und produziert dabei eine Art Sphären-Songwriter-Folk, verbindet hier seinen unnachahmlichen Gesang, Banjo, "Pump Organ", Flöten und "Autoharp" Percussion zu tief sehnsüchtig-melancholischen Stücken, wobei stets eine experimentell-atmosphärische Note vorhanden ist und auch instrumentale "pure Sound" -Zwischenspiele nicht zu kurz kommen. Die Kompositionen werden teils sehr kraftvoll umgesetzt, und Martyn's Stimme kann man wohl nur hassen oder lieben. Für mich eine der emotionalsten & intimsten Musiken der Welt. Check it out!“ [Barakah, 2001]
For us one of the best singer/songwriters of the last two decades, MARTYN BATES is active since the early 80’s with EYELESS IN GAZA, and with solo-works. He produces a kind of spheric songwriter-folk, where he links his absolutely unique voice/singing with banjo, guitars, flutes, percussion and electronics for a blend of deeply yearnful & melancholic pieces, with an ever existing experimental-atmospheric ground and short “pure sound” – interplays in between.. The compositions are often of a very powerful & ambigous nature, here we find expressions of the most sensible & poetic emotions that appear at the same time as a nearly manic outcry of yearning & loss. One of the most emotional and intimate music on this planet!
|
1998 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Unsung |
CD |
"Unsung – the new solo album by Martyn Bates (voice/guitar) completed September 2012 and produced by Alan Trench & Martyn Bates. Released on November 13th.
'With Unsung Martyn Bates takes on the more traditional role as a singer-songwriter, armed solely with his guitar for accompaniment, save for the occasional sparse colouring. At this time — when this particular role has been explored and done to death & beyond by long lines of both old and young musicians — one would think that there possibly could not be much to add (not that singer-songwriters generally are out on a mission to add something to the format). But as we know from the past history of Martyn Bates and Eyeless In Gaza, they do invent, they do new things, they sound fresh over and over again. So this is exciting, indeed!
From initial listenings to the album, one happily fails to find anything reminiscent of the new breed of singer-songwriters that tend to sound so same-ish, even when they try to sound “alternative”, “sensuous” and “independent” suggesting the listener would be convinced that it (albeit artificially) “sounds so right”. Here, in contrast, you find someone who plays and sings as if no one has ever done any singing accompanied only by his own guitar playing before. The lyrics are thoughtful, the music is lush and different, the voice is superb and the music is respectful of the intelligence of the listener. Still the music is certainly not dull or gloomy, but spirited and infectious. I think you will agree.– Jerry Nilson" [label info]
www.eyelessingaza.com/asr.html
"These acoustic guitar based songs largely came from sessions relating to the Twelve Thousand Days project in which Martyn Bates collaborated with Alan Trench of Orchis in the 2000’s. Though it’s also produced by Trench , Unsung has a very different feel, and it finds Bates at his most concentrated and immediate. Bates is essentially a singer songwriter but his work in Eyeless in Gaza and other collaborations reveal he’s also adept at improvisation and manipulation of sonics. Here the latter is limited to some ambient drift and phantasmal backing vocals, which sound particularly strange on ‘’And This The Day’’. But essentially Unsung relies just on his voice and acoustic guitar, which is beautifully recorded with a big , full sound. At times his expansive picking recalls Bert Jansch or Roy Harper.
As a singer-songwriter Bates has a wide stylistic lexicon, ranging from soft susurrations to notes that feel wrenched out from somewhere deep. On ‘Muted Music’, he evokes the heightened poignancy of its inevitable transience. One of the album’s loveliest melodies, ‘Caustic’ is, however, a bleak look at how memories of events can differ between two people, with the song’s narrator the one left with nothing of comfort to recall.
His love of traditional music was first overtly stated on the Murder Ballads series he made with Mick Harris in the 1990’s, and the influence of Martin Carthy suggests itself here. But his own work is more in tune with the unfettered feelings that run through folk song. On Unsung, he seals his engagement with tradition on ‘’Love Came To My Door’’, an a cappella tale shaped as a disquieting visitation rather than a cause for celebration."
[Mike Barnes, THE WIRE] |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAYLE, FRANCOIS |
Les Couleurs de la Nuit |
CD |
"The complete version, as premiered in 1982, of one of the François Bayle's masterpieces.
François Bayle studied with Stockhausen and Messiaen. He joined the ORTF Groupe de Musique Concrète in 1960. He later led the group when it became the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in 1966. Most of his compositions are electronic, and his first important work, 'Espaces inhabitables' (1967) is suggestive of an imaginary world in which nature is distorted in a dream-like fashion. He later utilized natural and synthetic sounds in his compositions, such as the recorded sounds made in a Lebanese cave. He has stated that his purpose as a composer is to enable the listener to feel the motion and vibration of energy in the universe.
François Bayle characterizes his art like this:
"...my purpose was always the same: to compose with only 'images-de-sons' (sound images); to show how, through pure listening in an acousmatic situation, these sound images move like butterflies through audible space and project a colored twinkling on the listener. Out of frame, this is a world proved by itself... Les couleurs de la nuit was created for "tapes and computer". [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Les Couleurs de la Nuit |
LP |
"The complete version, as premiered in 1982, of one of the François Bayle's masterpieces.
François Bayle studied with Stockhausen and Messiaen. He joined the ORTF Groupe de Musique Concrète in 1960. He later led the group when it became the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in 1966. Most of his compositions are electronic, and his first important work, 'Espaces inhabitables' (1967) is suggestive of an imaginary world in which nature is distorted in a dream-like fashion. He later utilized natural and synthetic sounds in his compositions, such as the recorded sounds made in a Lebanese cave. He has stated that his purpose as a composer is to enable the listener to feel the motion and vibration of energy in the universe.
François Bayle characterizes his art like this:
"...my purpose was always the same: to compose with only 'images-de-sons' (sound images); to show how, through pure listening in an acousmatic situation, these sound images move like butterflies through audible space and project a colored twinkling on the listener. Out of frame, this is a world proved by itself... Les couleurs de la nuit was created for "tapes and computer"." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| BECUZZI, GIANLUCA |
Memory makes Noise |
CD |
"With this new release by Small Voices, Gianluca Becuzzi (ex-Limbo), for the first time, presents his work under his birth name, confining the aka Kinetix as an extension of his name. "Memory Makes Noise" is an important passage in the long career of our Tuscan sound-artist, projecting him to the achievement of his own creative dimension. Left the cold digital aesthetic, Gianluca Becuzzi, is focusing his re-search on electro-acoustic sounds, livening "Memory Makes Noise" with throbbing concrete rumors, material manipulations and deep enviromental reverberations. On the back-ground of this soundscapes, exacts and fascinating at the same time, there are the shadows of the cut up evoked by the author: from Luc Ferrari, Ivo Malec and Morton Subotnik, to Rolf Julius, Bernhard Guenter e Kozo Ikeno. "Adductionism" as activation of the memory, which rush in the present confusing with it, to avoid any kind of linear sequence. In the ethernal present time, where every sign contains its own contrary, the echo sounds before its source: "Memory Makes Noise". Released in an elegant Matt varnished digi-sleeve. Limited Edition of 500 copies." [label info]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| |
Winter |
LP |
"A Colourful Storm presents a new album by Beequeen, the duo of Frans de Waard (Kapotte Muziek) and Freek Kinkelaar (Brunnen). Over two long-form pieces, new material from 2020 and almost-discarded fragments dating back to 1988 are collaged to form a brand-new composition. Think woodblock, guitar, static radio signals, ethereal ambience. An honorable addition to Beequeen's discography and a beautiful piece of the Dutch avantgarde with historic ties to Edward Ka-Spel, De Fabriek, Merzbow, and Nurse With Wound. Mastered by Peter Johan Nyland. Full-color sleeve photography by Alfred Boland."
"Has it been six years since Frans de Waard and Freek Kinkelaar put out Beequeen’s release ‘Aroyund Midnight’? Sadly, it has. In that time, well, a lot of shit has gone down that we don’t have time to go through here, but needless to say, it’s been a minute since they last released something. However, Beequeen has returned with a new album ‘Winter’. As the title suggests this is an album about the winter months. A time when you have to pull the collar of your coat up tighter round your neck, yet the wind always manages to find a gap to send a chill down your spine. It’s the time of year when usually busy parks, and public spaces, are quieter and there is a heavy, earnest silence all around. And this is effectively what ‘Winter’ sounds like.
The album opens with ‘Early Winter’. There is a claustrophobic vibe from the opening, but there is a feeling of space. Like when you are stuck inside on a heavy snow day. You can see an expanse of white surrounding you, there is space to move around inside, but you are
stuck inside, and the walls are getting closer. As ‘Early Winter’ builds it suddenly drops off and we are left with nothing but creaky sounds and space. As the creaking gets more pronounced a white noise hiss becomes louder and louder before strains of feedback started to come into the mix. This feels like walking through the park on the way to, or from, somewhere. Everything is silent. It’s all-consuming, but you are wrapped up in a cosy bubble so the biting weather can’t get to you. ‘Late Winter’ is more of the same, but the sounds and tone are colder. Opening with a stark tinkering loop that conjures up images of icicles. Despite being slightly shorter than ‘Early Winter’ it takes more time to build to its peaks. Throughout that feeling of claustrophobia permeates, giving the sense to dread to that ‘Early Winter’ was missing.
At its heart ‘Winter’ is a love letter to the season. Despite its stark nature, it is filled with longing and compassion.
Whether that is a longing for the season to never end or to be able to go out and see people again is debatable. What isn’t up for argument is how ‘Winter’ is a fascinating listen that really has the power to get under your skin, regardless of the number of layers you have on." [Vital Weekly]
https://beequeen.bandcamp.com/album/winter
|
2020 |
€21.50 |
|
| BEKAERT, JACQUES |
Jacques Bekaert |
LP |
Originally released in 1981 on the Belgian Igloo label this reissue comes with the same sleeve as originally designed by Alain Géronnez. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"A Late Lunch\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" is the soundtrack to Akiko Iimura\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s eponymous movie realized in 1978. It is based on acoustic instruments and field recordings, brilliantly reconfigured and mixed by Bekaert to create a surreal, immersive soundscape. The technique used includes superposition and speed change of recordings, radical sound effects, and juxtaposition of sounds. The players were prominent musicians of the 1970s, including Maggi Payne, George Lewis, David Rosenboom, and Blue Gene Tyranny. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"A Summer Day at Stony Point\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" was composed in 1969, with participation of David Behrman, Shigeko Kubota, and Charlotte Warren. The piece was commissioned by English composer Hugh Davies who presented it at the Harrogate festival the same year. Stony Point is a small village in New York State where John Cage co-owned a small pseudo-commune art resort where like-minded artists gathered. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"A Summer Day at Stony Point\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" is nothing more than a page of a journal, a fragment of a notebook that utilizes a series of sound sources recorded at Stony Point on one beautiful day in the summer of 1968. Other electronic sound sources were recorded at the Brandeis University where Alvin Lucier was professor. The final realization of the piece was done at Henri Pousseur\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s APELAC Studio in Brussels, 1969. The soundtrack for Akiko Iimura\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Mon Petit Album was composed on the basis of a simple description of the technique of the film and its time span. It includes David Behrman on alto, from an outdoor recording at Stony Point, plus excerpts from a Transition concert in London, the band Bekaert formed in 1971 with Michel Herr, Takehisa Kosugi, and Ryo Koike, both members of the Taj Mahal Travelers. The atmosphere is quiet and pastoral throughout with a very dreamlike flavor. Edition of 500.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"... Gentle threads of instrumental and electronic sounds are mixed with outdoor rural field recordings and occasional voices of his friends speaking, whistling or singing. Bekaert creates a warm environment within which we can hear subtle individual voices of good musicians who are relating to his loosely-notated scores and verbal instructions...\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" --David Behrman
https://metaphon2.bandcamp.com/album/jacques-bekaert
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"In a truly great moment for reissues, Metaphon delivers one of the best of the year: the first ever vinyl reissue of Jacques Bekaert\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s monumental self-titled LP for Igloo from 1981. An unprecedented window into a singular creative mind, including contributions by Takehisa Kosugi, David Behrman, David Rosenboom, Maggi Payne, Georges Lewis, and numerous others, it\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s a masterstroke of electroacoustic composition that achieved nothing short of holy grail status for collectors over the years, which manages to entirely recalibrate the listener\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s mind.
Working at a slow, meticulous pace, for a decade and half, Metaphon - the Brussels based imprint run by Timo Van Luijk - has continuously illuminated fascinating trajectories within a number of historically neglected contexts of electronic music and sound art. Primary focused on work produced in Belgium - with their own criteria of personal taste guiding them well - they’ve produced an incredibly important body of albums that endeavour to respect and supports the music and those who make it. In the midst of an incredible run - having recently released important works by Jan Bruyndonckx, Johannes Fritsch, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Michael Ranta, and Takehisa Kosugi’s - they’re back with the first ever vinyl reissue of Jacques Bekaert’s astounding self-titled LP, originally issued by the seminal Igloo imprint in 1981.
A long-standing holy grail for countless experimental music fans, its two sides gather three astounding compositions, created in collaboration with some of the most important voices in 20th Century sound: Takehisa Kosugi, David Behrman, David Rosenboom, Maggi Payne, Georges Lewis, and numerous others. Absolutely incredible and not to be missed. A truly legendary album - issued in a very limited edition of 500 copies on vinyl - has finally returned to our hands.
[By Bradford Bailey, 16 December 2022]
|
2022 |
€24.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| BERG, CHRISTOPH |
Tape Anthology Vol. 1 |
LP |
"With his new record Tape Anthology Vol. 1 Christoph Berg kicks off an album series mainly focusing on works based on Tape manipulation. At the same time it marks the inaugural release of his own imprint Monochrome Editions.
Christoph is a classically trained piano and violin player whose curiosity and cultural interest are by no means bound to that category, or any others for that matter. For the past few years he has also been broadening his approach to composition by researching and experimenting with tape machines and reels of field recordings — and directing sounds into physically immediate shapes and atmospheres. Through an initially improvised approach to sources and his analogue assembly of the emerging recordings afterwards, he is methodically avoiding predictable conditions.
The raw, extensive material became subject to meticulous organisation and arrangement: Tapes have been cut, manipulated, destroyed, fixed, and reshaped into a treasury of experiences. The overall process is, in many ways, similar to the way Christoph travels and absorbs situations: curious, spontaneous, attentive, and modest. His work is less about destination than about the journey, and these compositions magically manage to capture a history of sounds, embedded in one’s own (temporary and partial) perception of them.
While most pieces on the album are dominated by field recordings and tape manipulation, they are occasionally accompanied by an array of instruments — most prominent in the three movements of the “Concertino for Tape and Violin” — including an amalgamation of violin, upright bass, organ, found objects, and synthesizer contribution by Midori Hirano on two of the album’s compositions, all of which are effectively molding chance encounters into individual and intentional entities.
However, the greatest idiosyncrasy of the album might also be the most subtle and, probably, irritating: The collages of things, places, people and events deliberately renounce conclusions, by which Tape Anthology Vol. 1 also evades any obvious stagnation. Even when themes are appearing, everything stays in constant movement, away from, towards or around you. The few palpable aspects welcome you and immediately drag you in, but without releasing you in the expected or a familiar location. It is a captivating voyage through an ever-changing landscape that — through abstention of any predictability — is not only the core of improvisation, but a philosophical approach to both traveling and being in general.
By never succumbing to tradition, expectation or comfort, Tape Anthology Vol. 1 is continuously reaching out for the capture of our surrounding — and our agency within it. Herewith the record embodies the ever intriguing cor-relation of spontaneity and subsequent mapping.
https://christophberg.bandcamp.com/album/tape-anthology-vol-1-2
|
2019 |
€22.50 |
|
| BERG, MOLLY / OLIVIA BLOCK / STEVE RODEN / STEPHEN VITIELLO |
MOSS |
maxi-CD |
"Edition of 500. Moss, is a live recording from a unique collaboration by sound artists/musicians Molly Berg, Olivia Block, Steve Roden and Stephen Vitiello. This was a midnight concert at the beautiful Trinity Cathedral in San Jose, CA which was part of the 01SJ Biennial. Olivia and Steve had performed solo sets on the previous nights. The final night was meant to be a duo with Molly and Stephen but the opportunity to play with musicians/friends who we admire so much called out for an invitation to play together. As the set was entirely improvised, the billing really changed in our minds from being a duo with guests to becoming a quartet. The church itself was certainly inspiring, it’s dark wood and clean dry acoustics. There was a very small but dedicated audience. No one slept and the church crew were able to, amazingly, quiet the rowdy revelers on the street for the duration of their set.
Anyone familiar with any of the four musicians involved in this recording will know the level of craftsmanship and attention to sonic tactility that can be found within. They each exercise such incredible restraint, a feat difficult to pull off in an impromptu improvised session where musicians are often found competing for space, and allow for a sense of place to work its way through the quiet recording. “Moss” breathes like a living being lying down to sleep — a delicate wave of hushed field recordings, tape tracks and subtle electronics provides a bed for which Molly Berg’s clarinet and voice (joined at times by Steve Roden) ebb and sway, allowed center- stage, in movements across the piece’s 24+ minutes. Steve Roden and Stephen Vitiello provide guitar (lap steel and electric, respectively) while Olivia Block manipulates the tapes, field recordings and electronics.
Moss is a perfect example of how four like-minded friends and musicians can come together at a moment’s notice and create, unrehearsed, a captivating and beautiful sonic landscape. The connection between them as artists is completely evident while at the same time disappearing into the background to allow the piece move like a singular body." [label info]
www.12k.com
|
2011 |
€10.50 |
|
| BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE (B.S.E.) |
Modern Day Diabolist |
CD / DVD |
"Beyond Sensory Experience are back with their seventh full length study - Modern Day Diabolists. BSE have reopened the dossiers and turned page to focus on life in the modern urban world. True to their ten-year pattern of evolution the dark ambience is more captivating than ever; complex soundscapes and consoling melodies combine with provocative rhythm structures and unsettling samples to generate a new profile of BSE. When business has stopped and lights are out what is left is Modern Day Diabolists.
Modern Day Diabolists will be available as a CD/DVD double Digipak in May. The DVD features compelling visual interpretations of two tracks from the album by Swedish video artists The Retardtank and Fetish 23.
Edition of 800 copies in 6 panel double Digipack. 9 tracks. Running Time 57:00" [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
" “Modern Day Diabolists”. Such title would suggest that we have to deal with the darkest installment of BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE activities. Personally, when I first heard this title, also remembering previous material, “Zielona Góra” recorded together with Moljebka Pvlse, subconsciously I expected release which will be hell darker than “No Lights In Our Eyes.” I was disabused of this mistake very quickly.
This is first full length BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE album since four years (not counting here mentioned above Moljebka Pvlse collaboration). After a handful of releases for Old Europa Cafe and Cold Meat Industry, this time the Swedes came under Canadian wings of – very buoyant recently- Cyclic Law. At the beginning Frederic Arbour’s label focused mostly on releasing high quality Scandinavian dark ambient, occasionally penetrating other corners of sonic darkness. However recent years brought us opening for other parts of the world and other approaches to dark ambient matter. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is definitely to Cyclic Law advantage. Of course “Modern Day Diabolists” is the work by Scandinavian duo, but closing this album in strictly Nordic compartment would be a huge faux pas.
As I have mentioned earlier, the album opener “Through the Underworld” is somewhat surprising. It starts with a low-pitched voice (Swedish I guess) and serene sound texture, but after a while this calm sound surface is disturbed by a beat. Beat which is kinda rough, but all in all quite peaceful. “Hailstone Reactor” has a similar structure: it begins with sound of rain, voice shouting the same phrase over and over again and single electronic howls hanging on the canvas painted with silence. And then, after two minutes or so, I hear post-rock guitar and simply stop thinking about “Modern Day Diabolists” as another dark ambient album. Instead I start to wonder if it wouldn’t be a perfect illustration for another Jim Jarmusch movie. Then a minute of cacophony tempered by drowned in reverberation, reflective melody. All this within a single track. Not bad. Every another fragment of the album is as rich in sounds as these first ones. In “Modern Day Diabolists” restless industrial surf appears, while “Between Sleeping and Walking” returns to post-rock soundscapes, sonic illustrations of night panorama of Tokyo. Reflective atmosphere is maintained by absolutely beautiful “Rapt Earthly Things” and quite minimalistic “Lost in Habblahester”. “The Testimony of Memory” almost literally suspends the passage of time, especially when this slow, looped melody is joined by the rhythm which reminds of slowing down hands of clock which someone forgot to wind up. Then short “Geometric Fashion” which is preludium to the grand finale of “Modern Day Diabolists”. The album ends with “Locating Imaginary Events in Real Places”, over thirteen minute piece which brings together all the essential features of this album.
Lot of things happen on “Modern Day Diabolists”. Lot of things happen, but to be honest, BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE even for the moment doesn’t go beyond atmospheric frames established by the Swedes not only on this record. This music is not dark per se. Instead it’s quite foggy and oniric, where reverb and silence play huge role. And at the same time the sounds generated by BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE arouse kind of yearning of something long gone. So long ago that we’re not even sure whether it really happened or was it just a dream. It’s the most mature work of Swedes. By all means worth of recommendation." [Santa Sangre / santasangremagazine.wordpress.com]
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
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 |
Innervation |
CD-R |
"Excluding the avantgarde composers of the 1950/60s, Maurizio Bianchi is probably the most well-known and respected italian experimental composer.
At the end of the 70s, at the peak of the Industrial scene, he released several tapes of noise music under the Sacher-Pelz moniker.
In the early 80s he started using the M.B. moniker and as the tape network was growing, a lot of his cassettes, such as Mectpyo/Blut, Industrial Tape, Computer S.p.A., Technology, Dicembre 1980 and many more were released.
Symphony for a Genocide was his first vinyl record, soon followed by other cult albums such as Menses, Neuro Habitat, Regel, Mectpyo Bakterium (released under his own real name), Das Testament, Endometrio, Carcinosi and The Plain Truth. In 1984, "Armaghedon" was announced as his last record.
In 1998-2000, due to the interest of Emanuele Carcano, founder of the Alga Marghen label, after having been sadly bootlegged all over the world for more than a decade, the whole M.B. vinyl catalogue was officially re-released on CD by Ees't Records.
At the same time, after a 14 years of meditative pause, Maurizio Bianchi returned to create music. Plenty of solo albums and collaborations were subsequently released on various medias by labels all over the world, showcasing Bianchi's different approaches at experimental music.
Maor Appelbaum is a well-respected producer and sound and lighting engineer and multi-talented musician. He has been heavily involved in the Israel music scene for many years.
He is involved in multi-textured and genre-hopping projects such as the atmospheric Sleepless, the highly aggressive and varied Vultures, the dark wave EBM-oriented band I.W.R, the dark black noise project Thy Mesmerized, as well as being the sole creator of such avant-garde solo projects as, Vectorscope, Lunisolar and Screening.
His musical ventures expand to more metallic bands such as the doom infested Moonskin, for whom he play bass and compose most of the music and lyrics. He has done various musical collaborations with Maurizio Bianchi, Kenji Siratori, Clint Listing, The Hollowing and Tom Davidov.
He was a freelance writer in such well-known zines as Metal Hammer Israel and Dofek. Currently he is the editor of the music webzine www.alternative-zine.com, and also a D.J. for many clubs and radio programs.
Coming after "Environmental Meditations" (Topheth Prophet, 2006) and "Electrostatic Deflection" (Silentes, 2007), "Innervation" is Maurizio Bianchi & Maor Appelbaum's third collaborative effort.
"Innervation", in the scientific study, is the distribution of the nerve fibers to an organ or body region. "Innervation", in the experimental dissertation, is the prevaricator apportionment of the sound filaments to a magnetophonic tissue or electrostrictive territory." *
The six tracks on the album have a strong impact, treating us with stabs of intense noise generated by analog synthesizers and effects.
"This innervated work was released using electro-neurotic sequences, mixed with concrete-sensorial modulations in an investigative contraction. Its mechanistic internalization stimulates indipendent functions for an emotional behavior. For your genetical safety please listen to it using intense cellular ear-dilatation..." * * Maurizio Bianchi, October 2008" ]label info]
www.aferecords.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO (M.B.) |
The Selfportrait of M.B. |
CD |
"An unusual self-portrait of Maurizio Bianchi in a minimal and introspective version, "a discreet" sonic self-portrait, elaborated with soft and nearly abstract electronic sketches, cyclical waves, tangles of intersected sounds, stratified, continuously chancing, manipulated and molded through uses of effects, filters, reverbs, choruses, delay... Expanded places, rarefied and "apparently quiet" atmospheres, but at the same time always full of a constant sense of gravity and heaviness, of vulnerability, always on the extreme border of the abyss that leads towards the unknown, the dark, the not to be defined and the mystery...
a new and definitive "manifesto". This is simply MB... no other word is necessary. A MUST!!!" [label notes]
www.silentes.net
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Persecutionem |
LP |
"Persecutionem" heisst "Verfolgung" und wie viele von MBs Veröffentlichungen ist dieses Album religiös inspiriert. Die sechs Stücke wirken fast wie eine logische Fortsetzung (auf einem anderen klanglichen Level) dessen, was vor 30 Jahren begann - recht rauher, irgendwie mysteriöser & hypnotischer Drone-Noise, mit Zeitlupen-Vibrato-Effekten, die seltsame Obertöne "nach oben" sprudeln lassen... Sechs Stücke, in einer nummerierten Auflage von nur 303 Stück !
"'I've taken inspiration for this medicative work from the sordid persecution of the early Christians, but in other ways we receive objectivistic persecution every day from this standardized system, from our wretched condition and from the modern persecutors which are hidden behind their threatening countenances. The appropriate soundtrack of such perturbed sufferings is this justifiable work, 'persecutionem', in which the semblances of our gaolers are inherents on these obstructed sounds, and the hopeful liberation of our existences are culminating on the eschatologic modulations. The deliberate epilogue is contained in the derogatory elevation of our reinstated spirituality for a repulsive capital sentence in order to transform the alienated persecutor into an inalienable victim of persecution.' Maurizio Bianchi - February 2009" [label info]
http://rotorelief.com
|
2009 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Mectpyo Box |
10 x CD BOX |
Legendary Maurizio Bianchi recordings from the early '80s remastered and collected in a 10CD box. Includes the following industrial music classics: Symphony for a Genocide (1981), Menses (1982), Neuro Habitat (1982), Regel (1982), Mectpyo Bakterium (1981), Das Testament (1983), Endometrio (1982), Carcinosi (1983), The Plain Truth (1983), and Armaghedon (1984). Also contains two hours of bonus tracks from the same period, with compilation contributions previously issued on Bain Total, Broken Flag, Come Organisation, and TRAX, as well as various mail art collaborations and a unique live recording and interview from January 1st, 1983. Includes 35 folded inserts with original artworks and collages; essays on Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse and Come, Conrad Schnitzler, Leibstandarte SS MB, and SPK; playlists from 1981 and '82; a 1981 interview issued in Datenverarbeitung; an essay by Vittore Baroni on Bianchi titled "Milan Burns"; and Bianchi's "Fanta Punk Tale" from 1978. Limited to 200 numbered copies.
|
2015 |
€165.00 |
|
| BIG CITY ORCHESTRA |
Eerily |
CD |
"Underground is a difficult term. Perhaps its best defined as Do It Yourself. Not looking for the next record deal, or moving from CDRs to CDs and never wanting to do CDRs again. That sort of attitude. If one band live up to that, then today my choice would be Big City Orchestra. They have been around for ages, releasing on all formats the world of music saw, but never gained 'fame' in any way. And perhaps that's good. Let's have them underground, with us. Here for instance is a new CD by Das, the master mind behind Big City Orchestra since the beginning, but also members like Cliff Neighbours, Ninah Pixie, Univac, Jonathan Segal, Melissa Margolis and as a special guest David Aellen of Gong fame. Although Big City Orchestra was never fixed into one musical genre, there is, throughout the years an overall idea to be noted. Roughly somewhere in the grey area of ambient music, drone, narrative music and perhaps all touched with a sense of psychedelic music. These six new pieces here sum up this very well. No doubt largely conceived in the world of warm, analogue synthesizers and guitars with lots of effects. The result is an eerie (sorry, couldn't help that one), desolate sound piece with very slow, minimal shifts. Maybe to some extent they still sound the same as back in 1987 when they released cassettes, but luckily it sounds much richer now on CD. The underground is not about sticking to hissy cassettes out of some perverse love of retro, but finding the best ways to express yourself, without keeping any notion about the overground. In that respect to people who want to hear a band develop, then Big City Orchestra might be the wrong place to turn to, but I think this is great music. Mood music, dark night, late night music. Music that has not been made to please the big crowd, but a small but caring community of truly devoted fans. I may not be one, simply because I don't have everything they made, I certainly rank myself as someone who is always keen to anything new by them. 'Eerily' is a great CD." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"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.
Featuring original members and introducing special guests such as Daevid Allen (of Gong fame) and Jonathan Segel (Camper Van Beethoven)
BCO 'Eerily' tracklist :
1. Garuda
2. Mister Jones
3. Protectionraga
4. Zhong Kui
5. Pink Swirl
6. Chnubis
7" cover including a unique silkscreened inlay produced by the members of BCO/Ubuibi."
[label info]
www.eetapes.be
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Stanchenzza |
CD |
"Bifurcated Cithara Orcin otherwise known as Big City Orchestra is a SF based group that has been around since the days or yore. Getting their start in the late 70′s with tape cassettes. Here we have a genuine audio CD release. The real deal my friends. This is no snake oil sales pitch. Enclosed you will find 6 tracks of mystifying delights, sea shanties and cosmic drones. Come one come all!" [label info]
www.obfuscatedrecords.com
"Big City Orchestra (here billed – why not? – as Bifurcated Cithara Orcin) is the ever-morphing sonic entity out of San Francisco that's been lecherously fondling the hometaper scene for decades. Like anyone who's ever bought anything from a DIY label, I've encountered their distinct brand of odd in the past, most recently on a tiny 2009 tape release, 'Ymiz,' put out by the now-defunct Agharta label out of Lithuania. One thing I especially dig is their fervently inclusive message: their list of former members encompasses an extensive smörgåsbord of varied soundsmiths, and they have a well-documented willingness to issue their releases on small, otherwise unestablished labels (in addition to several linchpin imprints of the 80s/90s tape-trading scene). The joy of each BCO record stems from its utter unpredictability; never content to settle for mere noise, they skitter eagerly from hand-sewn sound collages to tape loop diversions to wispy miasmas of droning miscellany.
'Stanchenzza' is more of the same from the reliable troupe, this time scraped down to a mere quintet. Expansive "Dirt Road to Cliff" and "Klangend" busy themselves with forlorn, droning textures, both of them paralyzing in their glowing impressions of infinity. They steal the show somewhat, but the second half of the album has its share of pleasures, too: the flimsy rhythmics on "Opium" are a welcome textural diversion, while relative shortie "Pixied" has its foundation in loops and found sounds, much in line with the aesthetic propagated on dusty old tapes in the mid-eighties. On 'Stanchenzza,' as always, BCO stirs their unique playfulness into each abstract composition. The final product is a treat." [MT/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
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 |
|
| 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 |
|
|
Dropsonde |
do-CD |
"Dropsonde was originally released by Touch (UK) in 2006. This is a reissue with seven previously unreleased recordings.
Widely regarded as one of Norwegian electronic music's most important artists, Biosphere's [Geir Jenssen] career spans nearly two decades, several albums, lots of remixes, various sound installations, commissions, soundtracks and even the odd Himalayan summit.
You may recognise his work without knowing it, so frequently does it crop up on TV trailers and idents. In the early 1990s he was a pioneer of so-called 'Ambient Techno', but since then, he has refined his sound into something more magnetic and enduring.
Dropsonde' isn't a soundtrack like the interwoven 'Substrata' nor an episodic journey in the way that 'Autour de la Lune' is. Here Geir Jenssen is pushing new directions towards the jazz colours of Miles Davis and Jon Hassell, whilst re-invigorating the pulse and projection of his signature sound: a hypnotic combination of pleasure and dread.
The spatial aspects some have dubbed "Arctic sound" but it summons strong feelings, or as Exclaim from Canada put it, "in order to climb higher, you must first go deeper". Jon Savage adds: "As with all of the Biosphere albums, the music draws you in and makes you want to listen and feel. Jenssen's work acts on a very emotional level, one that encourages you to drift away into a haze of images and scenes brought to you by the music, where spectacular beauty hides unseen danger. Intense and moving, but comforting and soothing at the same time."
[A 'dropsonde' is a weather reconnaissance device designed to be dropped from an airplane or similar craft at altitude to take telemetry as it falls to the ground. It typically relays information to a computer in the dropping airplane by radio. The fall may be slowed by a parachute. Information collected by a typical dropsonde may include wind speed, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure.]
https://biosphere.bandcamp.com/album/dropsonde-reissue-with-bonus-album
|
2020 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Dropsonde |
3 x LP |
"Dropsonde was originally released by Touch (UK) in 2006. This is a reissue with seven previously unreleased recordings.
Widely regarded as one of Norwegian electronic music's most important artists, Biosphere's [Geir Jenssen] career spans nearly two decades, several albums, lots of remixes, various sound installations, commissions, soundtracks and even the odd Himalayan summit.
You may recognise his work without knowing it, so frequently does it crop up on TV trailers and idents. In the early 1990s he was a pioneer of so-called 'Ambient Techno', but since then, he has refined his sound into something more magnetic and enduring.
Dropsonde' isn't a soundtrack like the interwoven 'Substrata' nor an episodic journey in the way that 'Autour de la Lune' is. Here Geir Jenssen is pushing new directions towards the jazz colours of Miles Davis and Jon Hassell, whilst re-invigorating the pulse and projection of his signature sound: a hypnotic combination of pleasure and dread.
The spatial aspects some have dubbed "Arctic sound" but it summons strong feelings, or as Exclaim from Canada put it, "in order to climb higher, you must first go deeper". Jon Savage adds: "As with all of the Biosphere albums, the music draws you in and makes you want to listen and feel. Jenssen's work acts on a very emotional level, one that encourages you to drift away into a haze of images and scenes brought to you by the music, where spectacular beauty hides unseen danger. Intense and moving, but comforting and soothing at the same time."
[A 'dropsonde' is a weather reconnaissance device designed to be dropped from an airplane or similar craft at altitude to take telemetry as it falls to the ground. It typically relays information to a computer in the dropping airplane by radio. The fall may be slowed by a parachute. Information collected by a typical dropsonde may include wind speed, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure.]
https://biosphere.bandcamp.com/album/dropsonde-reissue-with-bonus-album
|
2020 |
€32.00 |
|
| |
Shortwave Memories |
do-LP |
Iconic Norwegian producer and composer Biosphere follows up his evocative 'Angel's Flight' release with a new album set for release early in 2022. Shortwave Memories is an album inspired by the post-punk electronic music of the late 70's and early 80's, especially the productions of figures like Martin Hannett and Daniel Miller.
"The last few Biosphere albums have all been made using samples and software, but Shortwave Memories is a return to vintage analog hardware from the late 70s and early 80s. Most of these instruments do not have any presets or memory storage, so all the sounds were programmed from scratch. The idea was not so much to make music that sounds like it was written in the same period. It's more like what would happen if I had the chance to use the same instruments, and applied the same meticulous attention to detail as the producers mentioned above."
Presented as a continuous sonic journey, this stunning record unequivocally manifests a world of it's own and already feels like a timeless addition to the rest of the Biosphere catalogue.
https://biosphere.bandcamp.com/album/shortwave-memories
|
2022 |
€29.50 |
|
| BIOTA |
Invisible Map |
CD |
Irgendwie isses Folkmusik, irgendwie isses Popmusik, aber ständig verschiebt sich der Grund in quasi halluzinogener Manier, der Boden wird einem regelrecht unter den Füssen weggezogen....schöne Folkmelodien und mehrstimmiger Gesang sind präsent, zum Teil scheint alles schwankend im Chaos zu versinken, aber plötzlich ist wieder alles im Lot ! Einfach geniales Zeug und nach wie vor nicht zu kategorisieren, was BIOTA, die Nachfolger der legendären MNEMONISTS, hier machen !
"If fans of Biota were shocked by the pop songs that appeared for the first time on the previous Biota release, Invisible Map is going to send them reeling. They are sung by Genevieve Heistek, from the same school of Montreal musicians who spawned Godspeed You Black Emperor. The songs provide a central point around which Biota hang their esoteric production ideas. Crazy shawms suddenly spurt out of the mix, unsteady tripping rhythms from the drums counterpoint interlocking guitars, and unsettling sound processing pushes the material to the edge of oblivion. The tracks were built up from solo accordion or rubab, drums and guitar, and the whole piece is woven into an ambiguous cinematic journey. Mixing and effects were applied in real time, 'by hand'. This gives a wonderful spontaneous feel to the music, and Biota have made an art out of accepting and working with freak accidental effects." [label info]
|
2001 |
€14.00 |
|
| BIRDS OF DELAY |
The Cut |
LP |
"you'll have to run thru a intense long brown tunnel before arriving at the best butcher in town! he'll cut your meat down to pure droned filet americain or preparé from the chef! bears and bowie lookalikes are huge fans, as this bird butcher sliced many famous animals since a young age. he grew from playing cards in the bar with the big nuts via pinching fags in the parc to a full blown fine line worker! spin him around and you get a conceptual artpiece, back to the old skool game of throwing cards on a table! poetics re-invented by dolle smurfen repeating the same word over and over again, until you eventually get it and snap, which usually takes a while. a perfect summer bummer for boiling brains and unusual double pleasure! classic tones, properly sliced feathers, and intense poetics. comes in a metalic green cover design of a spit and ink painting by d tyfus." [label info]
www.ultraeczema.com |
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| BJERGA, SINDRE & FABIO ORSI |
Faded Brown and Grey |
CD |
"In October 2013 Orsi and Bjerga recorded a work of haunting beauty in the Extrapool studio. A delicate, precise mixture of Orsi's guitar playing and Bjerga's microcassettes, contact microphones captured in a myriad of electronics. Warm music, intense, yet also dark - like various shades of gray, brown and black. The cover features photographs by Fabio Orsi. Limited to 300 copies."
www.kormplastics.nl
"The Brombron project started in 2000 and is an initiative of Frans de Waard and Extrapool. Two musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, a space for art in Nijmegen, the Netherlands and have the possibility to do recordings in a fully equipped sound recording studio. The collaboration between Fabio Orsi from Italy and Sindre Bjerga form Norway is a wonderful mix of beautiful sounds. Fabio Orsi is specialized in creating atmospheric drones by guitars, old keyboard and field-recordings. He released music all over the world and did collaboration with a lot of other musicians. Sindre Bjerga is active since mid-nighties and released more that 100 records on labels worldwide. He creates his drones by microcassettes and contact microphones in combination with a lot of electronics. The result is five intense pieces of music. The first track is a short fragile track with some fine sounds and is followed by a composition with an on-going tone and concrete sounds are coming up and fade away. The track develops into an electronic on-going changing sound layers and flows into a melancholic melody played on an electric guitar. The following droney track has the same concept of an on-going and slowly changing tone. The fourth track is a beautiful mix of several sound layers, which create a dark ambient atmosphere. Concrete sounds crack the threatening atmosphere and sphere changes to more chaotic and aggressive. The last track is very strong. The track starts in silence with a droney dark tone. The guitar of Orsi goes on and on and he plays louder and louder with a lot of intensity. The sounds of Bjerga like looping screams or a yelling mass guides the massive guitarsound. Great album, highly recommended for lovers of drones with a taste of experiment." [JKH/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| BLACK DICE |
Creature Comforts |
CD |
Noch ein heisser Anwärter für den Seltsamkeits-award; super seltsame, surrealistische Hawai-gitarren, lazy beats, elektronische pulses, schwankend & leiernd der Sound, irgendwo befinden sich auch Stimmen (Gesang kann man das nicht nennen), kurzum: undefinierbar, unbewertbar, unergründlich. Einfach klasse schräg.
„Jim O’Rourke hat einmal so boshaft wie zutreffend bemerkt, dass es etwas anderes ist zu improvisieren oder nur improvisierte Musik zu spielen, sprich, sich selbst zu imitieren. Insofern muss man mit Creature Comforts (FATCD32) konstatieren, dass BLACK DICE keine BLACK DICE-Musik spielt, sondern BLACK DICE mit jedem Release neu erfindet. In radikaler Abkehr von der Voodoo-Psychedelic von Miles Of Smiles entfaltet ihre neue CD in unverhofft Miro’scher Heiterkeit eine elektropopig-surreale Skurrilität. Ausser dem Nenner „weird“ scheint die Bandästhetik komplett ausgetauscht. Ein flockiger Cartoon-Leichtsinn kapriolt durch acht Tracks, die aus vielen undichten Ventilen wie Gameboys dudeln und wie R2D2 zwitschern. Es eiert, loopt, wabert und schwip-schwapt auf sämtlichen Synthie-, Chorus- und vor allem Gitarrenspuren, die Percussionabteilung ist dafür weitgehend paralysiert. Das Ganze verhält sich zu Kraut wie Jad Fairs Best Wishes & Half Robot zu Punk. Heftige Dub-Effekte lassen 80s-Elektro-Trash abdriften in Richtung Mondo Exotica 2001 - Odyssee im Kinderzimmer. Vier 1-2-Minuten-Knirpse odradeken um die 6- bis 9-minütigen Freak-Epen „Treetops“, „Creature“ und „Night Flight“ und den viertelstündigen Monolithen „Skeleton“, ein tapsiges Schreckgespenst, durch dessen Rippen Gitarren und Synthies jämmerlich jaulen. Während man vorne ein Mona-Lisa-Lächeln geschenkt bekommt, steigen auf der Rückseite hinter den sieben Bergen Sprechblasen wie Rauchzeichen auf. Genau dazwischen, in der Hirnrisszone, inszenieren BLACK DICE ihr Happening, das die Nerven etlicher Mucker blank legt: „Lärmbelästigung!“ „Hirnmüll“ direkt aus der Klapse... bekloppte Katastrophe für unmusikalische Gefühlsambutierte“... „Musik von und für Nerds.“ (Intro-„Probefahrt“) Köstlich. [BAD ALCHEMY 44]
"This is the official follow-up to their DFA debut CD and Double LP Beaches & Canyons. It finds the band pushing in yet another direction, at once unmistakably Black Dice, and noticeably different. Recorded with Steve Revitte (Liars, Kill Me Tomorrow), the DFA & Nicolas Vernhes (Fisherspooner, Fiery Furnaces). Venturing further into their own psychedelic, increasingly electronic world, Creature Comforts is as expansive, experimental and structurally unique as its predecessor, but there is a new sense of playfulness and accessibility mixed with naïve wonder and not-quite-steady rhythms. It is hazy, dreamy, but they have suddenly emerged as a band with an untouchably original terrain, mixing dub, tropicalia and the entire history of psychedelic rock music into one heady concoction." [press release]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| BLACK EARTH |
Gnarled Ritual of Self Annihilation |
CD |
Spanish ritualistic industrial sorcerers BLACK EARTH return with "Gnarled Ritual of Self Annihilation" - a sophomore full-length of unreal cinematic sonic disembodiment, conceived with the aim of turning the listener into a sacrificial centrepiece to a surreal ritual nightmare. Following in the steps of their debut LP "A Cryptic Howl of Morbid Truth" and of their followup mini-album "Diagrams of a Hidden Order", on "Gnarled Ritual of Self Annihilation" Black Earth further refine and sharpen their horrific sonic blade, slicing through shadows and darkness with more skill and mastery than ever before to reveal a dimension beyond of incomprehensible ritual abandon. As they first weave and then slice and dissect their impenetrable veil, a sonic ritual of abject disfigurement begins to take shape before the listener, as the strokes and gashes of black metal, industrial, noise and ritual drone intersect erratically and hypnotically, painting an hallucinatory arabesque of absolute dread and deformity. As the album's wicked spires envelops them like a fog of snakes, the listener finds themselves immersed into an hallucinating aural delirium of complete disembodiment and self-implosion, in which they feel simultaneously out of body and helplessly trapped and crushed within themselves at the same time.
CD Edition of 500 copies in 4 panel Digisleeve. 7 Tracks. Running Time 45:04
LP Edition of 200 copies on Black Vinyl, 100 copies on Clear & Black Splatter. 7 Tracks. Running Time 45:04 (Co-Released with Sentient Ruin)
https://www.cycliclaw.com/releases/black-earth-gnarled-ritual-of-self-annihilation-cdlp-134th-cycle
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Gnarled Ritual of Self Annihilation |
LP |
Spanish ritualistic industrial sorcerers BLACK EARTH return with "Gnarled Ritual of Self Annihilation" - a sophomore full-length LP of unreal cinematic sonic disembodiment, conceived with the aim of turning the listener into a sacrificial centrepiece to a surreal ritual nightmare. Following in the steps of their debut LP "A Cryptic Howl of Morbid Truth" and of their followup mini-album "Diagrams of a Hidden Order", on "Gnarled Ritual of Self Annihilation" Black Earth further refine and sharpen their horrific sonic blade, slicing through shadows and darkness with more skill and mastery than ever before to reveal a dimension beyond of incomprehensible ritual abandon. As they first weave and then slice and dissect their impenetrable veil, a sonic ritual of abject disfigurement begins to take shape before the listener, as the strokes and gashes of black metal, industrial, noise and ritual drone intersect erratically and hypnotically, painting an hallucinatory arabesque of absolute dread and deformity. As the album's wicked spires envelops them like a fog of snakes, the listener finds themselves immersed into an hallucinating aural delirium of complete disembodiment and self-implosion, in which they feel simultaneously out of body and helplessly trapped and crushed within themselves at the same time.
CD Edition of 500 copies in 4 panel Digisleeve. 7 Tracks. Running Time 45:04
LP Edition of 200 copies on Black Vinyl, 100 copies on Clear & Black Splatter. 7 Tracks. Running Time 45:04 (Co-Released with Sentient Ruin)
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/gnarled-ritual-of-self-annihilation |
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
| BLACKSHAW, JAMES |
Celeste |
CD |
"Re-issue)Guitarist/composer James Blackshaw?s 2007 Tompkins Square album, The Cloud of Unknowing, received "Top 50 Albums of the Year? honors from Pitch-fork and Wire Magazine. Fresh off a U.S. and UK tour with Jose Gonzalez, and a bevy of year-end praise from the blogosphere to The New York Times, Tompkins Square reissues four catalog titles previously only available as tiny, limited edition CDR pressings. "Mr. Blackshaw plays 12-string acoustic guitar, picking endlessly circling, intertwining arpeggios: stately, tolling ones on the lower strings and faster ones, verging on tremolo, up above. Yet what usually emerges from the welter of notes is not bustle but tranquillity. The music has the same contemplative scope that turns countless tiny daubs into a Monet water lily." - Jon Pareles, The New York Times, Dec 31, 2007 www.myspace.com/jamesblackshaw"
[label info]
www.tompkinssquare.com
|
2007 |
€14.50 |
|
| BLACKSHAW, JAMES & LUBOMYR MELNYK |
The Watchers |
LP |
"The Watchers is a historic collaboration between Lubomyr Melnyk and James Blackshaw. Both artists are well known as composers but here it is their impovisational skills that are on display. First 200 copies of the LP will ship on blue vinyl. CD version is packaged in a heavy duty digipak.
I first met Lubomyr Melnyk at a festival called Hea Uus Heli in October 2008. We were both scheduled to play that day and I was very excited to see him perform. Before the show I bought several LPs from him and mentioned as much. Lubomyr (more than modest and courteous, as he always is) asked me what I was doing at the festival and I replied that I was also performing at the festival a little later, to which he responded "I'll come and watch you", before being ushered into the hall to play one of the most staggeringly sonorous and beautiful sets I've ever heard. It was overwhelming, full of pathos and I left the hall with those incredible overtones hanging in my ears for hours.
A couple of hours later, I was onstage when I glanced up and saw Lubomyr, true to his word, stood in the audience watching me attentively. I felt incredibly nervous. It's not everyday you get to play for someone who has greatly inspired and influenced your own music. After the show, I packed up my guitar and came out to meet the crowd. The first person who greeted me was Lubomyr: friendly. full of enthusiasm and keen to hear about my music, my processes, the way in which I made music. Yet again, I was overwhelmed - for very different reasons.
"You have invented continuous music for guitar!"
I don't know if that's true or not, but I can't think of an epitaph that would make me prouder.
We also spoke about collaborating that night and via e-mail a while after, but it wasn't until January 2012, shortly after I'd moved back to Hastings, England from Ann Arbor, Michigan and Lubomyr played his first ever show in the UK at Cafe Oto that it came to fruition. John Chantler got in touch, said Lubomyr had a free day after his performance and could I come to London for a day, see what happens? He kindly agreed to record the whole thing.
We all met at the Vortex Jazz Cafe around midday. We set up, Lubomyr at the grand piano, me directly facing him with my 12-string guitar and began. I would retune at random between songs and together we would find interesting chord progressions, hints of melodies and ways in which to weave those immense overtones that Lubomyr is able to generate on the piano with those of my guitar. No more than two takes per song. Improvisation, spontaneous composition, whatever you want to call it. Either way, it truly felt as if the piano and guitar were as one - inseparable, parts of a bigger whole, a means by which for two people to make one sound. It never felt forced and never less than engaging. Lubomyr was always humble, jovial and open to ideas. The whole session lasted six hours.
I'm not a great improviser. I always want to take that raw creative element that the form brings and work upon it, to distill and refine it further. I think Lubomyr feels the same. But there is something about these recordings that would be incredibly difficult to recapture. A small moment in time, feeling perfectly and wonderfully lost within that sound.
I'm honoured.
James Blackshaw, October 2012." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| BLEGVAD, PETER / JOHN GREAVES |
Kew. Rhone |
CD |
"The classic restored. No extra tracks, just this legendary release as it was originally conceived. Kew Rhone was made soon after Peter and John left Henry Cow, at Carla Bley and Mike Mantler’s Grog Kill studio in New York (they both appear on the CD). Fellow conspirators included singer Lisa Herman and drummer Andrew Cyrille. It’s one of those records which sums up a moment; a creative moment in which ideas have come into clear focus, and just need to be got down; an historical moment at which an innovative, collaborative run of cultural luck is about to run out. It couldn’t have been made earlier or later, we’re just lucky it got made at all." [ReR website short info]
"For decades this was a cult item. People fought about it. The songs are accessible, but difficult, the music - recorded at Carla Bley and Mike Mantler’s studio back in the JCOA days - is eccentric, extremely complex, but still catchy. Bley, Mantler and the legendary Andrew Cyrille all appear on it in arrangements that are… pretty off the wall. It’s rock, it’s jazz, it’s a song cycle, it’s a one-off hybrid with some traces of Henry Cow and Escalator over the Hill, it’s deep or indulgent, or both – but whichever line of approach you adopt, it’s art. And that makes it a major achievement. It also manages to be funny and charming while taking no prisoners in the high intellect department.
After the Henry Cow/Slaphappy merger, Peter left and John followed him a year or so later. The two of them then concocted this highly ambitious project - a marriage of high literary ambition full of Ouliposeque anagrams, palindromes, missing letters and wordgames, and meticulous musical complexity rooted in show music, jazz and the fringes of experimental rock. The album design, text and musical content together embody a continuous, integrated, work: so the texts refer to the artwork (both are by Peter Blegvad) and vice versa; neither quite makes sense without the other.
Pop Triva Fact: Kew. Rhone was released on the same day, and on the same label, as the Sex Pistols's Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" [press release]
"Completely and utterly unlike any other album you're likely to come across. Ever." Andy Gill NME
"How in the name of God could anyone take lyrics so oblique, so obscure, so cerebral and fashion such a memorable tune out of them?"
Jonathan Coe (author of The Rotter’s Club)
“A neglected masterpiece of surreal rock…a musical Finnegan’s Wake”
Clive Bell. The Wire.
"A neglected masterpiece of '70s progressive rock” Stewart Mason, AllMusic.
"The classic restored. No extra tracks, just this legendary release as it was originally conceived. Kew Rhone was made soon after Peter and John left Henry Cow, at Carla Bley and Mike Mantler’s Grog Kill studio in New York (they both appear on the CD). Fellow conspirators included singer Lisa Herman and drummer Andrew Cyrille. It’s one of those records which sums up a moment; a creative moment in which ideas have come into clear focus, and just need to be got down; an historical moment at which an innovative, collaborative run of cultural luck is about to run out. It couldn’t have been made earlier or later, we’re just lucky it got made at all." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| BLOCK, OLIVIA |
Pure Gaze |
CD |
"Block is an electro-acoustic and modern instrumental composer whose recorded compositions combine layered, processed wind and string instruments with processed sound from sections of field recordings she has collected from various natural landscapes. Her performances include minimalistic scored musical sections played live by a quintet accompanied by taped material, often sounds of field recordings, or the same quintet previously recorded and electronically manipulated. Block herself 'plays' found objects and instruments (trumpet). The resulting surrealistic sonic landscapes and the contrast between elements create a paradoxical element to her work. In all of her recent works she emphasizes comparisons between organic or 'real' sounds and electronic ones, and she demonstrates how electronic technology imitates natural evolution using similar sounds from both worlds. She also explores the difference between 'sound' and 'music' and the creation of experience through emotional, subjective or intellectual, objective means." [label info]
www.sedimental.com
|
1999 |
€14.00 |
|
| BLUME, FELIX |
Fog Horns |
LP |
French sound artist Félix Blume keeps pushing the boundaries of field recordings for our enjoyment. “Fog Horns” captures the sounds of boat horns in Piraeus, Athens, Greece, the port city that serves some of the most important ferry routes in Greece nowadays. Yes, boat horns are annoying, sometimes disturbing and even absurdly disrupting if you live in a port city or one that is blessed with the arrival of cruises. We all know that. But we also knew that recordings of funerals could be tricky, and Félix Blume pulled a gem out of last year’s “Death In Haiti – Funeral Brass Band & Sounds Of Port Au Prince (CREP51)”.
And he has done it again. The A side reveals a long track recorded during a fog horn concert whilst side B features three ‘remixes’ of the same recordings, paying respect to what Ingram Marshall did in “Fog Tropes” in three different ‘movements’. In a way, B side sounds like the perfect soundtrack for the recent remake of “Suspiria”. But Thom Yorke got in the way.
Jokes aside, there’s something magical about these horns. In the eighteen minutes of the first side, Félix Blume explores the concept of a concert played by those horns. The horns dominate but sounds of the surroundings create a perfect balance to the drone hysteria. The surrounding sounds are the heartbeat of this track. The horns are the metal section of an orchestra, while the rest works like the strings. Hidden melodies are revealed when you listen to this with your full attention, and the more you do it, the horns become less present, vivid. It’s one of the many crafts of Félix Blume, the more you live with his music, the more you focus outside the plot.
If those eighteen minutes sound tremendously real, the three tracks on the other side feel like a horror film. The warmth disappears to become cold ambiance, beautifully textured and enigmatic sounds take over. Horns are still heard, but they’re a different kind of horns. It seems that Félix Blume is playing with our perception, from bliss to horror. A honk will never be the same again.
With collage artwork by Evan Crankshaw.
Recorded by a AB Setup with two B&K 4006 microphones, on a 633 Sound Devices recorder, in Wave 96kHz 24bit.
Side A is the recording, without any effect and only light editing, EQ and mixing.
Side B is a sound creation, mostly playing with the speed and some repetition, done with the material of Side A.
TRACKS
A1. Fog Horns (18’04)
B1. Horns in Fog pt1 (4’51)
B2. Horns in Fog pt2 (4’33)
B3. Horns in Fog pt3 (5’44)
www.felixblume.com/foghorns/ |
2019 |
€21.50 |
|
| BOB DOWNES OPEN MUSIC |
Episodes at 4 am |
CD |
"Bob Downes is most often thought of as a jazz flautist, composer and group leader, but throughout his varied career that has included such diverse musical activity as working with the John Barry Seven and playing on Egg’s second LP, he also had his own fluid conceptual group “Open Music” with principle bass player Barry Guy and drummer Denis Smith. Other players that passed through Open Music include Chris Spedding, Kenny Wheeler, Ray Russell, Ian Carr, Henry Lowther, Harry Beckett, Harry Miller, Barre Phillips, John Stevens and many others. Besides the free jazz and jazz rock influences, Bob Downes has also been involved in much experimental music. After his early 70s releases on Philips, Vertigo and Music For Pleasure there appeared a series of 3 private pressed LPs on his own label Openian that explored this more experimental style. “Episodes at 4 am” is the second in this series and is by far the strangest of the three.
Released in 1974 and commissioned by the Welsh Dance Theatre, it consisted of 10 short duos performed by Wendy Benka on zither, dulcimer and small percussion, and Downes on flutes, various percussion and plenty of electronic manipulation. Nearly every sound on this LP was processed using a variety of shimmering delays, controlled feedback, reverb and speed change to create a haunting and delerious mix of musical styles and atmospheres.
Taken from the master tapes, this 33 minute LP has been expanded for the CD release with 35 minutes of previously unreleased experimental works, mostly from the same period, that cover even more ground than the LP, including one piece made entirely from the sounds of various phone booths on the streets of New York." [label info]
www.stalk.net/paradigm
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| BOCKSHOLM |
Ironic Discomfort and Cheesy Manners |
CD |
It took four years.
First we didn\'t dare to do it; to cause a moral disaster.
But here we are, and we want to do it and we don\'t regret anything because the album has just been released.
In 2014 Bocksholm performed live in the outer domains of Boxholm for the first and probably last time.
Performing a mashed up \'Best of\' live-set in front of native clogs audience, amongst inbreeders and the commonly disabled, in the band\'s own natural habitat and backyard, it couldn\'t be anything but success.
Wine and vodka flooded like a deluge in everyones throats, black clogs were thrown on the stage from the very first second, the home-distilling machines went overheated, the women-raping-men rates hit the ceiling of the local ironworks and the ancestor Stenbock himself turned in his grave not only once but six times.
Now you can experience the same, if you dare to buy the Ironic Discomfort And Cheesy Manners.
Somehow this album will become a homage to the cheese manufacturing in Boxholm, that sadly will stop by the end of 2019 because of greedy owners that found a way to save money by moving the manufacturing too another town far away.
After this things will never be the same in Boxholm, a huge loss of cultural identity not only for the town itself but probably also for the Bocksholm project.
At least, there will still be iron.
Maybe... more
credits
released July 10, 2019
Executed live by Peter Andersson and Peter Andersson 2014-2015.
All pieces melted and forged by Peter Andersson and Peter Andersson 1998-2014.
K-14 level mastering by Peter Andersson 2019.
Artwork designed by Peter Andersson based on photos of the remains of Sweden\'s first electric locomotive built in Boxholm 1890.
Tracklist:
1. Scoria 06:40
2. The Horror Of Kisa 07:40
3. Stenbock And His Diciples 06:22
4. Mobil Oil 05:49
5. Forging Hammers 06:54
6. Birath, The Beast Of The Forge 06:16
7. Smiden Utaf Järn Och Stål 03:46
8. Pounding The Perpetual Nail 04:37
9. The Brittle Dross Of Irony 06:45
10. Dairy Exequies 03:17
11. Boxholm Seven Minutes After Death 06:53
12. The Koeven Nightmare 09:56
Track 01-06 recorded on 8 August 2015 at Hulterstad Sounds Festival, Granforsen, Boxholm, Sweden.
Track 07-10 recorded on 17 October 2014 at Machines with Magnets, Pawtucket RI, USA.
Track 11-12 recorded on 29 March 2014 at Wrotycz Records 10 Years Anniversary Festival, Poznan, Poland.
|
2019 |
€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 |
|
| BOMIS PRENDIN / MAMA BAER |
Die Zöglinge der Dalaia Lama |
LP |
"Now here is one of those names which I remember seeing in the past, and even have a couple of pieces on that Bain Total compilation LP (from 1980), but honestly don't remember, nor having heard any of their other work. I do remember they released two flexi discs, which I thought was cool. I am quite surprised to see they are still around and apparently they never stopped. This seventh installment of split LPs by Mama Baer and Kommissar Hjuler has five pieces by them, from 1994 to 2005. Bomis Prendin sound very much like boys who never grew up. If you are old enough to remember the late 70s/early 80s were a fertile ground for experimenting with sound, usually from a rock context. Armed with guitars, bass, drums, keyboards but also toys and loose circuits they create what was then called 'no wave', and after thirty years Bomis Prendin still manages to create the same kind of music, like they never learned a bit on their guitar, or notions about melody, rhythm, timbre. A very free sound
- the real anybody can do this. I have no idea if these tracks are very representative of the old sound, but somehow I think they do. In their most recent piece they sound suddenly strangely coherent - hammering away in free rock mode. I was playing some old Metabolist record the other day, and this came close to that. Excellent (re-)discovery. On the other side we have Mama Baer, solo this time. Her work, either solo or Der Kommissar, always leaves me puzzling, to say the least. They seem to be operating very much on the outside of the musical spectrum, with what seems at times therapeutic music. Here however there is one piece that covers the entire side of the record of tape (reel-to-reel) manipulations which sound like an older Nurse With Wound record of manipulated voice (pitched up high) and a woman moaning, far away percussion and microphone abuse. Excellent piece all around. Very thoughtful, so these people aren't that crazy I thought." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.psych-kg.de
|
2011 |
€20.00 |
|
| BORGA, ASCANIO |
Xenomorphic |
CD-R |
"... It seems to me that his music has made a nice step forward. Until now it was all mainly non-rhythmic ambient music in the best Hypnos tradition of heavily treated guitar works, here he adds percussion, windchimes, Japanese carillon, frog guiro, samples, found sounds and objects. Three long pieces and one shorter coda 'Raw Ground' at the end of the release. The music is still largely in the ambient sector, with the addition of pseudo ethnic drumming and careful percussion. Somewhere towards the end of 'Apnea' e-bow guitars come in, adding an extra texture of seventies cosmic music. Still there is nothing new under the sun for Borga, but these new pieces mark an important step forward, the deepening of the sound of Borga. It makes a fuller, richer sound, still with all things beautiful. Borga wants to lull you to sleep, late at night and he does a very fine job at that. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Ascanio Borga is an italian guitarist, electronic musician and independent composer. After years of piano lessons attended during his childhood, he decided to leave formal musical studies to become a self-taught guitarist. He approached rock music and computers, learning to use the famous Amiga 500 Soundtracker. He began to play in various noise-rock bands and to record instrumental pieces for guitar, piano, and sampler, progressively approaching experimental music. In 1997, at the time when he was a student at the Faculty of Cinema, he released a cassette of "lo-fi" electronics entitled "Music For Non-Airports". Soon afterwards he left University to attend a professional course of recording techniques and digital audio, continuing to play in various rock bands for some more time. Later he began to create electronic suites for synthesizers and treated instruments, introducing more personal elements in his compositions, and at the same time he undertook the study of Mathematics. In 2001 he started to publish his music in the form of self-released CD-R albums credited to his own name. In the meantime, having completed his studies, he began to work as a programmer/consultant in the software industry. As an audio technician, besides mixing and mastering his own music, he did mastering work for several other musical productions, and also produced sound effects for various stage plays. Ascanio Borga is also an occasional writer and his personal website includes various movie, music, art reviews and essay about science and philosophy. Among his recently self-released albums we'd like to mention "Inner Geometry" (2001), "Liquid Symmetries" (2002), "Bad Ground" (2006) and "Peripheral Vision" (2007). "Xenomorphic", Ascanio's latest offering on Afe, literally evokes something "with a strange form", something unfamiliar that appears alien to us, defying our logic comprehension, and therefore generating tension, disquietude and even anguish in us, but it represents something terribly vital and dynamic at the same time, something whose possibilities are still unknown. Mixing guitars, bass, synthesizers, samples, percussions, objects, field-recording and even more sources, "Xenomorphic" is probably Ascanio's most evoluted work. With its feet in Ambient territory, the album features a wide range of musical solutions, showcasing the author's will to create a work where appearently distant elements converge and experimentation is put into a more accessible form." [label info]
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
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 |
|
| BORIS WITH MERZBOW |
Gensho |
do-CD |
"Renowned Japanese innovators BORIS WITH MERZBOW have teamed up with Relapse for their new collaborative 2xCD/4xLP Gensho, one of the artists' most daring works to date. Named after the Japanese word for "phenomenon", Gensho is a unique release featuring over 150 minutes of new music spread across two CDs and four LPs, available as two separate double LP sets or a deluxe 4xLP edition. The BORIS songs are completely new, percussion-less reinventions of classic tracks from the band's storied catalog, while MERZBOW's songs are entirely new compositions. The two sets are intended to be played at the same time at varying volumes so that the listener can experience their own "gensho/phenomenon" every time. As with every BORIS WITH MERZBOW release, the only thing to expect is the unexpected, lending the album near-infinite potential for aural discovery and encouraging direct interactivity with the listener rarely found in such unconventional music. An untouchable paroxysm of noisy, droning experimentation!"
www relapse.com
|
2016 |
€17.50 |
|
| BORISOV, ALEXEI / OLGA NOSOVA / DAVE PHILLIPS |
Borinosophil |
CD |
listen: https://dave-phillips.bandcamp.com/album/--2
Alexei Borisov - Guitar, Electronics, Voice
Olga Nosova - Drums, Electronics, Objects
Dave Phillips - Bass, Electronics, Voice, Field Recordings
released by Monotype Records, Warsaw in an 'Ecopack' sleeve. artwork by dp.
source material recorded in Moscow in the summer of 2009. most was improvised in alexei's living-room on tiny speakers with an assemblage of instruments and objects. one track was recorded in a studio with drums, guitar, bass and vocals. the resulting hours of recorded material were analysed - most of it was dismissed - the remains were taken apart and reassembled into 5 distinctive and epic sound-compositions. loud intimate music.
arranged 2010/2011 & mastered May 2011 in Zürich by dp.
REVIEW courtesy of Frans De Waard/Vital Weekly # 839 (July 2012)
This disc has the regular performing duo of Russia's finest, Alexei Borisov and Olga Nosova. Together they traveled the world, playing together but also performing with others, such as Anton Nikkila, Matthieu Werchowski, Dora Bleu, Thomas Buckner, Tom Smith, Jandek, Anton Mobin and a_spirale and somewhere along the lines they bumped into Dave Phillips, who is best known for his radical approach to noise, silence, performance and video. This trio worked together in june 2009 in Moscow and the recordings were later on edited by Phillips. It combines the energy unleashed by Borisov/Nosova together with the more continuous sound world of Phillips and occasional rapid editing from him. It seems to me that all three go off their usual path a bit. Its not as loud as I would expect from Phillips (but maybe I am not listening in the same volume as he plays live… actually I am sure of it) and perhaps also less object based as I would expect and it seems less improvised for the duo, although I am not sure. But that leads however to music that is quite good. Densely orchestrated electronics, in which the voice of Nosova is there, but pushed away it seems, and throughout the music has a hypnotic, psychedelic feeling to it. Great stuff.
Includes unlimited streaming of БОРИНОСОФИЛ via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. less |
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| BOSETTI, ALESSANDRO |
Il Fiore della Bocca |
CD |
"Produced in 2003 for the sound art department of a german radio station, "Il Fiore della Bocca" is one of the most controversial text sound compositions by Alessandro Bosetti. Composed exclusively with the voices of physically and mentally handicapped people, the piece displays an impressive richness, depth and variety of sound, covering the full range of musical possibilities of the spoken voice; from heavily processed to completely unprocessed, naked and direct. The piece has an ambiguous nature that lies somewhere between an experimental radio play and an extended, powerfully voice driven, noise composition. Bosetti has taken an impressive journey into what is commonly perceived as "disturbing". He has thus engaged in a process of transformation and metamorphosis with both the sound materials and their perceptions in order to develop musical beauty out of these "abnormal" voices.
A long series of conversations, where spastic, aphasic and larynx-less persons are confronted with examples of "deconstructed voice" (in the tradition of experimental music and sound poetry), has been the core of a two year long intimate relationship with those speakers and the starting point of the compositional process. All commentaries, reflections and reactions had been recorded in order to create a new composition with those collected materials. Similar to his other text sound pieces like "African Feedback", "Everyday Objects", "The Listeners", "The Mouth" or "Zwölfzungen", conversations, human interaction, comprehension and misunderstanding are essential to this piece. Since it's premiere on Deutschland Radio Kultur in 2004, it has been performed many times; in presence of the original speakers and in several live multichannel performances which provocated a wide and passionate range of reactions and discussions. "Il Fiore della Bocca", is intended as a piece in the form of a flower, either one of the red roses Claudia is singing about in the middle section of the composition, or a mouth-flower, as the title suggests. Also, a flower close in inspiration to the weathered, ephemeral and dying flowers that Zeami used to describe the quality of Nô theater actors. It's a piece based on love, human interaction and the contemplation of differences which reaches the point where the extremely different becomes the same.
Recorded and composed between September 2002 and August 2003 in Milan and Berlin.
First broadcasted by Deutschland radio Kultur, October 24th, 2003." [label info]
www.rossbin.com/rs025.htm
|
2006 |
€6.00 |
|
| BOUCHARD, CHRISTIAN |
Fractures |
CD |
"Following the completion of his college studies in guitar, he makes his first recording in 1995, Factotum, devoted to the prepared guitar. At around the same time, he collaborates on the production of radio programs where he performs his first electroacoustic attempts. A year later, these compositions will grant him access to the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. There he completes his master’s degree under Yves Daoust and receives the Prize in Electroacoustic Composition. He receives several prizes in composition: the SOCAN Young Composers Competition (Canada, 1998); the Canadian Electroacoustic Community’s competition Jeu de temps / Times Play (CEC, Canada, 2000); the biennial acousmatic composition competition Métamorphoses 2002 (Brussels, Belgium). His music has been broadcasted in Canada and abroad, but it can also be heard on film and in installations. Christian Bouchard also works as a soundman and sound designer for film and video.
“Angle mort” (2001-02), “Trois miniatures en suite” (1997), “Parcelles 1” (2002-03), “Parcelles 2” (2003)." [label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
| BOY DIRT CAR |
Spoken Answer |
CD |
"In one of the most unlikely reunions of recent years, seminal Milwaukee noise group Boy Dirt Car announces the release of its first new recordings since 1988. Spoken Answer To A Silent Question brings together several original members -- co-founder Darren Brown, Keith Brammer and Dan Kubinski (Die Kreuzen), T.S. Wahlen and Dave Szolwinski -- and, consistent with Boy Dirt Car's classic revolving-door lineup, brings in several newcomers, including longtime Milwaukee mainstays Peder Hedman, Karl Paloucek and Jeff Hamilton. For much of the 1980s, Milwaukee was home to Boy Dirt Car's brooding sound. Influenced as much by Wisconsin's brutal winters and the dark tales of its North Woods as by any of their avant garde contemporaries, the group forged a sound different from other so-called 'industrial' bands of the day. As one reviewer once put it, 'Boy Dirt Car creates a sound not like being in a car crash, but of being under one.' Just as it cadged its industrial instrumentation from scrapyards and roadsides, BDC culled its members from across Milwaukee's vibrant music scene of the time, building up an intense following and a reputation as one of the city's most potentially hazardous acts. At the same time, the group recorded numerous (now-legendary) cassettes and LPs which, while escaping the ears of Rolling Stone, garnered them coverage in The Wall Street Journal, and -- even more unlikely -- from late advice columnist Ann Landers." [label notes] |
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| BRAZINSKIS, RIHARDS & RAITIS UPENS |
Aldaris |
CD |
"Filled with ethno-grief and admiration at the same time, “Aldaris” is a mental time travel back to such a mighty and noble age in Riga when the factories rumbled, stone houses rose up one after another and the whole city rapidly turned from a fusty medieval fortress into the modern layout of the city we still live in. It’s an adoration of a great socially economical prosperity which existed not so long ago, but quite unbelievable from the current perspective.
The historical factory of the beer brewery Aldaris (The Brewmaster in Latvian) had its inception around the year 1865. It’ a living monument of brick architecture of the industrial era which preserves and silently retells the Latvian land’s legacy of the past 150 years. Nowadays this total glory stands contrastingly in a midst of a quite humble and remote outskirt named Sarkandaugava (Red river Daugava in Latvian).
The whole territory of the factory is organized in quarters of buildings – very characteristic style of that time. Although many of the original buildings has been rebuilt or even demolished, the common look remains largely intact. The specific building we made our recordings in was neglected since 1976 till the renovation started in 2014.
During the repairing period we had the luck to freely interact with the old beer kettles made in year 1938 which now are part of Aldaris beer museum located there. Also we recorded a beer brewing process in the same building and surrounding atmospheres in the whole area. Recordings were made in several stages with the last and most extensive session hold on March 1, 2015 and thus precisely matching the release date of this CD.
As far as we’re concerned this should be the first beer related work in the world of field recording based audio expressions. And it’s an honor it’s hosted in such an important country in beer culture as Belgium. Enjoy!" [Rihards Brazinskis]
|
2017 |
€14.00 |
|
| BRESCHAND, HELENE |
Les Incarnes |
LP |
"New solo recorded in Paris, December 2013. Harp, acoustic and electric, voice. 'Hélène Breschand demonstrating her readiness to deconstruct her instrument's identity...'." [Julian Cowley THE WIRE]
www.dautrescordes.com
"Hélène Breschand plays her harp in as wide a variety of ways as is possible to imagine (and some which might be less obvious), at times sounding like she is letting rip in an electric guitar, prepared piano, zither and effects pedals all simultaneously. What it doesn’t really sound like is the limpid waftings of angels serenading the hosts of heaven, unless said host happens to be in a very avant-garde state of mind at the time. As side A draws to a melancholic close, it plinks, bends and twangs with softly swerving resonances and reverberations, plus the occasional whack of the harp’s frame for good measure.
Side B opens with notes held in soft tension, Breschand’s breath becoming more audible among slow accretions of metal strings swept and slung in a slow progress while she brings forth a long drawn-out song composed more of emotional intonations than of individually discernible words. The whole is delivered initially with echoes of the stately grace of a koto-accompanied Noh, though the piece eventually dissolves into reflective sweeps of panning delay and the arrival of harsher effects and discordances.. The way in which Breschand makes the harp resonate like a cello or violin is exceptional, and as it buzzes and shimmers into tightly-controlled flurries of feedback and reverb, the booming finale of Les Incarnés is delivered in gathering clusters of remarkable intensity.
This is meditative music, but not the kind full of new age vapidity; rather it is the sound of a musician exploring and stretching the boundaries of her instrument with a deep concentration. Her (presumably) furrowed brow and the evident rapt attention paid to the sounds she is making is audibly transmitted directly to the listener; and is a joy to be swept up by and absorbed into."
[Richard Fontenoy/FREQ]
"The harp is not an instrument we hear on a daily basis, here at the weekly HQ, but of course there are some players in this field, Rhodri Davies for instance is quite active. I never heard of Helene Breschand, who works from contemporary music to jazz, both solo as well as a chamber musician, including improvisation, musical theatre and visual arts. She has performed works by Luciano Berio, Emmanuel Nunes, Yoshihisa Taira, David Toop and Christian Marclay and has founded the group Laborintus. Both pieces on this new record are called 'Les Incarnes'. These pieces have hardly anything to do with jazz or contemporary music, unless of course radically sparse improvisation is what you call contemporary and/or jazz. She plays electric and acoustic harp and uses her voice and both pieces are excellent in a way that these are very intense, quiet most of the times but with a lot tension underneath. She uses a delay pedal occasionally and strums her instrument, bows it, plucks it and uses her voice in pretty much the same way. Not to accompany her, but to create something that fits her unworldly playing of the harp. On the B-side she bends the harp to go a bit more extreme levels and even mildly distorted, but here too it remains to have a certain austerity. Excellent record!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
| BRUNNEN |
The Beekeeper's Dream |
CD |
Eine Art Retrospektive von der BEEQUEEN-Hälfte mit seinen melancholisch-süssen, folk-angehauchten Homerecording-Ambient-Songs… einiges davon ist wohl bereits auf anderen Formaten schonmal erschienen, aber vieles scheint auch neues Material zu sein.
“Brunnen reveals that part of Beequeen's Freek Kinkelaar which is the strange wandering minstrel/alchemist (half-orc cleric with a +2 mace). If only more records were so cogently perplexing. A slightly cinematically arranged, quasi-psychedelic little dear of a hushed pop song opens the album. Freek's vocals sublimate in a pleasant whisper, not unlike (ahem) a quieter Yo La Tengo song. Freek, perhaps true to his name, does not hesitate to then very, very slowly weave together a spacious tone poem whose initial notes live counties apart, concocting an outré sort of high lonesome that might sonically drift across the same sort of plain as Wenders' Paris, Texas does visually. Kinkelaar's vocal delivery tugs at shirt tails ala Just Drifting era Psychic TV balladry or introspective LPD. Subtly amplified guitars chime quietly against slo-mo keyboards, occasional samples, tablas and air. An understated rave-up of Trust In Me from The Jungle Book is a nice exclamation point. A musical sandwich, really, with the outer psychedelic pop buns keeping the avant-garde middle meat warm.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
The Beekeeper's Dream |
LP |
Eine Art Retrospektive von der BEEQUEEN-Hälfte mit seinen melancholisch-süssen, folk-angehauchten Homerecording-Ambient-Songs… einiges davon ist wohl bereits auf anderen Formaten schonmal erschienen, aber vieles scheint auch neues Material zu sein.
Diese limitierte Vinyl-Version ist auch gleichzeit Teil 3 der RECORDS ARE NOT FOR BAKING – Serie, die es im Abo auch mit Bonus pic-12“ gibt!
“Brunnen reveals that part of Beequeen's Freek Kinkelaar which is the strange wandering minstrel/alchemist (half-orc cleric with a +2 mace). If only more records were so cogently perplexing. A slightly cinematically arranged, quasi-psychedelic little dear of a hushed pop song opens the album. Freek's vocals sublimate in a pleasant whisper, not unlike (ahem) a quieter Yo La Tengo song. Freek, perhaps true to his name, does not hesitate to then very, very slowly weave together a spacious tone poem whose initial notes live counties apart, concocting an outré sort of high lonesome that might sonically drift across the same sort of plain as Wenders' Paris, Texas does visually. Kinkelaar's vocal delivery tugs at shirt tails ala Just Drifting era Psychic TV balladry or introspective LPD. Subtly amplified guitars chime quietly against slo-mo keyboards, occasional samples, tablas and air. An understated rave-up of Trust In Me from The Jungle Book is a nice exclamation point. A musical sandwich, really, with the outer psychedelic pop buns keeping the avant-garde middle meat warm.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€17.00 |
|
| BRUYNDONCKX, JAN |
Rails and other Tracks |
LP |
First ever release of concrete and electronic collage works by Belgian underground sound explorer Jan Bruyndonckx. This album contains autonomous compositions, music for film and documentary all independently recorded in his private studio between 1958 and 1965.
A small collection of adventurous and mysterious sound evocations with text/poetry (Paul De Vree) recited by Julien Schoenaerts.
https://lasciedoree.be/shop/lp/jan-bruyndonckx-rails-and-other-tracks-lp/
"Metaphon’s guided tour of Belgian avant garde crypts leads to a mind-blowing first ever showcase of Jan Bruyndonckx 1958-65 autonomous compositions, plus concrète and electronic works for film and documentary - a 100% must-check for early electronics heads, from Henry and Schaffer at the GRMC, to Tod Dockstader in Hollywood.
Identifying another hole in the history books of experimental music, ‘Rails and Other Tracks’ yields an overdue insight to Jan Bruyndonckx’ independent work at a private studio separate to the usual academies and conservatoires. Like a Belgian parallel to the pioneers of the GRMC in Paris, or more acutely the cartoonist-turned-concrète innovator Tod Dockstader in Hollywood, Bruyndonckx similarly worked closely with moving image during the same years, and its not hard to hear a visual quality to his own works, which form a brilliantly peculiar and proto-psychedelic world unto themselves in this collection. We’d wager one will only be left scratching their head not just at the music, but also the fact this gear has remained out of earshot for so long, excepting a couple of compilation appearances with Alga Marghen and Ultra Eczema many years ago.
Tapping into something of an enduring Belgian obsession with trains (as evidenced in recent aces by Ann Eysermans and Stroom’s Nosedrip), Bruyndonckx opening piece ‘Rails’ (1958) feels like a wilder, almost lysergic answer to Pierre Schaeffer’s 1948 locomotion study ‘Études aux chemins de fer’, and sets the tone for an utterly immersive dive into his work over the proceeding years. Considering the intensely laborious process of constructing concrète sound back then, his 10 minute piece ‘Diamant’ is hugely impressive not least for its duration, but also the vivid imagination at work within, while ‘Amen’ (1962) genuinely dropped our jaws with its uncannily prescient elision of screwed noir jazz samples and ‘Fiorucci’-esque vocal cut-ups - seriously what the actual fuck‽ Likewise his ‘Untitled’ work pre-echoes soundtracks to Eraserhead and La Jetée, and there’s a properly poetic sense of license to ‘Evanaaste’ (1963) with its Paul De Vree text recited by Julien Schoenarts over a more daydreamy-bucolic variant, whereas the cut-up vox of ‘Variaties’ (1960) is better compared with a Burroughs’ approach, and then there’s the avant Hanna Berberian animation workshop madness of ‘De Geometrische Eend’ (1965) to utterly polish you off." [Boomkat] |
2022 |
€22.00 |
|
| BRYARS, GAVIN |
In La |
LP |
"In Là" is the outcome of the collaboration between Gavin Bryars and the Italian visual artist Massimo Bartolini. Staged as a large-scale installation at the Luigi Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art in Prato, Italy, (the opening was in autumn of 2022 and the exhibition is still running until May this year), Bartolini transformed scaffolding into pipe organ bars, suspended from the ceiling across seven rooms of the museum as the central piece for his retrospective exhibition. It is the music played by these singular organs, composed by Bryars, that makes up the two sides of Alga Marghen's LP edition. The music of "In là" by Gavin Bryars directly refers to his experimental and conceptual territory of the early 1970s, prior to the composition of seminal works like "The Sinking of The Titanic" and "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet". "In Là" presents the composer working across the vast space of the installation, with sounds physically spread in each of the museum's rooms and placed in careful consideration of the space continuity, while at the same time never fulling being experienced in its totality by the listener. This allows the LP documentation of the work to become a singular complement to the live, real-time aural adveture, unveiling phenomena and perceptions of the work's rich tones and poetic structures that would otherwise be unavailable. While Gavin Bryars background in music is well documented (started as a jazz bassist working in the early 1960s with improvisors Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley, later worked with composers John Cage and Cornelius Cardew, founded the Portsmouth Sinfonia and collaborated with Brian Eno to the Obscure Records series), the connections of Massimo Bartolini's poetic to sound as less known. The early practice of modifying architectural or domestic devices into sound producers, eventually led Massimo Bartolini to create installations made of scaffolding tubes which are modified into the pipes of an organ. Conceived in different forms and in relation to different architectural contexts since 2008, these works clearly relate to Baroque organs, the most visual of musical instruments, and to the use of scaffolding in construction sites. From these references they adopt the quality of being part instrument part architecture, a work of sophisticated engineering, a "ladder" for climbing up to God. If Baroque organs render visible the intangibility of music, though, Bartolini's scaffolding amplifies a machine, extends its breath, turning it into music. The organ conceived for the solo survey at Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato is the largest incarnation of these series and altogether the largest installation ever conceived by the artist. Hung from a structure that runs along the museum ceiling and suspended just centimeters above the floor, Bartolini built a continuous 75-meters-long wall of scaffolding tubes which winds through seven of the ten rooms of the exhibition space. For this structure of complex engineering Gavin Bryars was invited to compose a specific polyphonic score. Assigning each room a unique melody, the composition creates a richly layered soundscape that is constantly shifting with the viewer as they move through the space. As the title suggests-alluding to the dominant tonality (La) of the piece-the score is always "beyond," out of reach, never experienced in its entirety by a single listener as, in fact, the shape of the organ itself." (label info) Edition of 400 numbered copies, including an insert with liner notes and photo documentation of the installation
|
2023 |
€22.50 |
|
| BRYARS, GAVIN / PHILIP JECK / ALTER EGO |
The Sinking of the Titanic (1969- ) |
CD |
"...GAVIN BRYARS taucht mit der Neueinspielung
seines Klassikers The Sinking Of The Titanic (Tone 34) auf der Biennale in Venedig 2005 noch einmal ein in das Wasser ohne Balken und die Luft ohne Drähte. Überlebende, 711 von 2201, gab es nur Dank Marconis drahtloser Telegraphie, wobei die 1. Klasse dreifach bessere Überlebenstüchtigkeit bewies als die 3. und die Mannschaft. Bryars selbst am Kontrabass und das italienische Ensemble Alter Ego spielen ebenfalls etwas, das ‚Autumn‘ heißt, jene episkopale Hymne, deren dritte Strophe die passende Zeile Hold me up in mighty waters; Keep my eyes on things above enthält. Philip Jeck dreht mit seinem Vinylgeknister die Zeit bis nach 1912 zurück. Dazu hört man - Legenden
gibt es immer in mehreren Versionen - den Bericht einer Zeugin, die Nearer, My God, to Thee gehört haben will. Der Unterwassersound der immer und immer wieder intonierten, aber verlangsamt und wie schon nicht mehr von dieser Welt in einer Luftblase gespielten Hymne mischt sich mit herbstlichen Assoziationen wie Grillengezirp, aber auch der raunenden Menge bei
einem Sportereignis. Jeck‘scher Sarkasmus? Die Regenmacher als perkussives Element wirken ähnlich makaber. Wäre das Pathos ohne solche V-Effekte zu stark? Oder soll es diesmal gegen Kitschverdacht hartgekocht werden, nachdem die ‘94er Version (Point Music) noch einen Kinderchor und dunkle Bläser mit versenkt und auf dem Gebein am Meeresgrund Morsezeichen getokt hatte? Wenn die White-Star-Musiker, von denen keiner überlebte, aber tatsächlich als Letztes Walzer gespielt haben? Und wenn Marconi recht hätte, dass Klänge unsterblich sind? Dann wellt sich um den Erdball, selbst wenn auch die Erinnerungen längst verdämmert, zu Bernsteintränen geronnen und zu Hollywoodmelodramen verklärt sind, eine oxymorone Kakophonie aus Entsetzensgebrüll im Walzertakt." [Bad Alchemy]
"Performed by Gavin Bryars (double bass), Philip Jeck (turntables) and Alter Ego (strings, brass, wind, percussion, keyboard, tape recorder and sound design). This version of UK composer Gavin Bryars' seminal piece, The Sinking of the Titanic, was recorded at the 49th International Festival of Contemporary Music at The Venice Biennale, October 1, 2005 at the Teatro Maliban. The Sinking of the Titanic is an open semi-aleatoric work written in 1969 and Bryars has developed versions of variable length (from 15 minutes to an hour) that have been performed in different contexts, both as sound installation and as a real concert work. The piece has its origins in an obsession (one in which Bryars meditates on the famous ship's sinking), whose evidence is in a minute handwritten notebook. This brings together information, curiosities, evidence, statistical data on the survivors, technical research on the ship, on the places occupied by the passengers, on projects for the wreck's recovery. This sinking is then a metaphor for the failure of modern technology, of the paradox of modernity, the fact that a super-technological ship could have been rammed and sunk by a block of ice. The version proposed by Alter Ego (a contemporary music group based in Rome, Italy) and Gavin Bryars is an absolutely new approach for the project and for multimedia installation. The other important new figure in this version is Philip Jeck, one of the most important names on the experimental scene. Jeck uses his experience to cover the sound with a blanket of thin dust, which, at the same time, is memory, distance, hallucination, traveling and anxiety. The dust which comes from the obsessive repetition of a short phrase and its melancholy is part of a harmony that Jeck shares with Bryars that succeeds in freezing time in another dimension. This is another important aspect of the Titanic idea: one related to memory and to lifetime, to concreteness and abstraction meant as a metaphor for the journey between life and death, the ocean's surface and depth. Gavin Bryars (double bass); Philip Jeck (turntables); Alter Ego (strings, brass, wind, percussion, keyboard, tape recorder and sound design). Limited edition of 2000 CD in a special wallet + postcard [postcard image by media artist Andrew Hooker]. Artwork by Jon Wozencroft." [press release]
www.touchmusic.org.uk
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| BUDD, HAROLD / AKIRA RABELAIS |
Avalon Sutra |
do-CD |
"Harold Budd at his very best, coupled with an extra disc featuring a 70 minute re-working by Akira Rabelais. A timeless classic on David Sylvian's Samdhisound label.
It's hard to over-estimate the contribution Harold Budd has made to modern music, his seemingly effortless take on minimalism and ambience imbuing this often academic genre with all the warmth and humility so often missing from the work of his contemporaries. Best known for his collaborations with Brian Eno and the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie, Budd here delivers 14 immensely moving pieces, strewn with Piano cascades and panoramic soundscapes, drifting off into sublime, almost unbearable reflection.
It's a theme that's further developed with the second of the two cd's here, featuring a 70 minute re-working of Budd's work by the remarkable Akira Rabelais: a breathless, beautiful tapestry of midnight strings and echoes of lost piano taking time to unravel, eventually displaying all the warmth and intimacy Budd has spent a musical lifetime striving to perfect."
"On learning that Avalon Sutra will be Harold Budd’s last ever recording, I didn’t know whether to treat this release with a
sensation of happiness or gloom . It seems hard to believe that after 30 years of composing and releasing CD’s, this demi-god
of ambient music will no longer be enlightening us with more of his beautifully crafted pearls; one can only hope that Budd will
reconsider sharing his considerable talent for us all to appreciate.
Armed with this knowledge, it would be easy to write a review that strings superlative after superlative together in Budd's
honour, but the fact is, after you’ve spent a week listening to Avalon Sutra, there is little more you can do except truthfully
recognise what is staring you plum in the face; that from the day Budd released Pavilion Of Dreams in 1978, he never lost his
touch.
Still, there can be no more fitting an epilogue to Budd’s career than Avalon Sutra - 14 tracks of contemplative, blissful, ambient,
melancholy beauty, with a bonus disc, titled As Long As I Can Hold My Breath, that features an hour-long arrangement of
Budd’s work from LA-based composer Akira Rabelais - with additional production from David Sylvian.
From the haunting synthesized opening of Arabesque, featuring John Gibson’s Sopranino sax and Budd’s trademark piano
sprinkles, to the heartbreaking beauty of Budd’s own final piano-treated legacy – the closing As Long As I Can Hold My Breath,
this album is nothing short of phenomenal, and without doubt one of his greatest works to date.
Other than the sumptuous, meditative warmth of the opening track, as soon as the following It’s Steeper Near The Roses (for
David Sylvian) opens, you realise you’re in for a treat, as the painfully bittersweet violin and string arrangements envelope you in
a warmly secular cocoon. Budd then forges his way through a stunning collection of Autumnal compositions, featuring a variety
of moods that range from the achingly sad, to the medatively reflective and upliftingly beautiful, aided by a string of session
musicians (John Gibson, James Sitterly, Peter Kent, John Acevedo, Marston Smith) on saxophone, violin and cello.
Most artists end the career on a low, virtually none will end it on anything as highly creative as this. Don’t miss Budd at his best,
on stunning ambient tracks such as Little Heart and Chrysalis Nu, even his song titles carry emotion – A Walk In The Park With
Nancy (In Memory). I could go on and on trying to describe this album, but words cannot always accurately do justice to music
of such quality and depth. All I will say is that there isn’t a single wasted note on Avalon Sutra.
In a world where backslapping acclaim is over-congratulatively thrown around like breadcrumbs to pidgeons, Budd stands alone
as a class act that truly merits every plaudit handed to him. His music will be missed - in the same way that we miss the autumn
in summer and the spring in winter." [Barcode Review] |
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| BURROUGHS, WILLIAM S. |
Häxan: Witchcraft through the Ages |
CD |
"The cult 1922 silent film, with 1968 narration by beat poet William S. Burroughs. Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary 1922 film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious; instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous. In 1968, an abbreviated version of the film (77 minutes) was released. This version features an eclectic jazz score by Daniel Humair (played by a quintet including Jean-Luc Ponty on violin and Daniel Humair on percussion) and dramatic narration by William S. Burroughs. The artwork features great stills from the film. Daniel Humair, percussion. Bernard Lubat, piano organ. Guy Pedersen, double bass. Jean-Luc Ponty, violin. Michel Portal, sax, flute." [label info]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| BURT, WARREN |
The Animation of Lists and the Archytan Transpositions |
do-CD |
Kompositionen für mikrotonale Stimmgabeln: einzelne glockenklare absolut „reine“ Töne, eine meditative & äussert minimale Atmosphäre ausstrahlend, erinnert an Arbeiten von CHRISTINA KUBISCH. To discover.
“There are any number of ways to hear Warren Burt's music for tuning forks; as many ways as there are listeners, probably. The most immediate one is simply to revel in its beauty and enjoy the music as sound. Or, to be more accurate, as clouds of sound; sonic colors that momentarily hover here and there, as they move slowly across the musical horizon.
Of course, Warren Burt's music may also be heard as the mature work of a major experimental composer, one secure in his craft, and still filled with a sense of sonic adventure. An explorer in sound. A composer willing to experiment with multiple versions of the same piece, not to mention one who allows chance to determine the precise placement of the composite pitches of his three individually composed lines.
For the more technically minded, these songs, for ultimately that's what they become on repeated hearing, can also be recognized as microtonal music. This is music that uses pitches smaller than a half-step; music that explores the sounds between the keys of the piano‹in this case, from 19 to 53 pitches to the octave, instead of the usual twelve. And even though most people rarely think of tuning in general, much less of microtonal tunings, it is an idea that has always been around. In the twentieth century this search for alternative tunings can be traced from Harry Partch and Lou Harrison in the first half of the century, through La Monte Young and Ben Johnston in the latter half, to Glenn Branca, Kyle Gann, and Michael Harrison today. The power of music, according to all of these composers, is, first and foremost, inherent in the tuning. So it should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Warren Burt's music to learn that he, too, is a card-carrying member of this group. Warren is, after all, a composer who not only innately hears, but also cares greatly, about such minute differences in pitch. In his music, these differences matter on a fundamental level.
But what are these sonic differences? And what is a listener supposed to hear? Ben Johnston once described the shift in experience from listening to music played in equal temperament to hearing a microtonal performance as the sudden fine-tuning of an out-of-focus TV. Ben also once said that equal temperament could sound like varying shades of grey. Others, in less subtle terms, have described hearing microtonal music as the difference between seeing a Technicolor movie, and watching one in black-and-white. For the average listener‹once they realize that the enjoyment of microtonal music is about the tinting and the shading of the sound, and doesn't require superhuman hearing‹what they begin to notice first are the new colors and the spaciousness of the sound.
But what do I hear in Warren's music that attracts me so? I listen to the combinations of tones, each aggregate of which‹because the tuning is acoustically pure and non-tempered‹sounds clearer and more colorful, with unique personalities, and, sometimes, more of an edge. In this tuning, the chance-determined pairings of the composed lines always ring true, with even the dissonances vibrating cleanly, free of acoustic distraction, and with no sonic clutter to muddy up the sound. And within this microtonal world, sounds combine without losing their individuality, as the music slowly reveals its pitch and rhythm in slow, unhurried, chance-determined clouds of sound. In Warren Burt's hands, these tuning forks become some strange new instrument, complete with its own exotic tuning system, singing its songs somewhere on the verge of memory.” [label description]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| BUT I'M NOT (PAWEL GRABOWSKI) |
DAEMON TRANCES I-VI |
CD |
This album is about trauma and PTSD.
The music portrays the emotional loop...
the continuous reminiscing about the traumatic event
the never-ending anxiety and
paralyzing panic attacks...
... from which a traumatized person simply cannot escape.
I call this state the daemon trance
(and, unfortunately, I know it far too well...)
Recorded between January and May 2021 at SINE studio, Ireland.
but I'm not is Pawel Grabowski (processed live instruments, field recordings, objects.)
Mastering - Colin Potter at IC Studio, August 2021
Cover photo: Artur Mieczkowski (www.instagram.com/anxious_93/)
https://silenceisnotempty.bandcamp.com/album/daemon-trances-i-vi
"It's been a long time since I heard music by Pawel Grabowski (check Vital Weekly 414, 424, 492 and 508, but following that flurry of releases, it all went quiet for him. That was "mostly due to family, and life in general". Now he has a new moniker and a new label. The new name is But I'm Not (lower case, except for 'I'), and on 'Daemon Traces I-IV' he wanted to compose that captures that unique state is known only to people suffering from the
aftermath of a traumatic event". According to the cover, it is something that he is "unfortunately all too familiar with". "Each of the six compositions portrays different aspects of what a traumatized person goes through, often every day - the continuous reminiscing about the traumatic event". This is one of those things of which I think "had I not known this, would I have heard it?". I guess not, but my personal view towards music is a very 'absolute' one. Music is never about anything. Anything attached to music to make it about something is not music; they are words used, descriptions, images (a record cover), that kind of thing. Grabowski explains the nature of the trauma for none of these six pieces, which leaves something to imagine, I guess, but also a hole in our knowledge (why not go all the way). Grabowski uses "processed live instruments, field recordings and objects". It is a pity that these live instruments are not specified. I hear a piano on quite a bit on the pieces,
solemnly slow bangs on the keys, Gregorian voices in the first one (which I think that Grabowski went all gothic, but, good news, he didn't), a fair bit of synthesizers and sound effects and the samples of marbles in a bowl (also in the opener). Some of the other sounds are harder to define. Throughout the music solemn, slow and very moody. A bipolar disorder, with some extreme darkness and extreme happiness, is not to be found here. Grabowski reminded me what I thought of his older releases in a private letter, but they are so far away in the past that I don't remember them. Therefore it is not easy for me to say to what extent this new one is different from his previous releases. I think this is a solid album, a severe one, and while the subject is not very well spend on me, I can see that he's serious in creating music that paints a picture of those suffering from trauma and PTSD. [FdW / Vital Weekly]
FULL PRESS RELEASE:
About daemon trances
“Daemon trances I-VI tells a story about experiences of living with trauma and PTSD.
My objective when composing this music was to capture that unique state known only to people suffering from the aftermath of a traumatic event.
And so, each of the six compositions portrays different aspects of what a traumatized person
goes through, often every day – the continuous reminiscing about the traumatic event, the
never-ending anxiety, paralyzing panic attacks...
For my use, I refer to this state as the “daemon trance,” and the music on this album perfectly
represents what I often struggle with in life.”
About Pawel Grabowski
Pawel Grabowski (b. 1977) – composer specializing in writing deeply personal electroacoustic and drone music.
Grabowski uses prepared instruments, field recordings, and objects to create meditative and
hypnotic compositions to convey emotions and create unique atmospheres.
He refers to his music as Imaginism.
Background:
● Although he doesn’t have a formal music education, between 1998 – 2001, Grabowski
studied double bass with a famous Polish jazz bassist, Janusz Mackiewicz.
● He also took private tuition in classical composition between 2000 - 2002, first with prof.
Krzysztof Olczak, then with prof. Eugeniusz Glowski
● He also participated in international composition workshops at the Academy of Music in
Gdansk, Poland, in 2002.
● In 2002, he was selected as one of the artists representing his home city, Gdansk, at the
Art Biennale - “ArtGenda” in Hamburg. He wrote music commissioned for various
projects of the biennale.
● In the same year, he composed a piece commissioned by the Baltic Cultural Centre in
Gdansk, showcased during a presentation of composition students of the Academy of
Music.
Career:
● Grabowski founded a chamber trio, Miasto Nie Spalo, in 1998 and recorded two albums
with the band: Festspielhaus (1998) and Piesni Zalobne I-VII/Threnodies I-VII (2000 -
released on the famous polish label, Obuh recs.)
● Between 2001 – 2006, Grabowski recorded solo, publishing his music on such labels as
Drone records, Laub records, Cronica, Mystery Sea, Dark Winter, and more.
● Since 2020, Grabowski performs as but I’m not and runs a small, independent record
label, Silence Is Not Empty.
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| BUTZMANN / KAPIELSKI |
WAR PUR WAR |
LP |
"Komponist, Hörspielautor und Performancekünstler Frieder Butzmann begann bereits Ende der 1960er Jahre im Bereich experimenteller Musik zu forschen. Butzmann wird zu den Pionieren des deutschen Industrial und als Teil der Genialen Dilettanten Bewegung gezählt. Neben zahlreichen Soloveröffentlichungen kollaborierte Butzmann auch immer wieder mit anderen Künstlern wie Genesis P-Orridge, Blixa Bargeld oder Santrra Oxyd. Mit Autor und Künstler Thomas Kapielski arbeitete Frieder Butzmann seit den frühen 1980er Jahren zusammen. Die gemeinsamen Kompositionen sind zumeist minimalistische Stücke, durchsetzt von Alltagsgeräuschen und Sprachversatzstücken. So zu hören auf ihrem Album "WAR PUR WAR", das 1987 auf Zensor erstveröffentlicht wurde und mit seiner einwilligen Mischung aus verschrobenem Electro-Pop und skurrilen Klangcollagen ein gänzlich einzigartiges Werk ist und über die Jahre zu einer gesuchten Rarität wurde. Ergänzt um zwei Bonustracks, liebevoll remastert, mit aufgearbeitetem Artwork und versehen mit unveröffentlichten Fotos und Linernotes von Frieder Butzmann, erscheint "WAR PUR WAR" nun als Neuauflage auf LP und CD bei Bureau B.
Composer, radio dramatist and performance artist Frieder Butzmann began exploring experimental music in the late 1960s. One of the pioneers of German industrial music and a member of the Geniale Dilettanten movement, Butzmann has collaborated with artists such as Genesis P-Orridge, Blixa Bargeld, and Santrra Oxyd, as well as releasing numerous solo works. Frieder Butzmann joined forces with author and artist Thomas Kapielski in the early 1980s. Most of their compositions are minimalist tracks interspersed with everyday noises and fragments of speech, as can be heard on their WAR PUR WAR album, first released on Zensor in 1987. This utterly unique work is an idiosyncratic mix of eccentric electro-pop and bizarre sonic collages and has gone on to become a sought-after collector’s item. Now lovingly remastered, with refreshed artwork and two bonus tracks, WAR PUR WAR is being reissued on LP and CD on Bureau B, complete with previously unpublished photos and liner notes by Frieder Butzmann."
https://butzmannkapielski.bandcamp.com/album/war-pur-war
|
2020 |
€20.50 |
|
| |
WAR PUR WAR |
CD |
Komponist, Hörspielautor und Performancekünstler Frieder Butzmann begann bereits Ende der 1960er Jahre im Bereich experimenteller Musik zu forschen. Butzmann wird zu den Pionieren des deutschen Industrial und als Teil der Genialen Dilettanten Bewegung gezählt. Neben zahlreichen Soloveröffentlichungen kollaborierte Butzmann auch immer wieder mit anderen Künstlern wie Genesis P-Orridge, Blixa Bargeld oder Santrra Oxyd. Mit Autor und Künstler Thomas Kapielski arbeitete Frieder Butzmann seit den frühen 1980er Jahren zusammen. Die gemeinsamen Kompositionen sind zumeist minimalistische Stücke, durchsetzt von Alltagsgeräuschen und Sprachversatzstücken. So zu hören auf ihrem Album "WAR PUR WAR", das 1987 auf Zensor erstveröffentlicht wurde und mit seiner einwilligen Mischung aus verschrobenem Electro-Pop und skurrilen Klangcollagen ein gänzlich einzigartiges Werk ist und über die Jahre zu einer gesuchten Rarität wurde. Ergänzt um zwei Bonustracks, liebevoll remastert, mit aufgearbeitetem Artwork und versehen mit unveröffentlichten Fotos und Linernotes von Frieder Butzmann, erscheint "WAR PUR WAR" nun als Neuauflage auf LP und CD bei Bureau B.
https://butzmannkapielski.bandcamp.com/album/war-pur-war
|
2020 |
€16.00 |
|
| BÜNNAGEL, JULIA |
Sounds like... Vienna |
LP |
Soundperformances im öffentlichen Raum – Ein urbaner Soundtrack für Wien. Aus Abformungen von Gehwegen und Straßenbelägen des Wiener Stadtraums stellt Julia Bünnagel Schallplatten aus Beton her. Damit bringt die Kölner Künstlerin in ihrem live DJ-Set (Turntablism) Wiener Architektur zum Klingen. Der Tonarm des Plattenspielers liest die architektonische Textur ab. Die abgegossenen Oberflächen der Straßen, die in die Schallplatten eingeschrieben sind mischen sich während den Performances SOUNDS LIKE…VIENNA mit den Geräuschen der Stadt. – überschwemmen den Platz – ein Architektur-Rave für Wien.
www.juliabuennagel.de
https://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=18469
"I’ve fallen in love with this performance video. Many people make field recordings, but few cut out circles of concrete and play them like records. And then even fewer go out in public to share what they’ve done. To our knowledge, there’s only one, which makes Julia Bünnagel a true original.
Does Sounds Like … Vienna sound like Vienna? That’s a trick question. The records literally are Vienna, so from this angle yes, the record of records one receives in the mail (to save on postage, these are made of vinyl) does sound like Vienna. The counter-point is that one should not expect the city to sound like this when one visits for the first time, unless one is fortunate enough to see the artist set up on the street outside one’s hotel. But listen deeper and one might hear the real sound of Vienna, delivered in sonic metaphor, a mesmerizing blend of repetitions and jutting angles, both rhythmic and offbeat, soothing and off-putting, until it clicks and one exclaims, “Oh, Vienna!” in a tone that may or may not echo Ultravox.
The added charm is the sound of traffic, children and other passers-by, exposing just how interested the residents of the city may be in hearing the amplifications of diamond on concrete. This may be an unprecedented level of needle abuse, all for a good cause, although our guess is that Bünnagel is not using brand new needles. Would our Technics 1200s make the same sounds? Do we really want to try? The beauty of listening is sinking into the recording, finding the tempo, just as one acclimates to a new city by immersing one’s self in the culture. If this sounds like Vienna, we might come to the conclusion that Vienna is exciting, creative, and beckoning, just as it is rumbling, vibrating, and unique. The set makes us wonder about other places that might lend themselves well to Bünnagel’s technique: the volcanic rocks of Pompeii, or the famed “concrete jungle” of New York.
We’re also imagining with some amusement the reaction to the artist should she show up at a club gig with this heavy milk crate of slabs. How many people would leave the dance floor? How many would come running? The second number is likely much lower than the first, but wouldn’t they be the crème de la crème? Wouldn’t they be the most attentive, the most curious, the most dedicated, as Bünnagel teases out the sounds lying beneath their feet? A huge thanks to the artist for playing a type of music we’ve never encountered before, despite the fact that we walk on it every day." [A Closer Listen]
|
2020 |
€18.00 |
|
| B°TONG / EMERGE / IF BWANA / GERALD FIEBIG |
Thing |
CD-R |
In 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.
With the first instalment of the THING series, attenuation circuit also celebrates the 10th anniversary of its very first vinyl release. In 2012, b°tong and EMERGE released their self-titled split LP on the label. In contrast to other split LPs, their pieces were composed specifically for this LP, with both artists sharing the same pool of sound materials to create their respective pieces. The 100 copies shared a common design created by visual artist Tine Klink, but as all sleeves were hand-painted, each copy had a recognisable, yet still unique cover. This concept earned the label a mention in recognised art director Stuart Tolley's book “Collector's Edition: Innovative Packaging and Graphics” (London: Thames & Hudson 2014).
In 2013, this album was followed up with another split LP by If,Bwana and Gerald Fiebig which followed the same musical and visual approach. Together, these two split albums formed attenuation circuit's original Vinyl Series, which was soon replaced by individually conceived vinyl albums. To celebrate the anniversary of attenuation circuit's first venture into vinyl territory, this THING collects all four sides of the two original LPs. To retain the “LP side” feel, the two pieces by If,Bwana have been transferred to the CD as only one track.
File under: drone, dark ambient, ambient
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/thing |
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| CABARET VOLTAIRE |
Mix-Up |
CD |
Cabaret Voltaire are often seen as one of the pioneering groups of the British industrial music scene in the mid 70's, much like contemporaries Throbbing Gristle they started life as a dada influenced performance art act later to focus more on the kind of subversive musical experiments that would fill the gap left by the death of the first wave of punk rock towards the end of the decade. Alongside the birth of post-punk, something of a more artsy, misanthropic kind of angst was in the air from a generation of people influenced by post-modern literature, art and controversial underground political and philosophical views. Tied in with the potential of what the coming digital age was beginning to offer for harsher, more mechanical and soulless sound experimentation, the first wave of industrial music was born.
Cabaret Voltaire leant more towards post-punk then most of their peers, and their first release in 1979's Mix-Up shows that more then anything. The Cabs would go on to be seen as a pioneering force in both industrial and electronic music in general, but the early experiments on offer here don't quite have the same feel as some of their later work. Kirlian Photograph opens Mix-Up, led by a goofy bassline, simple drum machine and a hissing, dissonant synth rhythm playing off this rhythmic interplay it is similar to much of the feel of the album. The production is dark, with a distinct analogue quality that is both detrimental to its sound and part of its appeal.
No Escape is very similar, probably a little more playful with its distorted textures and almost happy sounding melodies. Fourth Shot sounds like it could have been a Public Image Ltd. track if they dabbled in electronic sounds a little more, beginning with some electronic warbling it introduces a lonely hi-hat snare and dissonant rhythm guitar. It provides a nice wall of gloomy texture, as does Eyeless Sight, with a more pronounced old school drum machine driving it. Many of the other songs follow very similar formulas, something of underproduced old school post-punk with some electronic effects and noise experimentation. It's probably not worth pulling these apart for that mere fact, but suffice it to say despite the lack of variety the album remains an interesting listen.
Mix-Up is one of the first industrial recordings to emerge from one of it's key pioneers, and so is probably more valuable as a history lesson for most then something that is pleasurable to listen today. That is not to say this is not an appealing listen, to fans of post-punk, analogue electronic music and lo-fi in general there is plenty to enjoy. It'd probably be worth getting something like The Voice of America or Throbbing Gristle's The Second Annual Report instead. [Sputnik] |
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| CARR, KATE |
The Story surrounds us |
MC |
"Kate Carr melds the exquisite details of her field recordings with an ephemeral approach to the song. This Australian has relocated herself to London after many trips around the globe. With each orbiting journey, she has collected innumerable sounds from the urbane to the aqueous and from the frenetic to the sublime, contextualizing all of these into compositions rippling with primordial melodies through guitar, piano, and electronics. The Story Surrounds Us follows her highly acclaimed albums I Had Myself A Nuclear Spring (first released on her own Flaming Pines imprint in 2015) and Carr's debut for Helen Scarsdale in 2016, It Was A Time Of Laboured Metaphors.
Emblematic of her work is a gentle dislocation between the environmental sounds and her drone-dub ellipses of somnambulant melody. The clatter of a frozen dock or a vibrational shimmer from rustled objects or the unintelligible whispers displaces the sense of self amidst a sea of disparate symbols and coded thought. More a travelogue in and out of one's own body than to any particular place. Carr suggests "In a way, it is about restlessness, an uncomfortable tossing and turning in all these many different places, a struggle somehow to forge a connection between my own internal world and all these places and persons I have encountered. I think this holds a sense of unease and strain, with both beautiful and failed moments of intimacy and connection which are made either possible or impossible in the difficult and distorted context of being away. It is quite sad, really." Look to Carla dal Forno, Alan Lamb and those moments of clarity in the shapeshifting ethos from Jewelled Antler for neighboring sounds to Kate Carr's chimerical compositions."
www.helenscarsdale.com
"A rather fast follow-up to her last tape (It Was a Time of Laboured Metaphors, also on Helen Scarsdale), Australian sound artist Kate Carr's latest work is another entry in a rapidly growing discography that blends elements of both traditional composition and the unpredictable nature of field recordings. She does this and merges them together seamlessly, coming together as a beautiful set of sounds and moods from across the globe, yet still unified as a part of the human experience.
Elements of The Story Surrounds Us were recorded during Carr’s travels to Iceland, Mexico, Sweden, and Spain, all of which clearly had an influence on the work; most obviously in the natural recordings she utilizes throughout. The tape is bookended by two sets of untreated field recordings from Ólafsfjörður, Iceland that perfectly capture the juxtaposition of her work. The first, "The Creaking Door Of The Abandoned Concrete Factory" is half a minute of just that: creaking sounds of post-industrial decay, capturing the emptiness of what surely was once part of a thriving industry. The end is “Water Lapping at Ice on Melting Lake”: the sound of wet and watery nature decaying, no doubt exacerbated by the same industry.
Between these two most obvious field recordings lay eight songs that are never truly a-musical, but never become overly conventional either. "Things That Stubbornly And Resiliently Subsist Without Leave" features a lot of sparse, delicate guitar playing, but the musicality is broken up by mysterious, more synthetic-like passages that never become unpleasant. This combination also features heavily in "I Didn't Get A Lot of Sleep in Mexico", with light floating tones melded with processed guitar-like sounds, peppered with incidental found recordings and hints of music throughout.
A brilliant pairing of compositions is the untreated recordings of "Communication Wires In Tropical Storm, Si'an Kaan, Mexico", and their appearance in the more compositionally based "We Were The Pulse Of A Wire Pulled Tightly". The former recordings are simply the sound of undulating metallic cables whipped about in heavy winds, taking on an odd beauty that contrasts their significantly more frightening pedigree. On "We Were The Pulse…" they reappear as overt pulses and jittery echoes resonating within electronic swarms and insinuations of percussion. The final product is moody and expansive, but concludes on a much lighter, drifting note compared to its more menacing moments.
Other moments of this tape showcase Carr’s more conventional musical tendencies as well. Gentle melodies are the initial focus on "There Was a Lot of Whispering Involved", with a bit of plucked string being counterbalanced by the heavier subterranean rumble. On the whole it sounds much more traditional, but no less gripping. On the other hand, "1001 (Missed Connections)" begins with crackling voices on a PA system and ugly buzzing noises, but soon is realigned into sustained, yet chilly melodic moments. What even resembles a traditional 4/4 bass drum comes in, but just a bit too briefly.
Conceptually, The Story Surrounds Us continues Kate Carr's focus on studying the sounds of specific locations, as well as the effects of social decay and its inevitable renewal. However, the music is captivating on its own as well: a wonderful blend of composed sound blended with the incidental, ephemeral sounds that surround us at all times, culminating in a strange, sometimes almost alien, but never mundane experience." [Brainwashed]
|
2017 |
€10.00 |
|
| CARTER TUTTI VOID |
Play Chris & Cosey |
do-LP |
"Mit acht brandneuen Neuinterpretationen und Bearbeitungen von CHRIS & COSEY Klassikern aus den Achtziger und Neunziger Jahren. Die Idee zu diesem Album stammt von den sehr erfolgreichen Live Performances von ,Carter Tutti Play Chris & Cosey", die zwischen 2011 und 2014 zu einer bisher ungesehenen Serie von Shows im Vereinigten Königreich, Europa, Skandinavien und Nordamerika führten. Diese Shows führten wiederum zu einer großen Nachfrage, was Aufnahmen dieses Livesets anging, so dass sie Ende 2014 die komplette Kollektion der aufgearbeiteten Klassiker in ihrem eigenen Studio in Norfolk neu aufnahmen. Jedes Format wartet mit einem exklusiven Remix auf. Bei der CD ist das ,Vengeance" im exklusiven Remix, während das Vinyl sämtliche fünf Tracks von der Merchandising CD der Tour enthält.
Double LP version, includes all five tracks from the limited CD Remix Chris & Cosey (CTI RSDUK01, 2014). Reinterpretations and re-workings of classic Chris & Cosey songs from the 1980s and 1990s. The idea for the album originated from the pair's much-requested live performances of Carter Tutti Plays Chris & Cosey, taking place in an unprecedented series of shows in the U.K., Europe, Scandinavia, and North America from 2011 through 2014. These dates in turn instigated so many requests for recordings of the live set that they were inspired to re-record this collection of reworked classic versions in their own Norfolk studio. Housed in a gatefold sleeve." [label info]
"Carter Tutti. Chris & Cosey. There may be a semantic difference somewhere to be discussed, but this album brigades what those differences may be as the pair of Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti have crafted an album of material mined from the back catalogue of Chris & Cosey albums under the moniker Carter Tutti. Over the past four years, the couple has been touring vigorously, with the set including revamped / recorded / reengineered versions of the older Chris & Cosey material. So many people approached them with requests for the live recordings of these newer versions that they went into the studio to properly sequence these tracks for an album. And we gotta say that Carter Tutti offer up one hell of a recapitulation, and at times, they really do better themselves than what they had done back in the '80s. When Throbbing Gristle broke up and Chris & Cosey ventured out on their own, they adopted the seductive electro-pop subversion facets of TG to their own devices. Their albums eagerly consumed technology and fused any and all forms of electronics into the sexual / somatic rhythms of the human body. Admittedly, some times their ideas were hindered by the technologies that were at their disposal. Samplers that could only fire so fast and so much. MIDI programming that was limited by latency, memory, and timing issues. Jump several decades, and what Chris & Cosey did in the '80s with a bank of synthesizers and sequencers can now be done on any given phone. So many of these recapitulations work with the same set of melodies and sequences, but smoothed out the technological stumbling blocks. "Driving Blind" was one of the better tracks on their 1984 album Songs Of Love And Lust; and here, the two flesh out the arpeggiation of the sequences with a dense polyphony of streaming electronics above their whipcrack techno production - and Cosey's skulldrill monotone mantras are as compelling, delirious, and sexy as ever. "BeatBeatBeat" is one of the most refreshing recreations, mostly because the original was pretty damn annoying, again with a minimal, surgical set of cybernetic techno and Cosey reworking the vocal chorus into more of a celestial chime and less of a mosquito irritant. The S&M inspired "Sin" finds Cosey channelling Siouxsie more so than she's ever done in the full-throated bellows of sexual depravity above another finely tuned machine of chome-plated techno. One can hope that whatever new material comes out of this redux, it will follow this template which is pretty fucking great." [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€29.50 |
|
| CARTER, CHRIS |
Chemistry Lessons (CCCL Volume One) |
CD |
"Das erste Album von Chris Carter seit 17 Jahren ! Als Gründungsmitglied von Throbbing Gristle – gemeinsam mit Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson und Genesis Breyer P-Orridge –, spielte Chris Carter eine signifikante Rolle in der Entstehung elektronischer Musik, eine Reise, die Carter als Teil von Chris & Cosey und Carter Tutti respektive Carter Tutti Void und in seinen Soloarbeiten bis heute fortsetzt. Die Verknüpfung von traditioneller Musik und Elektronik sind jene Momente, die die Musik von CCCL Volume 1 an das Schaffen von Throbbing Gristle rückbinden." [label info]
"Architect of the present future, Chris Carter goes retro hauntological on CCCL Volume One, his first solo album in 17 years.
Since his previous album, released in the last century, he’s been busy taking his influential duo with partner Cosey Fanni Tutti to a natural close, and likewise seeing thru their trio with Nik Colk Void, while at the same time diversifying his bonds with remixes of the contemporary field, from Factory Floor to Nisennenmondai and Perc. Here, however, the enormously pivotal artist paints a sonic self portrait indulging an unswerving thing for the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop and the malleability of modular synths, all with a mixture of wide-eyed, youthful innocence and high end studio nous executed to nostalgic degrees.
In the classic framework of hauntology, Carter’s nostalgia is for a lost, assuaged or thwarted synthetic future he experienced explicitly and cosmotically growing up during the ‘space age’, when synthesisers were vehicles for interstellar and interdimensional travel and acted as the connective ligament of counter-cultural likeminds across the world, so its easy to understand why he can’t shake that feeling here.
Like a grown up kid with all the kit he could ever dream of, Carter brings his ideas to life in uniquely tactile style, working like a sculptor with broad palette of amorphous materials that continue to react and mutate after he’s fixed them in place, at his legendary studio in Norfolk. Each of the 25 tracks feels to offer a window onto worlds of encrypted kinetic energy, fulminating figments of the imagination which come to life in shapeshifting, plasmic forms made all the more “real” and hyperstitious thanks to his application of AI like vocaloids which populate the album, cropping up as alien sirens, glossolalic darkroom murmurs, and fully-fledged “singers” in their own strange right.
The result is a uniquely absorbing album tied together by Carter’s smart internal logic, a mazy manifestation of bio-electronic feedback systems that gives voice to the machine as much as the man operating it in a way that will really speak to followers of classic electronic music." [Boomkat]
|
2018 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Chemistry Lessons (CCCL Volume One) |
do-LP |
"Chris Carter’s Chemistry Lessons Volume One is populated with insistent melodic patterns and a distinct sense of wonderment at the limitless possibilities of science. “If there’s an influence on the album, it’s definitely ‘60s radiophonic,” Carter says. “Over the last few years I’ve also been listening to old English folk music, almost like a guilty pleasure, and so some of tracks on the album hark back to an almost ingrained DNA we have for those kinds of melodies. They’re not dissimilar to nursery rhymes in some ways.”
That combination of traditional music and the backing track for exciting, potential futures gives tracks like ‘Moon Two’ and ‘Tangerines’ a sheen of inquisitiveness and quiet euphoria, while ‘Modularity’ and ‘Roane’ have an anxious, sci-fi noir charm. Elsewhere skewed voices add a calming, human note to the album. Carter explains, “Sleazy and I had worked together on ways of developing a sort of artificial singing using software and hardware. This was me trying to take it a step further. I’ve taken lyrics, my own voice or people’s voices from a collection that I’d put together with Sleazy, and I’ve chopped them up and done all sorts of weird things with them.” These moments sit alongside tracks where melodies have a dissonant, noisy, awkwardness that ties the music on CCCL Volume 1 back to the Throbbing Gristle legacy.
As a founding member of Throbbing Gristle alongside Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Chris Carter has had a significant role in the development of electronic music – a journey which has continued through his releases as one half of Chris & Cosey and Carter Tutti and a third of Carter Tutti Void – as well as with his own solo and collaborative releases.
He is also credited with the invention and production of groundbreaking electronics – from the legendary Gristleizer home-soldered effects unit through to the Dirty Carter Experimental Sound Generating Instrument and the sold-out TG One Eurorack module designed with Tiptop Audio (issued to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Throbbing Gristle’s Second Annual Report) – Carter has created the means to make sounds as well as making the sounds themselves.
The 25-track album was recorded in Carter’s own Norfolk studio and the artwork and accompanying videos were self-created, taking cues in part from battered old experimental BBC broadcast LPs.
Despite having been worked on over an extended period between various artistic projects in a variety of different moods, situations and circumstances, CCCL Volume 1’s experiments never feel like Carter noodling around aimlessly in his studio-laboratory. Instead there is an inner coherence and a distinctively Chris Carter approach to sound and execution that showcases the sonic scientist’s restless, questing creative spirit forever scouting for new ideas." [Mute.com]
"Architect of the present future, Chris Carter goes retro hauntological on CCCL Volume One, his first solo album in 17 years.
Since his previous album, released in the last century, he’s been busy taking his influential duo with partner Cosey Fanni Tutti to a natural close, and likewise seeing thru their trio with Nik Colk Void, while at the same time diversifying his bonds with remixes of the contemporary field, from Factory Floor to Nisennenmondai and Perc. Here, however, the enormously pivotal artist paints a sonic self portrait indulging an unswerving thing for the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop and the malleability of modular synths, all with a mixture of wide-eyed, youthful innocence and high end studio nous executed to nostalgic degrees.
In the classic framework of hauntology, Carter’s nostalgia is for a lost, assuaged or thwarted synthetic future he experienced explicitly and cosmotically growing up during the ‘space age’, when synthesisers were vehicles for interstellar and interdimensional travel and acted as the connective ligament of counter-cultural likeminds across the world, so its easy to understand why he can’t shake that feeling here.
Like a grown up kid with all the kit he could ever dream of, Carter brings his ideas to life in uniquely tactile style, working like a sculptor with broad palette of amorphous materials that continue to react and mutate after he’s fixed them in place, at his legendary studio in Norfolk. Each of the 25 tracks feels to offer a window onto worlds of encrypted kinetic energy, fulminating figments of the imagination which come to life in shapeshifting, plasmic forms made all the more “real” and hyperstitious thanks to his application of AI like vocaloids which populate the album, cropping up as alien sirens, glossolalic darkroom murmurs, and fully-fledged “singers” in their own strange right.
The result is a uniquely absorbing album tied together by Carter’s smart internal logic, a mazy manifestation of bio-electronic feedback systems that gives voice to the machine as much as the man operating it in a way that will really speak to followers of classic electronic music." [Boomkat]
|
2018 |
€26.50 |
|
| CARVED IMAGE OF EMPTINESS / ZINC ROOM |
Lie, Illusions, Mystifications / Zinc 99,99 |
CD |
"This CD contains not even a split, but in fact 2 full-length albums of two Russian industrial projects, both coming from Ekaterinburg, Ural region. Carved Image Of Emptiness isn't so easily categorized with one term, during their half of the disc the style changes in quite unpredictable manner. The album starts with an energetic industrial track with sampled distorted bass guitar (well, when you write about noise music you can't be completely sure about the sound sources, but it sounds like bass guitar here) and various samples. Then comes unhurried, sombre and serious neo-classics which changes with more "fairy" track. Then again, a neo-classical composition in which pompous martial-like "verse" (think about Der Blutharsch) alternates with totally cartoon-style "chorus" (think about "Crocodile Gena"). During the last 4 tracks the same metamorphoses happen... I think this could be a good soundtrack for some slightly naive, but thus interesting industrial movie from 80-90-ies... Zinc Room is quite another matter! Here you can feel the addiction to the old noise school: in his tracks analogue distortion (bass guitar, percussion, steel objects) blends with field recordings and samples. The recordings are mostly not aggressive (unlike, say, Japanese act K2 who uses a lot of iron as well), but somehow sadly pensive. Like an abandoned rusty factory building standing in the field and grown by weeds long ago. However the spirits of industrialization still live there and sometimes continue their mechanical activity." [label info] |
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| CASTRUP, HANS / STEFFAN DE TURCK / BOBAN RISTEVSKI / GRODOCK |
Thing |
CD-R |
"In 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.
The artists featured on the third instalment of the THING series hail from Germany, the Netherlands, and Macedonia. Hans Castrup and Steffan de Turck (also known under his Staplerfahrer moniker) create pieces of a rather collage-like nature, including many quasi-referential sounds which seem to tell a story – but one that retains a large degree of mystery. It might be called 'musique anecdotique', to borrow Luc Ferrari's term, but listeners are invited to find out their own punchlines. In the second half of the album, almost as if it were a B-side, Boban Ristevski and Grodock, who is also active as label head of Grubenwehr Freiburg (which despite the name is now based in Leipzig), take us deeper into drone territory. Cartographies get more blurred than in the first two tracks, and if track 1 and 2 were a sort of sonic road movie, now we rather find ourselves out at sea. Or in space? And if so, inner or outer space? Put on this THING and find out.
File under: electroacoustic, drone"
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/thing-3
"David Leutkart, who calls himself Grodock, is no stranger as the maker of Grubenwehr Freiburg (in Leipzig!) and with "Der Sog / Kollaborationen". He gives here in 'Das AbWesen a meaningful cue that unbirches Lacan's abject. As the seething, rasping, predatory snorting real (dead, unconscious, evil, powerless, inexistent, counterfactual, sadistic, ugly, disgusting, creepy, excessive, obscure), which is countered by harmonically pulsating waves and a chirping harmonica." [Bad Alchemy]
" 'Thing' is, of course, a physical thing, the CDR object, but in old Norse and Germanic languages, a meeting place, a place of a popular assembly. This is a meeting of old and familiar names and newbies; well, rather new names for me. The latter constitute of Eisenlager, Wilfried Hanrath, and Hans Castrup. The latter opens up the proceedings with an exciting piece of modern electronics inspired music. Seemingly random drones and tones mingle in ever-changing configurations. Steffan de Turck (whom we better know as Staplerfahrer; I have no idea why he chooses his name for this release) has a somewhat unfocused piece with some interesting percussive loops, but, sadly, also some unimaginative turntables moves. Recently revived and active as ever, Boban Ristevski continues his excursions in drone land, and this time, the subject is acoustic sources; or so it seems. It has that warm laptop/pop sound that we used to love fifteen years ago, and which, in fact, I still do. Grodock, of the Grubenwehr Freiburg label, closes the proceedings with a descent into the underworld of darkness. Deep and mean rumbling below the earth's surface, via a monolithic synth, slowly slicing the core of the earth and unleashing a higher-pitched drone. Lovely!" [Vital Weekly]
|
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| CAUDAL |
Let's all take the yellow Pills |
LP |
"Caudal is a trio of Canadian guitarist Aidan Baker, Irish bassist Gareth Sweeney, and Columbian drummer Felipe Salazar, formed in 2012 in Berlin, Germany. The trio plays 'trance punk,' combining Baker's multi-layered, heavily affected guitar with Sweeney and Salazar's motorik, propulsive rhythms, creating music which draws from krautrock, mathrock, post-punk, and spacerock influences. Baker also performs with the dreamsludge duo Nadja and the collective Hypnodrone Ensemble; Salazar also plays in the no-wave trio Muerte En Pereira and Hypnodrone Ensemble; Sweeney also plays with the post-post-punk trio Faulty Rabbit.Caudal released their debut album, Forever In Another World, on the environmental charity label, Oaken Palace Records, in 2013. Their second album, Ascension, was released in September 2014by Consouling Sounds, a their third full-length, Fight Cry Fight, came out in April 2018 on Drone Rock Records/Katuktu Collective.The EP Let's All Take The Yellow Pills, released in 2016 as a limited edition CD and only available directly from the band, was recorded during the same sessions as the material from Fight Cry Fight. But whereas Fight Cry Fight is quite structured and composed, the tracks on ...Yellow Pillsare much more free-form and improvisational, eschewing structure for texture, form for atmosphere...The vinyl rerelease on Kapitän Platte is limited to 300 copies and comes with a silk-screen printed banderole including donwload-code and senseless insert."
|
2018 |
€16.50 |
|
| CELER |
Weavings of a rapid Disenchantment |
10" |
"the companion release to the "panoramic dreams" CD released a month ago. Two exclusive tracks that were supposed to be on the album, but that we kept aside to have a well balanced album. Fields recordings, electronics, analog tapes...same mood, but a bit darker though." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Sunlir |
CD |
"All music by Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long
Recorded in 2005-2006 at home in Huntington Beach, California
Originally self-released as a limited, handmade edition
new master by m.a.tolosa, Madrid 2011
I am a frame.
I am the frame looking at me, sleeping.
I am a frame
In a dream crooked, at me.
I am a frame shrugging
Without movement.
I am hanging
In a triangle, a knot
Not a tie,
I am a frame.
Wall habitude.
I am the frame looking at me, sleeping
I am a frame
In a dream even, at you.
I am a frame off the wall
With movement; falling,.
I am crooked,
Spun off course by a hand,
The worth of suffering
Is in time, we place ourselves between
The moss of recency
[ Dani Baquet-Long ]" [label info/credits]
www.con-v.org
"The story of Celer is probably well-known by now, certainly if you have been reading these pages before: in a relatively short time span the duo of Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long created a whole bunch of releases as Celer, all dealing, more or less, with what we can roughly 'drone' and 'atmospheric' music. Baquet-Long died suddenly in 2009 and it was decided by Long that no more music was to be released as Celer. Anything that comes out now as Celer is either old and unreleased and re-issues of older work, such as this release, which was originally a self-released CDR (thus they gain a status like Maeror Tri, who early 90s cassettes found their way on CD and CDR by now). What can we say about this music that we haven't said before? Nothing much I guess, but that doesn't mean I say anything about the quality of the music. Apparently Celer use a variety of instruments, although none are specified here (but it was on other releases) but these are transformed into abstract glacier like masses of sound, slowly moving and lowly humming, just as pretty much anything else I heard from Celer. Its hard to say if and what the differences are between this particular releases and the others I heard. Surely they are there but appear to be minor. When listening to this CD I was thinking about all of this. Surely there are people who like music to progress, slow, quick but inevitably moving to something else and there are people (in both cases people are consumers, not musicians themselves) who like things to remain the same, no matter how many releases an artist does, and this sometimes applies to musicians who release a lot, such as Fear Falls Burning, Francisco Lopez, Merzbow or Machinefabriek (to mention a few): all with a large dedicated group of fans and Celer has joined their ranks. Be it that no more new music will appear, with their back catalogue (which is indeed vast) filled with obscurities. They surely can see some interesting, re-mastered titles in the future. Me, I belong, perhaps more to the first group of consumers, those who like some things to change every now and then. That said, I thought 'Sunlir' was a pretty fine nocturnal listening thing." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Sky Limits |
CD |
Dreams Wide Awake
"Hill towns and empty mountains pass by, but the smoothness of the train blurs the view, and it's easier than ever to fall asleep in the low morning sunlight coming in through the train's windows", writes Will Long, the artist behind the Celer moniker, in his liner notes to Sky Limits, one of his most fulfilling records to date.
First created as a duo project in 2005, Celer has been US-born musician Will Long's solo vehicle since 2009. Through the years and thanks to an astounding rate of production, Celer has become a reference in the field of ambient electronic music. The care Long puts in his ethereal albums and his flawless musical intuition have earned him the critics'praise and invites to release material on key labels such as Spekk, Glacial Movements, Humming Conch, Experimedia, and/OAR, and now Baskaru.
Sky Limits consists in a series of daydreaming-prone, strings-laden ambient tracks interspersed with field recordings of daily life in Tokyo and Kyoto. This album is a reflection on the evanescent nature of memories, dreams, and reality.
In addition to Celer, his main project, Will Long plays in Oh, Yoko (with Miko) and Hollywood Dream Trip (with Christoph Heemann). He also runs the Two Acorns label.
www.baskaru.com
"For a while I assumed that Celer was no more, due the passing of one half of the duo, but since 2009 Will Long also uses this name as a solo vehicle. He has released his music on many labels, such as Experimedia, Glacial Movements, Spekk and now Baskaru. Here we have a new album of eleven pieces, which all have a title and not necessarily form one long piece but could also be treated as such, of music that is very ambient mixed with a bit of field recordings. From his current location, Tokyo, he offers what seems to be the entire opposite soundtrack of a busy city. Much of this sounds like processed string music, not unlike the kind of strings processed by Marsen Jules. Music that floats by, really, really gentle and calm. Not the kind of stuff I would let pass without looking out the window and think of some weather related metaphor. It fits this sunny yet cold (how would I know: I haven't left the house all day) January day, and now, especially at the end of the afternoon, the
evening starts to fall and lights begin to fade: this seems to be the perfect time of the day to start this CD and then, about an hour later, it's most likely dark and we have moved to a variety of moods here, all from the various possibilities on offer from the string sounds (light, dark, somewhere in between, together, alone), which he mixes with very quiet field recordings from Tokyo, just faint traces it seems of someone talking, some sparse sound, the rumble of far away traffic; Tokyo has quiet areas too, I know. This is Celer the way we like it; it's not the kind of music that Celer wouldn't do, and that's perhaps the downside of it. It doesn't seem to be something 'new', for whatever that is worth. But perhaps that's reviewer talk; maybe the fan wants more of the same?" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| CHALK, ANDREW |
The Circle of Days |
LP |
"Truly beautiful new LP, "The Circle Of Days", from UK sound/drone artist Andrew Chalk on his own Faraway Press imprint. Recorded in 2003-06 and created with field recordings, keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, and slide-guitar, "The Circle Of Days" includes a return for Chalk to his long-term collaboration with Daisuke Suzuki (Ghosts On Water, Lost Shadow, Siren Records et al), who features on five of the LP's 14 (relatively short) pieces. The field recordings, mostly captured from everyday home/community life, blend with beautiful fragments of minimalist keyboard runs and droning string tones that reach out, rise-up, and resonate to stunning effect, conveying celestial-like imagery of, say, light from another world shimmering in the dark of our own fog-blurred night. The sounds unfold, subliminally freezing/interrupting time, before fading into voids that sometimes leave a peculiar and wondrous sense of longing. Whilst the field recordings feel grounded in the real world, the instruments' rich sounds seem like they arrived from the ether of far-away, deep inside Chalk's expansive artistic vision. A magical, captivating piece of work that functions like a sonic parallel to the way shooting stars grip our gaze in wonder. Released on Chalk's Faraway Press imprint in an edition of 325 copies. Pressed on super-sounding black vinyl, mastered by Denis Blackham and housed in a sleeve featuring a reproduction of a pencil sketch by the artist himself, with layout design by Jos Moers." [Infinite Limits]
www.farawaypress.info
"Andrew Chalk records are the jewels of the English underground. The noise of Ferial Confine gasped with an existential blurt of obstinate tactility, violent in their self-immolation but never directing a rage outward. The gaze was inward. Then, when the drone grounded much of Chalk's classic works in the '90s and '00s, these slippery, elegiac croons of sonic impressionism dripped with an opalescent beauty that also spent a fair amount of time splashing around in the mud. More recently, Chalk has been exploring the poetic fragment, cracking the lens of British avant-folk eccentricity and scattering the results on stunningly beautiful albums like The Circle Of Days. The curious introductory track here sports a clattering of wood, recorded in situ with longtime collaborator Daisuke Suzuki, with a church nearby, whose bells chime the solemn Westminster Quarter melody. The following track pools rounded tones from Chalk's open-body electric guitar, finding a counterpart in the stoner-folk of Tom Carter's early work in the Charalambides. Piano, chord organ, and more guitar flesh out further tracks of nocturnally impressionist details that hang like constellations in the night sky, curving steadfast against the traffic of satellites, planes, and planets. The course of the second side reprises that of the first, with equally wandering expositions of intimate ambient swath, gossamer half-melody, and the soft-spoken mystical charm that has graced many an Andrew Chalk record! Very highly recommended as with everything that Chalk touches." [Aquarius Records]
"Or, where quality meets content. The name Andrew Chalk, and indeed Faraway Press and La Scie Dorée, will be familiar to any attentive Vital Weekly reader. Chalk has been releasing music since the mid 80s and has worked with people like David Jackman, Darren Tate and Jonathan Coleclough. His best know collaboration is perhaps that with Christoph Heemann under the name Mirror, creating a series of albums that belong both musically as visually to the, in my humble opinion of course, to the best that the ‘ambient/soundscape’ genre has to offer. His new solo album The Circle Of Days has been made available in two editions: 325 copies in regular sleeve and 100 in a beautiful handmade portfolio sleeve, which, if you enjoy that sort of thing, is well worth hunting down. Working again with Daisuke Suzuki, headman of Siren records, Chalk has created what can only be described as yet another gorgeous and very fulfilling album. Even though the cover features several song titles on the back, the album itself is banded as one track per side, giving the impression of two suites, which is something I really like. Plus the record features a label that is slightly smaller in size than regular LP labels, which gives the album the look of an ancient 78 rpm record, which, again, I like very much. Full points for style and design therefore. The precise contribution of Suzuki is not always clear: even though some tracks mark his name, the almost hesitant playing of instruments like guitar, keyboards, piano (in gorgeous stereo), vibes could be either of the two. There are environmental sounds added to the slow tempo music; birds, children playing, the sound of a swing, it all adds to a beautiful musical painting of endless summer days. Nothing new, nothing shocking, simply an emotionally moving musical miniature." [FK/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Ghosts of Nakhodka |
LP |
"You may be thinking, there was an album by Andrew Chalk with this exact same title. And you would be correct but for one small distinction - the 2009 album was called Ghost Of Nakhodka and this 2015 album is Ghosts Of Nakhodka. Ah, the difference of plurality! The album is pegged as a sister to that 2009 album though Chalk has implemented a different set of tools on this one. Instead of piano and guitar laced with placid droning effects that was found on the singular Ghost album, here he's using a monophonic synthesizer occasionally dappled with field recordings and a few choice effects.
It becomes very clear this a Chalk record through the albums' impressionist fragments spilled across 13 tracks, each rich with his languid sense of space and his elegant timing in placing this free-roaming kosmische blorp here and that swollen ambient blur over there. Brian Eno's Discreet Music and Apollo would be the closest references to what Chalk is up to here, though his production methods are qualitatively rough hewn in the synth manifestation of melancholic nostalgia with little of the portent that Eno imbues into his work. The miniatures presented are exquisite jewels coming from a craftsman keen on showcasing his work to a select few and within an deliberately intimate setting. It would seem far out of Chalk's character to broadcast works such as these at the Guggenheim or even the ICA. Instead, a humble English cottage with a sod roof and a console-sized cathode ray television as the only means of transmission. Ah, the wonders of Andrew Chalk never cease." [Aquarius Records]
www.farawaypress.info
|
2015 |
€19.50 |
|
| |
Paradise Lost |
LP |
"Newly reissued on vinyl (and digitally) with beautiful new artwork, Paradise Lost was originally released as a cassette back in 2019. As is the norm for many Andrew Chalk releases, additional details beyond the fact that it exists are quite thin, but this one takes that to an amusing extreme, as the Discogs entry for the original cassette notes "label and artist name are not listed on the release." That said, I believe I can say with moderate certainty that these two longform pieces were recorded on an 8-track reel-to-reel between 2016 and 2018 and that Chalk primarily played a synthesizer. Also, his Ghosts on Water bandmate Naoko Suzuki contributed some very well-hidden vocals and created the artwork for the original tape.
To some degree, it makes sense that this album originally surfaced as a very limited-small run tape, as it does not feel like one of Chalk's more significant opuses, but it is quite an enjoyable and interesting release nonetheless. In fact, the title piece feels like legitimately prime Andrew Chalk material to me, though I suspect many longtime fans will be more fascinated by the surprising and divergent "This Pendent World." Faraway Press One interesting bit of information that I stumbled upon while researching this album was a blurb from Daisuke Suzuki's Siren Records noting that this album "strongly recalls the atmosphere of home recording in the '80s." I got exactly the same impression myself from the opening "This Pendent World," as I had scribbled down that it felt like a duel between two very different artists from the golden age of private press New Age: one kosmische-inspired synth wizard hellbent on taking me to space and another guy who just wants to lull me into a blissful, bucolic reverie with some pretty string swells.
There are also some traces of a third guy who closely resembles contemporary Andrew Chalk, as there is a loose melodic theme of wobbly, liquid tones likely originating from an electric piano. While that is certainly an odd collision to encounter on a Milton-themed Andrew Chalk record, it works surprisingly well, amiably and amorphously drifting and curling like a trail of smoke. The following "Paradise Lost" is similarly form-averse, but in a much more compelling way, as its frayed and smeared swells of warm synth tones feel teasingly just out of focus. Additionally lurking within the artfully blurred dream-fog are a slow-motion tumble of acoustic guitar fragments, ghostly traces of Naoko's lovely singing, and probably some pedal steel too. I am tempted to make a wince-inducing pun on the album title here, but "Paradise Lost" is simply too beautiful of a piece to deserve such an indignity, vividly evoking the slowly streaking and shifting colors of an especially gorgeous sunset." [Brainwashed]
https://andrewchalk.bandcamp.com/album/paradise-lost
|
2021 |
€19.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| CHASE, BRIAN |
Drums & Drones |
CD & DVD |
"A first for Pogus! This fantastic new 2 disc set by Brian Chase, drummer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, contains both a CD of the music and a DVD of the music with videos by New York video artists Ursula Scherrer and Erik Z. This recording is exactly what it says it is : drums and drones - based on Just Intonation tuning theory: A tuning system modeled after a naturally occurring acoustic phenomenon known as overtones, the subsidiary tones which exist in an ordered series from an established primary tone. Stemming from this single primary tone an infinite amount of overtones can be derived. As Chase explains: Drums and percussion has seen some but not much exploration in Just Intonation, yet they are inherently designed to represent it as such: a drum head is tuned to a single pitch, one frequency, and resonates with rich harmonic detail. From there the overtone series can be uncovered and expressed. The Drums and Drones project deals directly with approaching drums and percussion from the standpoint of Just Intonation. For Chase, the genesis of this project is outlined in this brief excerpt from his liner notes: The Drums and Drones project initially came about from inspiration by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela's Dream House installation in TriBeCa, NYC. I had spent a good amount of time, volunteering there as a 'monitor' someone who minded the installation and greeted visitors. The duration of my shift, about 4-5 hours, was mostly spent sitting directly outside of the gallery space, listening and feeling the immense sound pulsing through the door and walls, and reading up on the principles of Just Intonation and the historical background of La Monte, Marian, and their cohorts of the NYC experimental art scene. I accumulated countless hours, too, sitting in the space itself, embracing the impact of the finely tuned sound and light vibrations. The tones would dance in my head, hypnotic and entrancing, and I would hear tones that previously seemed veiled which were now resonating loudly and clearly somewhere between the air, my ear, and my brain. I was mesmerized by the power of this physiological experience. With the pieces that were developed for a Feb. 2007 concert, a starting point was formed for what was to grew into a recording project. I had the idea of approaching the project as being a series of etudes, each one a study in the different ways of the application of the Just Intonation tuning theory to drums and percussion. Eventually I did develop a basic method which laid the groundwork for most of what was to come with D & D: 1) tune the drum head to a specific frequency 2) mic the drum and run the sound into a computer 3) with recording software, use very precise, a.k.a. surgical, equalization to emphasize and boost the frequencies of the drum's overtones. Also as part of the setup was a loop pedal, but at this stage it was used more for live performance. Another important method that I developed at this stage was getting sustained feedback tones generated between the resonating drumhead and the stereo speakers. To do this, I would boost a specific frequency on the EQ corresponding to the fundamental or a low harmonic, and this would encourage the drumhead to vibrate at that frequency. A feedback loop would get going between the drum and the speakers. Often times I would need to raise or lower the pitch of the drumhead ever so slightly to 'dial in' the tuning of the feedback tone. Each etude developed at this time would highlight a different set of overtones and showcase a specific playing technique. Brian Chase is a drummer and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. Growing up on Long Island, he started taking private drum lessons when he was 5 that led to earning a Bachelors of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. Though he works in a variety of contexts, Brian is probably best known as a member of the rock group Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a band that has toured extensively throughout the world and has been nominated for two Grammys. Other recorded projects include the Seconds, a minimalist punk rock band that has two albums on the 5rc label, a duo ensemble with saxophonist Seth Misterka that has a record on the Heathen Skulls label, and Jeremiah Lockwood's Sway Machinery with a record on JDub. Performance collaborations have included Matt Welch, Jessica Pavone, Mary Halvorson, Stefan Tcherepnin, Alan Licht and Okkyung Lee. Brian is also interested in the Just Intonation tuning theory and is heavily influenced by the work of La Monte Young introduced to him by guitarist Jon Catler." [label info]
www.pogus.com
"The next release is the first DVD release by Pogus, with the same music on CD. I went to straight to the DVD. Brian Chase is the drummer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (which name I may have come across, but surely not their music, as far as I know), a rock group. I must admit I didn't know what to expect from a disc in which the title already tells us what's going to happen. But exactly how drums create drones, or how the two are going to be married, is of course the big question here. Inspired by LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela, Chase started to tune the drum head to a specific frequency and 'mic the drum and the sound into a computer' and then using software with very precise equalization to emphasize and boost the frequencies of the drum's overtones. In a concert situation he would also use a loop pedal. That was one starting point, the other was to have drum heads resonate with feedback loops between drum and speakers. None of this is actually be seen on the DVD, and the images, created by Ursual Scherrer and Erik Z, which are mostly abstract affairs of multi-layered images, that fit the music rather well. In many of these pieces one hardly has the idea one is listening to anything that is even remotely drum like, except perhaps 'Stick Shot Harmonics Drone', which is also one of the pieces in which the video seems to be running along with the music - in sync. But many of the other are like sustaining tones of sometimes sine wave like sounds, waving slowly and majestically about. If you listen closely you may recognize a bit of drum here and there, maybe more apparent if you play the CD and not be distracted by the visuals. As someone who loves drones, I must say I was quite taken by this release." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€18.00 |
|
| CHAUVEAU, SYLVAIN |
Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated) |
CD |
"Stripped: dekonstruierte "Popsongs" des französischen Elektronikers.
Es ist kaum zu glauben, dass zwischen Sylvain Chauveaus letztem Album "Down To The Bone" und "Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)" ganze fünf Jahre liegen. Dazwischen gab’s Reissues, diverse Kollaborationen und Soundtrack-Arbeiten, dennoch ließ sich Chauveau Zeit, bis seine Ideen die Reife hatten, umgesetzt und auf Tonträger gebannt zu werden. Die Depeche-Mode-Songs, die er auf "Down To The Bone" erkundete, brachten ihn auf die Idee, ein Album mit Songs aufzunehmen. In vielerlei Hinsicht ist "Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)" wie ein normales Album mit Hooks und Melodien konstruiert. Dennoch dekonstruierte Chauveau die bekannten Formen auf ihr Grundlevel. Vokalpassagen fallen aus den sparsamen Klavierarrangements wie Äpfel im Herbst. So wie Carsten Nicolai und Ryuichi Sakamoto klassische Musik dekonstruierten, hat sich Chauveau vorgenommen, die Wurzeln der Popmusik freizulegen. Jedes Stück klingt zunächst so, als könne mit ihm ein Drei-Minuten-Pop-Stück beginnen, bevor dann alle Teile allmählich wegbrechen. Eine herausfordernde, intensive Hörerfahrung." [label info / Indigo]
"It is hard to believe that five years have passed since Sylvain Chauveau’s last ‘proper’ album. Of course there have been re-issues peppering the years since ‘Down To The Bone’, as well as more than a few collaborations and soundtrack appearances, but Sylvain has purposefully waited to allow his ideas to come to fruition. On mentioning his new album to me a few years ago, Sylvain commented that he didn’t think it would appeal to everyone and that he wanted to take a fresh direction. The Depeche Mode songs he had explored on ‘Down To The Bone’ had given him ideas he felt he needed to explore, and ‘Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)’ is his attempt at an album of ‘songs’.
In many ways, ‘Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated’) is constructed the way albums used to be – it is compact and filled with vocal hooks and melodies, yet Sylvain has deconstructed the musical forms he grew up listening to and reduced them to their base level. Vocal snippets fall through the stereo field and his signature piano motifs splutter and cough through processed digital hiccups. As Carsten Nicolai and Ryuichi Sakamoto deconstructed classical music, Sylvain attempts here to study and dissolve the roots of popular music. Each piece feels like it could have started as a three-minute pop sing-along before the accompaniments were stripped away and the component parts reduced to merely a backbone.
‘Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)’ is a daring and challenging listening experience. The widescreen theatrics of Sylvain’s previous work have all but disappeared, leaving an album that is stark and incredibly beautiful. It is an album rooted in a love of art and music, both minimal and mainstream and celebrates Sylvain’s influences. One listen might only reveal surface details, but listen again and you will find much, much more." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2010 |
€15.50 |
|
| CHORE IA |
Postscriptum |
do-CD |
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/postscriptum-neogolizmowa
It's a new album by Jacek Wanat aka CHORE IA, released in cooperation with Antenna Non Grata. "Postscriptum" brings five long compositions, which are an extension of the style that was outlined on previous publications. It is a resultant of drone, ambient with elements of experimental electronics. The album, although it sounds very fresh, is kept in the spirit of music from Obuh Rec. We are dealing here with compositions with a slightly poetic character, building a contemplative atmosphere, sometimes taking on a slightly somnabulistic, even ethereal form. This edition has been enriched with the second disc "Neogolizmowa", containing material from both cassettes and a few bonuses from the same period. 2CD edition in a 6-panel eco-pack with artwork, based on Jacek Wanat's graphics and paintings.
Recorded at Studio Czad
Bass, Cello, Voice, Electronics, Other sound objects by Jacek Wanat
Cover artworks by Jacek Wanat
Design by Maciej Mehring
Music & lyrics by Jacek Wanat
"Postscriptum" was recorded at home in Konin
"Neogolizmowa" was recorded by Sławek Mizerkiewicz in Studio CZAD, Swarzędz, October 19, 1994 (cassette released by OBUH Records in 1995)
CD2 contains also 2 additional tracks from 1995 and 3 bonus tracks recorded in the twenties of this century.
cooperation coordination :) Marcin Olejniczak
"Chore IA is the brainchild of philosopher, bassist and avant garde rock enthusiast, Jacek Wanat. Originally releasing material as far back as 1995, Wanat spent many of the intervening years making music with Radek Dziubek, Tomek Maliński and Waldek Paziewski in the band Blimp before eventually returning to his earlier project in 2018 with the album Schizophrenia. Spread across two CDs the latest Chore IA album, Postscriptum / Neogolizmowa is an unabashed festival of weird ambient electronica. The first disc, Postscriptum, is made up of 5 long pieces of psychedelic ambient drone, whilst the second disc, Neogolizmowa, is made up of previously released material, including tracks from the two cassettes that were released on OBUH records, as well as other material taken from that same period.
The opener on disc one is I’m Waiting for Nothing to Happen, an experimental psychedelic experience featuring drones and some spoken words. It’s a great opener and really hammers home the wyrd electronic aspect of the albums sonic core. I Die/ Respirateur is an epic 17-minute drone piece that features a plethora of creaky atmospheric found sounds that give the whole piece an unsettling, creepy vibe. The shorter Revers is at times prettier in feel, however there remains something slightly unsettling about the track that you just can’t pin down. They Say Nothing/ Ils Son Morts follows and takes us further down the wyrd experimental pathway that started with the album opener. Intense, with a sinister vibe, there is a lot more going on here that will keep the listener hooked on future plays as thing start to unravel and you start to pick out the different instrumentation that is going on. The final track on disc one is I’m Raining, it sounds almost like a partner piece to the album opener, bookending what is pretty much an intense musical experience.
Disc two features sixteen tracks and sounds quite different to the first. Firmly rooted in rock music, as opposed to electronic drone, this disc is best described as avant-garde rock weirdness, with a little bit of experimentation with drones and electronics. The key is that there is much greater emphasis on traditional rock instruments, drums, guitars, and keyboards as well as a greater emphasis on melody. It does however, make a really interesting accompanying disc as it hints at Wanat’s musical roots prior to releasing Postscriptum.
Overall, this is a really nicely presented set of interesting experimental music that spans Jacek wanat’s career, acting something like a compilation highlighting the evolution of his music. Disc One is my favourite, featuring some really strong psychedelic drones, peppered with found sounds and smothered in general weirdness. It’s a far darker affair than disc two, but it has to be said they both complement one another well, despite representing different sides of the same artist. This release from Zoharum also looks fabulous with some rather lovely digipak artwork housing the two CDs. 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 |
|
| CHRISTOU, JANI |
Enantiodromia |
CD |
Sieben Werke aus der letzten Schaffensperiode des genialen griechischen Komponisten († 1970), der nur 44 Jahre alt wurde. Ob flirrend-ekstatische Klangfelder, Geräuschkaskadenerzeugung mittels der Klangkörper der eingesetzten Instrumente, ob atonale Improvisation oder „industriell“ anmutende rhythmische Muster mit unheimlichen Stimmen, JANI CRISTOUs Musik zeugt von hoher Intensität und Dichte und einer kaum mehr zu überbietenden, körperlich spürbaren Spannung, die sich z.B. bei ENANTIODROMIA eindrucksvoll entlädt.... Hier enthalten: ENANTIODROMIA (1965-68), PRAXIS für Streichorchester und Klavier (1966-69), EPICYCLE (1968), ANAPARASTASIS III (1969), MYSTERION (1969), ANAPARASTASIS I (1968), PRAXIS for 12 für 11 Streicher und einen Pianisten (1966).
Dazu im booklet hochinteressante liner-notes über seine Konzeptionen von Metamusik, Proto-Performance, Klangpatterns und seine spezielle Kompositionstechnik mit eigener Notation...“Er sah die Musik vielmehr als ein Mittel an, uranfänglich gemeinsame Emotionen zu aktivieren, die ansonsten durch Zivilisation unterdrückt sind, und einen mystischen Zustand der Trance oder der Hysterie zu erreichen.“ TIP !!!
Seven works from this genius greek composer from the sixties, absolutely intense stuff ! Comes with booklet in german/english liner notes, with many interesting background infos about this conception and philosophy. VERY MUCH RECOMMENDED !!
|
2001 |
€18.00 |
|
| CHRYSAKIS, THANOS |
Manifold Vista |
CD |
listen:
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/manifold-vista
About Manifold Vista
Manifold Vista is the new album by composer/producer Thanos Chrysakis. Rarely can something so meticulously assembled together sound so fluid. A distinct, disciplined sense for composition emerges from each of these works, displaying formal integrity while at the same time, they are also effervescent, forceful, fiercely idiosyncratic and beautifully shaped and transformed. The album discloses an expanded and detailed vista of sound’s interiority forming a strangely pleasurable, not to mention engaging, experience.
Thanos Chrysakis is a Greek composer, musician, producer and sound-artist. He is best known for his work in electronic and contemporary music, free improvisation, and electro-acoustic music.
With several albums to his name his work has appeared in festivals and events in numerous countries, including CYNETart Festival, Festspielhaus Hellerau - Dresden, Artus Contemporary Arts Studio – Budapest, CRUCE Gallery – Madrid, Fylkingen – Stockholm, Relative (Cross) Hearings festival – Budapest, Festival Futura – Crest - Drôme, FACT Centre – Liverpool, Association Ryoanji – Ahun - Creuse, The Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale — Hanover - New Hampshire, Areté Gallery — Brooklyn - New York, UC San Diego – California - San Diego, Berner Münster – Bern, Fabbrica del Vapore – Milan, Grünewaldsalen – Svensk Musikvår — Stockholm, Splendor – Amsterdam, Logos Foundation – Ghent, Palacio de Bellas Artes – Mexico City, Műcsarnok Kunsthalle – Budapest, Spektrum – Berlin, Susikirtimai X – Vilnius, Festival del Bosque GERMINAL – Mexico City, ДОМ – Moscow, Oosterkerk – Amsterdam, KLANG ! – Montpellier, Nádor Terem – Budapest, Utzon Centre – Aalborg, Center for New Music – San Francisco, Västerås Konstmuseum – Västerås, Störung festival – Barcelona, BMIC Cutting Edge concert series at The Warehouse – London.
His music was among the selected works at the International Competition de Musique et d'Art Sonore Electroacoustiques de Bourges 2005, in the category oeuvre d'art sonore électroacoustique, while received an honorary mention in 2006 at the 7th International Electroacoustic Competition Musica Viva in Lisbon (the jury was constituted by Morton Subotnick (USA), François Bayle (France), and Miguel Azguime (Portugal).
He operates the Aural Terrains record label since 2007 where he has released part of his work until now, alongside releases by Kim Cascone, Franscisco López, Tomas Phillips, Dan Warburton, Szilárd Mezei, Michael Edwards, Wade Matthews, Dganit Elyakim, Edith Alonso, Luis Tabuenca, Jeff Gburek, Philippe Petit, Steve Noble, Milo Fine and David Ryan among others.
He has written music for musicians of the Hyperion Ensemble, the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, the Hermes Ensemble, Nemø Ensemble, the Konus Saxophone Quartett, and the Shadanga Duo among others. Close collaborations with Tim Hodgkinson, Vincent Royer, Chris Cundy, Yoni Silver, Lori Freedman, Jason Alder, Julie Kjaer, Henriette Jensen, William Lang, Wilfrido Terrazas, Philippe Brunet, Wade Matthews, Ernesto Rodrigues, Abdul Moimême, Ove Volquartz to name but a few.
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/manifold-vista
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| CINDYTALK |
Hold Everything Dear |
do-LP |
"All tracks written and recorded by Gordon Sharp and Matt Kinnison between 2006-2011 at Roi Vert, Okamoto (Japan), 13th Floor and Space Eko (London), Southend (Essex). Mastered at Piethopraxis, June 2011. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, June 2011. Design-images: David Coppenhall. Assembled at Sixism (Maggi Smith-David Coppenhall). For Matt Kinnison and John Berger.
'Hold Everything Dear' is the third installment in the new Cindytalk sound which started with 2007's The Crackle Of My Soul, and then last years Up Here in The Clouds. Its the first in the trilogy to feature musicians other than Gordon Sharp namely the late Matt Kinnison, to whom the album is dedicated. Inspired by the John Berger book of the same name, this latest release is whole new set of parameters which push the sound on the previous two works to an extreme point of abstraction, and in some places near silent passages and haunted melodic segments. And what a mysterious journey this ends up being with increased use of piano and found/field recordings giving all the tracks a blurry soundtrack appeal to the point where the definitions between the tracks are no longer clearly defined. It harks back to the odder parts of In This World and The Wind Is Strong albums from the early 1990s. Superbly packaged with new David Coppenhall artwork in a 4-panel digipack and gatefold vinyl sleeve." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2011 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
touchedRAWKISSEDsour |
CD |
"touchedRAWKISSEDsour is an all new full length album from icon Gordon Sharp (the Freeze, This Mortal Coil) that coincides with the 30th anniversary celebration of the Cindytalk genre-defining classic Camouflage Heart. This album follows the critically acclaimed 2013 release of A Life Is Everywhere on Austrian label and tastemaker Editions Mego." [label info]
www.handmadebirds.com
"The term middle ground implies some
degree of compromise, but Gordon Sharp
places inbetween-ness at the core of his
work, exploring what lies outside regularly
codified categories.His catalogue has
resisted the confines of binary thinking
for decades - confronting normative
conceptions of gender, by becoming Cindy
in performances and in life, while eschewing
the trappings of readymade musical
genres, preferring instead to dwell upon
alien qualities of difference.His Cindytalk
project draws upon clanging post-punk,
icy electronica and modern composition,
and has vacillated between song based
and more abstract forms with ease.Take
this album’s title : raw and sour aren’t
opposites, they’re just not the same. A
wordless venture into the furthest reaches
of Sharp’s electronic interests, the album
coincides with the 30th anniversary of
Cindytalk’s most famous release, the
industrial song cycle Camouflage Heart,
but it’s neither a nostalgic look back
over the shoulder or a forced step away.
There’s the sense that Sharp will not rest
upon the laurels of his back catalogue or
strain towards new realms solely for the
satisfaction of novelty.
The disc opens with “Dancing On Ledges”,
a soaring cycle of static clusters tearing
apart and immediately regrouping, and
it forms a stuttering exposition for the
rest of the album, which flows confidently
between moods and atmospheres.”E Quindi
Uscimmo A Riveder Le Stelle” moves from the
sounding of bells to an electronic military
march, evolving into a haunting, half-spoken
series of distant pulses, while “Reversing
The Panopticon” tinkles with high-pitched
melodic phrases buried in fuzz against
jumbled rumbling rhythms.
The standout track “Yūgao” is a soft,
ten minute pasture of delicate piano and
melancholy synthesized bedding. The
interplay between the elements is versatile
enough to prevent things from spilling over
into saccharine predictability.it’s beautifully
wrapped up in itself, full of longing and the
knowledge that the act of desire can be more
pleasurable than the attainment of desire.
When it draws to a close it doesn’t so much
end as disperse.
None of the tracks truly coalesces, but
the album is stronger for it, taking on a
fleeting narrative quality. Sharp undermines
institutionalised, oppressive modes, and
his music explores abstraction of formal
thought and the possibilities it can provide
- the ideal arena for someone dedicated to
resisting the definitive." [Matt Krefting / THE WIRE] |
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| CIRCLE |
Soundcheck |
CD |
"Recorded in Finland in October 2009, the band describes Soundcheck as “the most contemporary document possible of a Circle soundcheck/concert experience. For this concert Circle was reinforced by the guitars of J. & P. Jaaskelainen, who may be familiar to some from the ranks of Circle’s brother-in-arms Pharaoh Overlord. On the album, this expanded line-up explores the experimental possibilities of concert staples “Virsi” and “Nopeuskuningas” further than possibly ever before.”
“The first part offers two new tracks, beginning with the brief “Kukkakaalia Kapteenit!”, a wispy swirl of shimmery synths, laid back tribal drumming and some dramatic, emotional crooning, very cinematic sounding, almost like it could be some lost 4AD single, dreamy and ethereal, giving way to the way more rocking and intense “Tuhatsata”, which takes up most of the side, a slow burning, blackened bit of Finnish krautrock, super epic, with dueling vocals, crooning versus grunted and growled, fusiony keys, still more tribal drumming, spidery guitars, the track pulsing and pounding, building to multiple crescendos, frenzied freakouts that always lip right back into more looped mesmer.
The album progresses with two instantly recognizable live set staples, first up, “Virsi”, dramatically progtastic, with that super soaring epic intro, all dynamic shifts and huge bursts of instrumental crunch, with vocals howling and wailing almost operatically, before lurching into some rad atonal krauty, fusiony, jazzy, hypno groove skitter. The second track, another Circle classic, and live staple, “Nopeuskuningas”, explodes right out of the gate, with its chugging almost surfy, ZZ Top-ish boogie riff, locked in groove, the whole thing stretched out over the remainder of the side, the band solid, and hypnotic, and intense, and rocking and tight as fuck. Their showstopper for sure, and it clearly did the job at this show as well.
In so much as between albums, Circle, like Grateful Dead, crank out killer live record after killer liver record, often with some of the same songs, always including a few live staples, familiar enough to hit the spot, but different enough that a Circle fan could be forgiven for needing them ALL!” (Aquarius Records)
A stunning and truly unique live album approach by the Finnish masters of hypnorock and unusual sounds.
Originally released as a very limited vinyl edition via J. Lehtisalo’s own imprint Full Contact Records and instantly sold out, Soundcheck is now back to life housed in our luxurious, heavy tip-on mini-LP gatefold packaging featuring fantastic expanded photography and artwork by Jussi S. Karjalainen. Limited edition of 800 copies.
|
2011 |
€13.50 |
|
| CISFINITUM |
Coniunctio |
do-CD |
Material from 1999-2001 from the Russian cult-project, some taken from the deleted LANDSCHAFT CDR (IVB Records), one CD is entitled “World of Retribution”, the other “Heavenly Russia”. Monolithic sad noise, sacral post-industrial, spiritual doom-ambience,
overwhelming sounds & sad emotions at the same time, highly recommended!
“Cisfinitum is one of the oldest and well-known projects on Russian industrial scene, and shortly after their well-acclaimed 7” on Drone, Ewers Tonkunst is happy to present another international release of this remarkable project. This 2CD-set contains the tracks from the most gloomy and profound albums of Cisfinitum – “Landschaft” (released in 2001 as CDR by IVB Records) and “Malgyl” (previously unreleased), which have been recorded in 1999-2001. The material has been remastered and recompiled to become the new entity called “Coniunctio”. Newborn album consists of two parts, “Worlds Of Retribution” and “Heavenly Russia”, the first one contains most dark and depressive tracks, the second one presents brighter side of Cisfinitum. Going through the desperate landscapes of today’s dying spiritless world, the listener comes into the sacred and surreal inner space of an immaterial land full of light, mysticism and universal melancholy. One of the most beautiful and heartful records ever done in the drone ambient style, “Coniunctio” could remind of the best and saddest Maeror Tri albums or legendary HOEDH “Hymnus”, but the irrational Russian essence within Cisfinitum’s music makes it unique and completely original. The real masterpiece which we are really proud to release! CD comes in a full-colour fold-out digisleeve. The edition is limited to 500 copies.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Monochrome |
CD |
" ‘Monochrome' is a eulogy to Dmitry Vasiliev, a music enlightener, a label owner, a journalist, an ardent devotee of experimental music. Initially the composer Eugene Voronovsky conceived 'Monochrome' as a futuristic 'hi-res' mass, an alchemical fusion of angelic chorales and dub techno pulsations. A dream-like transparency of the material is deceptive in masking its technical complexity. Thus, the rhythmic canvas is built of "non-square" rhythms - 7/8, 15/16, etc., from which the strong beat gains fluidity typical of Oriental music. Ambient textures are based on the works of the medieval composers Josquin des Prez, Guillaume de Machaut, Pérotin the Great. Through reverberation the sound is "placed" into authentic space of the Great Pyramid of Giza; it's a meaningful reference for the album, entitlted in its draft by Enochian key of the alchemist John Dee.
The news of Vasiliev's tragic death caught the author in rendering the final mix. Thus the meaning and the purpose of this year-long work were redefined. ‘Monochrome' became a funeral service for a dear friend, a person whose role for independent electronic music in Russia cannot be overestimated.
The album was originally released as a limited edition cassette by NEN Records in October 2018 and now re-issued on CD by the joint forces of Aquarellist, kultFRONT and ZHELEZOBETON."
"Back in 2005, a very new Russian label released work by Eugene Voronovsky, also known as
Cisfinitum. It was not the first release for him or the label. 'Bezdna' was reviewed in Vital Weekly 478 and more followed from Cisfinitum and the label that released it, Monochrome Vision. In September of last year, Dmitry Vasiliev, the man behind Monochrome Vision (also a mail-order
and organiser of concerts, as well as writing about exactly 'this' kind of music), died in a tragic accident in the Black Sea, thus ending the label. About the same time, Cisfinitum put the final touches on this new release, which became 'Monochrome', a fitting farewell to the man himself.
Whereas I remember most of Cisfinitum's music as being quite atmospheric, ambient and drone-
like, this is not the case here. Rhythm plays an important role here and apparently, these are
'non-square rhythms', 7/8 or 15/16, which again apparently makes "the strong beat gains fluidity
typical of oriental music'. These odd beats guide the sampled sounds of choral music from
medieval composers and that may seem an odd pairing but Cisfinitum melted the choral voices
into something quite abstract and ambient like. The music gets a rather majestically feeling, a
sort of massiveness that works rather good with these beats. I am not sure about the fluidity or
the Eastern feel (although, I must admit at one point thinking of Muslimgauze; in 'Auyaea', I think), but in terms of dark atmospheric music, hearing something interesting in the world of rhythm, this was all a most pleasant release. It would have been something that mister Vasiliev would have been proud to release; sad to realize this is a reminder he's no longer here. Indeed a fitting musical eulogy." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| CLEMENTI, ALDO |
Collage |
LP |
Alga Marghen presents the previously unreleased Collage 2 and Collage 3 (Dies irae) for magnetic tape, both realized at the Studio di Fonologia Muisicale RAI in Milan with the technical collaboration of Marino Zuccheri. These pieces are precious testimonials to Aldo Clementi's intense and ongoing interest in electronic music in the 1960s. The electronic composition Collage 2 dates from 1960. It was the first experiment with electronic music for Clementi whose original and consistent adherence to structuralism is reflected in several of his instrumental works written around that time. The first idea of Collage 3 dates back to 1966, in the form of a short electronic collage on the Beatles' song "Michelle." The composer wanted to replace old concepts and clichés which had become popular and common, through the use of "natural wells of timbre, live and organic, springing from a world of symmetry and fixed blocks." This original idea underwent a drastic transformation when the RAI (the Italian radio) commissioned Clementi to write a longer work. To his initial desire to start from scratch was added the problem of a longer duration. It was only when Clementi had almost completed the piece that he gave it its final title of "Dies irae," owing to the extreme tension that accompanied its composition.
###############
Having already issued some incredible LP by Gavin Bryars, Phill Niblock, Damião Experiença, and Hans KRUSI in 2023, Alga Marghen returns with an absolute stunner, “Collage”, dedicated to seminal Italian composer Aldo Clementi.
Comprising two previously unreleased works for magnetic tape - “Collage 2” (1960) and “Collage 3 (Dies Irae)” (1967) - both of huge historical importance, alongside a brand new rendering from 2022 of the composer’s brilliant “Fantasia su roBErto FABbriCiAni” - a work composed for flute and magnetic tape in between 1980 and 1981 - the importance of this beautiful LP can’t be overstated; bringing to light a previously inaccessible period of the great Italian composer’s career, and illuminating a crucial body of work at the heights of 20th Century musical Neo-Avantgarde.
Aldo Clementi
“Collage”
(LP)
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 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, Éliane Radigue, and numerous others. Further this mission, their latest, Aldo Clementi's “Collage”, presents some of the most extreme musics ever issued by the label, at the same level as Robert Ashley's “Wolfman”, Max Neuhaus' “Fontana-Mix Feed” or Philip Corner's “Oracle”. Representing an entirely singular sound and approach to tape music that was unique to Clementi alone, once again Alga Marghen has cracked it wide open and rewritten our understanding of the history of sound.
Born in 1925 in Catania, Sicily, Aldo Clementi began his piano studies at the age of thirteen, for which he immediately showed great promise. Three short years later, in 1941, he embarked upon the study of composition under Alfredo Sangiorgi (a student of Arnold Schoenberg) who introduced him to the twelve-tone technique, leading to his attendance of the Rome Conservatory and Darmstadt. In 1956, Clementi met the Italian-born, German conductor, composer, and teacher, Bruno Maderna, attending the Studio of Phonology in Milan - the electronic music studio (RAI) founded by Maderna and Luciano Berio in 1955 - which instigated a decisive turning point in his career and work. It was there that he composed two key works in electronic music - “Collage 2” (1960) and “Collage 3 (Dies Irae)” (1967), issued here by Alga Marghen for the first time.
While Clementi would become primarily known for pieces, composed for acoustic instruments, that were characterized by a calm, consistent sound, with their materiality rooted in a unity of concept and procedure - lacking highs, lows, and any sense of forward movement - that became almost self-generative, closely connected to the approaches of Pittura Informale, his early endeavors in electronics and tape music remain among his most important works. Despite having only rarely been encountered since, in 1961 “Collage 2” was presented at the Accademia Filarmonica Romana in Rome, and subsequently won the International Society for Contemporary Music’s prestigious competition that year.
Realized at the Studio di Fonologia Musicale RAI in Milan in 1960, employing the technical collaboration of Marino Zuccheri, Aldo Clementi’s “Collage 2” was the composer’s first experiment with electronic music, about which he explained: “The title and the technique, both of the same name, are the result of my having conceived the work in terms of compositional planes created independently and later superimposed; this gives rise to absorption or emergence, intersection or isolation, all absolutely and deliberately unpredictable. The difficulties implicit in the acoustics, and consequently in the effect, of this kind of treatment, are taken for granted and accepted from the start”. The result is striking; a bumbling expanse of textures and muted tones that foreshadow (and possibly lay the groundwork for) his subsequent development of techniques that would render the sound, lacking highs, lows, and any sense of forward movement, for which he would become famed, illuminating a far more pointed and arguably aggressive sense of pop possibility for the conceptual framework.
Conceived in 1966 as an electronic collage of the Beatles’ song “Michelle”, and realized the following year, also at Studio di Fonologia Musicale RAI in Milan, with the technical collaboration of Marino Zuccheri, in from a markedly different root, “Collage 3” encounters Clementi endeavoring to replace old concepts and clichés through the use of “natural wells of timbre, live and organic, springing from a world of symmetry and fixed blocks”. The outcome, while clearly a work of sound collage, renders the composer’s source material virtually unrecognizable in a swirling, shattered expanse, the extreme tension of which compelled Clementi to add the words “Dies irae” ("the Day of Wrath”) to the title, in a strange and fascinating reference to the idiom of Requiem Mass.
The final piece on Alga Marghen’s “Collage” LP is “Fantasia su roBErto FABbriCiAni”, composed by Clementi in 1982, and thus offering a fascinating counterpoint to its predecessors, establishing a point of contact between his early electronic pieces and more well know acoustic works, and illuminating the enduring engagement with electronic process that stretched across his career. Composed for flute and magnetic tape, the piece is based on the notes corresponding to the letters in Fabbriciani’s name according to the German musical nomenclature (B flat, E, F, A, B flat, C, A). Describing the ideas at the root of the work, Clementi stated: “My stylistic purpose was to create a delirious labyrinth around the solo instrument like an enormous growth of vegetation that chokes out a little plant…”. The result, rendered here in a brand new realization, recorded live in 2022 by Alvise Vidolin, is a remarkable meeting of conceptual rigor - where the idea is the generative drive - and complex structural notions of composing. Against haunting sheets of dissonant tonality, a flute traces through the notes established by pieces conception, floating above in flirtations with melody that never fully form.
Truly amazing on creative and conceptual terms, and engrossing in its sonorities, Alga Marghen has done an hugely important work with their issue of Aldo Clementi’s “Collage”, illuminating a little-known aspect of his output, and delivering this seminal voice of Italian Modernism to an entirely new generation of listeners. Ten out of ten and impossible to recommend enough.
SOUNDOHM
|
2023 |
€22.50 |
|
| CLOAMA |
Halveksin Kuolemaa |
CD |
Reissue of tape that was published by LSDO label. Recordings from 1999 and added bonus track.
Curious fact about this original tape is that unknown amount of edition of 100 was dubbed with wrong tracks. Artist had submitted master tape with b-side including promotional songs of upcoming materials. Some copies of tape - like the one that circulates online as digital file, has wrong tracks on it. Nobody knows how many tapes were dubbed incorrectly.
For many, this CD may be first time to hear release as it should have been! It includes cold, yet highly electric industrial soundscapes and heavy electronics, not far from Söldnergeist, Dagda Mor, and perhaps some works of Anenzephalia. Cold synth tones oscillating over subtle rhythms of crashing loops and sound samples, covered with processed voice samples and speeches. In English, "I despise death", showcases well early progressions of Cloama. This release shows moment where transformation from harsh noise unit of earliest years was moving into recordings like "Neuroscan Organization" and split CD with GRUNT. Not to forget, these recordings are made around time when another Finnish legend, STROM.ec was formed. Due partly same members and gear, some similarities of the sound can be noticed!
Certainly album that fans of 90's Finnish power electronics / industrial noise should not overlook!
https://www.nhfastore.net/cloama-halveksin-kuolemaa?search=cloama
|
2018 |
€12.50 |
|
| CLOSING THE ETERNITY & AD LUX TENEBRAE |
Nearby Being |
CD |
Collaboration des durch die Drone 7" hoffentlich etwas bekannter gewordenen sibirischen Projekts CLOSING THE ETERNITY mit den uns bisher unbekannten AD LUX TENEBRAE, der "cosmic black hole" Sound von CTE gewinnt dadurch an Variation. Hier wurde ausschliesslich mit asiatischen Original-Instrumenten gearbeitet, also Glocken, Gongs, Klangschalen, das Ergebnis ist aber weitaus droniger & dark ambienter, als z.B. bei HATI...
Sehr behutsam umgesetzt ergeben sich Obertöne & Resonanzen, die manchmal fast wie wispernde Stimmen klingen, und man kann sich ganz den Schwällen von sanft vibrierenden Drone-Sounds hingeben, die sich in langsamen Wellen ausbreiten...
"Wonderful cooperation of two Uralian projects CLOSING THE ETERNITY and AD LUX TENEBRAE. Fascinating ritual shamanic drone ambient changing your consciousness. Real delicacy for lovers of Alio Die, Troum, Sostrah Tinnitus... Limited edition of 500 copies in digisleeve." [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| COH |
To beat |
CD |
"Recorded May 2013 - January 2014. All music and lyrics by Ivan Pavlov / COH. Picking up right where the last track on the previous COH release RETRO-2038 left off, the new album is focused on the use of beats within the similar aesthetics. While most of the previous COH records openly shy away from accentuated beat structures and instead build up their rhythmical content by layering waves and pulses, every track on To Beat is padded with just that - beats. The music transition is illustrated in the album's artwork, displaying transformation of a sine-wave, a tone, into a waveform which is beat. This mathematical progression is made audible in the album's opening track Wave To Beat. The rest of the album, however, steers clear from dull math and presents the beats in their more traditional context of what could be referred to as adventurous dance music, taking the listener through various examples of beat use with the sense of playfulness and joy. The final piece, Beat to wave, wraps it up by dissolving a simplistic post-techno piece into a tonal chord. This brings back the album's main idea, where tone and beat are essentially one and the same, like vowels and consonants in a language, like Yin and Yang in music." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
"I enter the airlock of TO BEAT: an isolated zone away from the logic and consequence of a linear life, where rebellion and transformation materialise in time and then dissipate into the files of forgotten memory. The opening track tracks the compression of a constant sine tone into sharp punctuations of beat – dynamic curvature compacts into sheer right-angles. For the following 45 minutes, the eternal, fluid unwind of being is chopped up into square and unambiguous blocks of rhythm; life pixelates momentarily, and the endless string of insatiable curiosity becomes a finite ribbon of understanding I can hold in my hands. Once it’s over I shall never speak of it again, taking the airlock out the other side via “BEAT TO WAVE”.
The album’s interior is a strange emulation of dance music. The melodies are tangible and thick – riding 4/4 like an unforgettable congregative chant (it feels somewhat Eastern at points, although I feel ignorant thinking that) – yet the beat emphasis falls in eerie places, causing my body to jut out in a series of unnatural angles. It’s an inhuman sound but far from clinical, and while the combination of hum and pulse evoke a sort of chorus of stable spacecraft monitoring equipment, none of these tracks are sheened with mathematical precision; there are bubbles of warm mid-frequency and the sliding voices of alien worship, placing TO BEAT in an error void between abstract calculation and the music of corporeal organisms.
There are moments that fling themselves into the lust of nightclub strobes: the sterile pump of blood around a dancefloor, puppeteered by rhythms that speak to the instinct to move. For instance, “ungear moi” sends the drip of neon sweat into half-time as rave synthesisers flit between subterranean corners like lasers, or perhaps surveillance cameras. And then there’s “Moonviewhigh”, whose mixture of major-key colour and geometric certainty depicts it as a Rubik’s cube rotating in front of my face – a flicker of squares in digital contrast, punctuated by a sloping reverb that mockingly emulates the spaces that exist beyond TO BEAT’s four titanium walls. It’s a simulated reality, and to step inside is to subvert gravity and co-ordination for just a short while." [ATTN:Magazine] |
2014 |
€13.50 |
|
| COIL |
Another Brown World / Baby Food (black vinyl) |
LP |
"Sub Rosa presents two rare tracks by Coil, originally commitioned by Sub Rosa in the late 80s / early 90s and now finally released on vinyl!
"Another Brown World" (12:09 min) was written by John Balance and Peter Christopherson, produced and mixed by Coil, and recorded by Danny Hyde at Threshold House, London in the Summer of 1989. The vocals were recorded at the Animist Monastery situated at the Summit of Mount Popa in Pagan, Burma.
"Baby Food" (12:32 min) was written and performed by Coil: Danny Hyde (essentials) Peter Christopherson (fundamentals), and John Balance (vibrant rays of spiritual psychosis). This track is the first to utilize the recording process known as "Sidereal Sound", a continuation and advancement of the deep listening theories as demonstrated on the album Love's Secret Domain (1991). Recorded in a storm in London in the summer of 1993.
These two pieces were commissioned by Sub Rosa for these two specific projects: Myths 4 - Sinople Twilight In Çatal Hüyük (1989) and Chaos In Expansion (1993)" [label info]
2At the height of England's hidden reverse, Coil (alongside Current 93 and Nurse With Wound) were tireless contributors to various experimental / industrial compilations hither and yon. The two lengthy tracks on album represent what Coil offered to Sub Rosa. A suitably scatological recoloring of Brian Eno's classic, "Another Brown World" was featured on the 1989 compilation Myths 4, alongside Current 93 and Cheb Mami. While built upon an insistent, haunted synth line, this particular track is darkly-lit labyrinth of divergent musical ideas: a repeating phrase from a fuzzed-out guitar, eerie flares of electronic trickery, and various cut-ups from ethnographic studies recorded at the Animist Monastery at the summit of Mount Popo in Burma. In the same year, Coil contributed a track called "Contains A Disclaimer" to a Pathological Records compilation which used many of the same elements -- that guitar freak-out and that reductive Goblin-ish synth motif. While these tracks are clearly linked, it's always been unclear if "Another Brown World" is the lysergic dub of the other or if it is the early exploration of ideas later ratcheted into submission. It's always been a corker of a track, no matter how anybody looks at it.
"Another Brown World" is coupled with the 1993 track "Baby Food" which finds Coil in their post-rave guise. From here, the Balance / Sleazy duo also delivered their iconic Worship The Glitch album a few years later. This particular track looks forward actually to what Aphex Twin would produce on his seminal Selected Ambient Works, Vol 2. It's a psychoactive track of rounded acid tones shaped into a hypnotic / aquatic percolation. It's a beautiful and melancholy example of Coil's take on '90s electronica, easily bettering most of their peers at the time." [Stranded] |
2017 |
€18.00 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
A Prison Of Measured Time (col. vinyl) |
12inch |
The histroy of these tracks is: In 1995 and before I was employed to take tracks home and manipulate the streams to create new content.
The way I did this was a process I called “Rate/Stretch, I won’t go into details, but it was very successful at creating whole new content. From these experiments came the “scorn“ dreamspace mix, and much of Black Light District. After we came back from New Orleans working on the “Backwards LP “at Trent Reznor’s studio, Peter Christopherson, asked me to do the same to two tracks, "Heaven’s blade" and "Wir click Wir (Copacaballa)".
This was 1998 (a year and a half after we left New Orleans). I started the project, but due to misgivings at the time with the whole music business, I left, and the tracks didn’t get a release. On these tracks you will get music unheard.
1. John Balance vocals some of which never heard before
2. The trumpet takes we recorded for Wir click Wir, but never had the facility to use.
- Danny Hyde
A gem, a little tresure, exclusively on vinyl format for COIL lovers and collectors.
500 hand numbered copies:
§ part of the copies are on White Vinyl
§ part of the copies are on Blu Vinyl
§ part of the copies are on Blue Vinyl with |
2020 |
€30.00 |
|
|
A Prison of Measured Time |
CD |
The history of these tracks is: In 1995 and before I was employed to take tracks home and manipulate the streams to create new content.
The way I did this was a process I called “Rate/Stretch, I won’t go into details, but it was very successful at creating whole new content. From these experiments came the “scorn“ dreamspace mix, and much of Black Light District. After we came back from New Orleans working on the “Backwards LP “at Trent Reznor’s studio, Peter Christopherson, asked me to do the same to two tracks, "Heaven’s blade" and "Wir click Wir (Copacaballa)".
This was 1998 (a year and a half after we left New Orleans). I started the project, but due to misgivings at the time with the whole music business, I left, and the tracks didn’t get a release. On these tracks you will get music unheard.
1. John Balance vocals some of which never heard before
2. The trumpet takes we recorded for Wir click Wir, but never had the facility to use.
- Danny Hyde
|
2020 |
€15.00 |
|
|
The New Backwards (extended edition) |
do-CD |
"The New Backwards" was conceived by Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson in 2007, revisiting stray tracks which hadn't seemed to gel with the material he had chosen for the more somber "Ape of Naples" from 2005, COIL's initial posthumous release, a sort of requiem and a kiss-goodbye to his then recently deceased partner John Balance.
Significantly different to its sister release, this album collects the brilliantly chaotic and outrageously rhythmic material from the original sessions for the album that was begun as early as 1993 and had originally been conceptualised as the follow-up to "Love's Secret Domain". These songs are as diverse and wild as the places they originated from, partly infamously spawned in Sharon Tate's former home in the Hollywood Hills, the Nine Inch Nails home base in New Orleans and London's Swanyard, co-composed, remixed and restructured with the help of long-term friend Danny Hyde in Thailand, this collection has its own unique flow and an atmosphere not found on any other COIL release.
Both "AYOR" and "Backwards" had by the time the album was first released already become favourites in COIL's manic live performances. Some of the other tracks had only leaked in demo versions and are here presented updated and polished as Christopherson and Hyde intended them to be heard. It is interesting to consider Balance's vocal contributions, too. Whilst on the albums COIL did release at the time this material was first put aside ("Black Light District" and "ElpH") his voice is all but absent, his vocal performances and his lyric writing here are arguably more closely indebted to the previous "Love's Secret Domain" era, especially the epic "Copacaballa" is noteworthy in that respect.
The New Backwards" effectively became the final official COIL studio release of all new material whilst Peter was still alive and is here presented for the first time fully supervised by Danny Hyde, its co-creator.
The stunning cover uses a detail from artist Ian Johnstone's "Cubic Raven" painting, licensed from the estate of IJ..
It is high time to rediscover this timeless album with the Infinite Fog release, first time available on vinyl in its full form without 3 skipped tracks! Besides that boasting nine further tracks of previously unheard material from the same sessions, rough working stages and surprising remixes which will surely delight the dedicated COIL archaeologists, as they shine yet another light on the creative process and on what could have been.
credits
released March 30, 2022
Recorded at Swanyard, London and at Nothing Studios, New Orleans, 1996.
Thanks to everyone there, especially Trent Reznor who made it all possible.
Written & Produced by Coil & Danny Hyde.
Remixed by Peter Christopherson & Danny Hyde, Bangkok 2007.
For that session Coil were: Peter Christopherson, Jhonn Balance & Drew McDowall.
Mastered by Jessica Thompson.
Front artwork by Ian Johnstone.
Artwork licensed from The Estate of Ian Johnstone.
Layout Cold Graves and Oleg Galay.
https://infinitefog.bandcamp.com/album/the-new-backwards-extended-edition
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| |
The New Backwards (special edition) |
3 x pic-LP |
"The New Backwards" was conceived by Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson in 2007, revisiting stray tracks which hadn't seemed to gel with the material he had chosen for the more somber "Ape of Naples" from 2005, COIL's initial posthumous release, a sort of requiem and a kiss-goodbye to his then recently deceased partner John Balance.
Significantly different to its sister release, this album collects the brilliantly chaotic and outrageously rhythmic material from the original sessions for the album that was begun as early as 1993 and had originally been conceptualised as the follow-up to "Love's Secret Domain". These songs are as diverse and wild as the places they originated from, partly infamously spawned in Sharon Tate's former home in the Hollywood Hills, the Nine Inch Nails home base in New Orleans and London's Swanyard, co-composed, remixed and restructured with the help of long-term friend Danny Hyde in Thailand, this collection has its own unique flow and an atmosphere not found on any other COIL release.
Both "AYOR" and "Backwards" had by the time the album was first released already become favourites in COIL's manic live performances. Some of the other tracks had only leaked in demo versions and are here presented updated and polished as Christopherson and Hyde intended them to be heard. It is interesting to consider Balance's vocal contributions, too. Whilst on the albums COIL did release at the time this material was first put aside ("Black Light District" and "ElpH") his voice is all but absent, his vocal performances and his lyric writing here are arguably more closely indebted to the previous "Love's Secret Domain" era, especially the epic "Copacaballa" is noteworthy in that respect.
The New Backwards" effectively became the final official COIL studio release of all new material whilst Peter was still alive and is here presented for the first time fully supervised by Danny Hyde, its co-creator.
The stunning cover uses a detail from artist Ian Johnstone's "Cubic Raven" painting, licensed from the estate of IJ..
It is high time to rediscover this timeless album with the Infinite Fog release, first time available on vinyl in its full form without 3 skipped tracks! Besides that boasting nine further tracks of previously unheard material from the same sessions, rough working stages and surprising remixes which will surely delight the dedicated COIL archaeologists, as they shine yet another light on the creative process and on what could have been.
Recorded at Swanyard, London and at Nothing Studios, New Orleans, 1996.
Thanks to everyone there, especially Trent Reznor who made it all possible.
Written & Produced by Coil & Danny Hyde.
Remixed by Peter Christopherson & Danny Hyde, Bangkok 2007.
For that session Coil were: Peter Christopherson, Jhonn Balance & Drew McDowall.
Mastered by Jessica Thompson.
Front artwork by Ian Johnstone.
Artwork licensed from The Estate of Ian Johnstone.
Layout Cold Graves and Oleg Galay.
https://infinitefog.bandcamp.com/album/the-new-backwards-extended-edition
|
2022 |
€79.00 |
|
| COLECLOUGH, JONATHAN |
Drop |
7inch |
“A new 7" by the Drone meastro - two extremely intense pieces based on the sound of water dropping. Limited edition of 200 copies only.” [label info]
“....In "Pindrop" we hear the sounds of pins falling on a metallic surface - nothing else. With a total absence of drones. In "Seed Drop" the drones are present again, set against a backdrop of processed sounds of seeds dropping on, perhaps, the same surface. The a-side is very nice, but far too short, but for the limited concept of the b-side the format of 7" is fine enough. A little treasure.”[FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2004 |
€16.00 |
|
| COLECLOUGH, JONATHAN & TIM HILL |
Beech for John and Miho |
CD |
A wonderful and amazing power-drone piece (74min) with myriades of overtunes, like be surrounded by three distorted Monochords at the same time..
“ 'Beech for John and Miho' was originally commissioned as a short piece for 'in return', a private wedding CD, where it appeared
alongside music by Joe Weismann (The Jaztronauts), If Thousands, JLIAT, and Space Machine. That fifteen minute version then blossomed into this bold, 74-minute work. An invitation to the wedding spawned a short Japan tour during which Coleclough performed solo and in duos with Aube, Kuwayama Kiyohara, and Narita Mamoru. A limited edition of 150 CD-Rs of 'Beech for John and Miho' were made specially for the trip to Japan, and the piece is now released on CD by Seal Pool. "An epic piece: shimmering and metallic." [press release]
|
2003 |
€15.00 |
|
| COLLEY, JOE |
Acting As If |
10inch |
"When Joe Colley speaks about his work and even about his life, he shrugs in an awkward attempt to stave off an existential frustration that not only his work addresses but also seems to consume his identity. There are numerous metaphors through his titles that allude to endless failures and a nihilism full of contempt, but Colley also implores a desperate urgency to express these poetics no matter how painful they may be. For three decades now, Colley has been a central and persistent figure in the California noise community. First recording under the moniker Crawl Unit and running the short-lived Povertech label, Colley presented a preternaturally strong acumen of electro-acoustic techniques and abstraction through a vast language of blistered textures, atonal noise, and gnarled drone. By 2000, he dropped the Crawl Unit moniker in favor of his own name with an ongoing discography of damaged yet exploratory electronics.
Colley returns to Drone Records for this 10" on the Substantia Innominata series, many years after his Crawl Unit "Tuscon Mon Amour" 7." In describing "Acting As If," Colley offers a vague series of descriptors: unheimlich, terror of the familiar, and no faith in what is "real." Within the sustained movements of scrabbling textures, motorized abrasions, and uncomfortable harmonics, such conditions are made manifest and Colley amplifies them into something eeriely sublime. All of that held within a self-contained logic that works within and against his deep knowledge of drone-on minimalism, musique concrete dynamics, and the explosiveness of noise culture. 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 / Northern California, 2023]
listen to various CRAWL UNIT + JOE COLLEY tracks here:
https://aftersilencepodcast.bandcamp.com/album/as-31-from-crawl-unit-to-joe-colley
https://www.last.fm/music/Joe+Colley
"MECHANICAL RITUALS: 23 years after his EP for Drone Records (DR-28, as CRAWL UNIT) we are proud to release another / new work of conceptual / minimal / object drone artist JOE COLLEY from California.
We think JOE COLLEY (*1972) is a master of using mechanical object sounds and electronic static, but also strange low fi found sources and field recordings, creating alienating, surrealistic effects, similar to the likes of SMALL CRUEL PARTY, JIM HAYNES, DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE or even the more experimental side of ZOVIET FRANCE...
His newer compositions seem always to be filled with electro-magnetic hummings, strange hissing and the pourings of metallic objects as a basis, but you never find the use real instruments, synths, or masses of effect procession. Thus a very own scent of mystery appears, as all of these radiations are not really from this planet, without any "cosmic" connotations..
For the creator, these sounds are connected with unreal emotions of "Being Lost", a mistrust in what may be called reality, and a general feeling of alienation... - you can only wonder how this can result in such beautiful droning expanses..
Presented here are over 30 minutes of very best new COLLEY material (entitled "Limit / Limit" und "Always I / Always II") => through these drones of strangeness the mind is thrown inside an unrecognizable and confusing realm of broken electricity and something like audible-made atmospheric pressure..
Lim. 300 copies with artwork by dutch designer and micro label hero MEEUW, using a special silver print (on reverse board), BLACK vinyl. glossy black inner sleeves." [press release]
"I don't keep up with Joe Colley's recent releases for reasons I am unsure of myself. Not that there are many of them, but I only heard a few. Maybe his work is these days within installation work or performing? This new record shows Colley as I know him best. He is a man with an ear to the ground or wall; he hears stuff we don't. I believe he uses very few 'real' instruments, and for convenience, I include all things synthesizer (modular, digital, analogue). With his equipment, he records the unwanted sounds from our world. Buzzing, whirring, near broken cables and other forms of electric debris. It's never clear whether his recording devices are great or lo-fi. It could go either way, I think.
Maybe you need great some great electro-magnetic devices to pick up these sounds, but at the same time, when they are relatively low-key, they might have another attractive quality. Get my drift here? We live in a world with many sounds, at least many of us. I like to think I live in a quiet street, but here too, there is a lot of noise pollution. This pollution, so I believe, is Colley's playground. He collects and collates this material into pieces of dystopian nightmare. Coley's music sounds like I imagine the sound of a leaking nuclear power plant, the last breath of a machine park, and the death rattle of our post-industrial society. Unlike some of the other work I heard from Colley, this new work is relatively 'smooth', I must say. There aren't many hard cuts to indicate the final breath of a sound (but they are also not entirely absent), but Colley, this time, uses smoother transitions in the music. Many fragments are slowly cross-faded into the next section, revealing a less brutal element in his work. Or, perhaps, one could say, it makes his music all the more gentle? Or even more musical? Colley applies all the techniques from musique concrète here but keeps much of his source material in what seems to be a pretty rough state anyway. It's dark; it's real, scary, weird, haunting and haunted and, ultimately, beautiful music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2022 |
€18.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| COLUCCINO, OSVALDO |
Parallelo |
CD |
"These abandoned ruins of the seventeenth century are located along a path that I often walk on, uphill, in silence, alone. Not exactly on the path but hidden, deeper into the woods, that place lies parallel to the path that leads to the top of a hill. Even if I do not go (necessarily, every time) inside, that place beyond attracts like a magnet, makes its presence felt, launching its resonance up to the place of my steps. That secondary place is not seen from the primary path, but it is there. And it pulsates with life, neither new nor old life.
Probably in a short time those ruins of an ancient monastery, located in Domodossola, North West Italy, will be demolished. However, that place will remain, even after its erasure.
Parallelo, a work composed between 2007 and 2009, is also an attempt to detect and make feel the coexistence of vital fields ; “places” that exist in parallel but which, thanks to non-ordinary ways, occasionally may touch each other." [Osvaldo Coluccino, May 2014]
"There is an approach to field recordings that I like to call 'the empty room' approach:
one sets up a pair of microphones in an empty space and simply catches the emptiness of
the space in a recording, by using a lot of 'gain', the space becomes alive. Osvaldo
Coluccino has had two releases before (see Vital Weekly 748 and 823) of improvised music,
playing various acoustic objects and acousmatic music. Here he uses recordings he made
in the ruins of a 17th century monastery in Domodossola, North-West Italy. The work was
already composed between 2007 and 2009, and for whatever reason wasn't released until now.
Two pieces here of exactly the same length and the starting point for each piece seems
to me the sort of drone sound one gets from the empty room. That is not yet the complete
thing as Coluccino also has a bunch of other recordings to use here: there is dripping
of water, objects falling onto the floor, and everything reverberates through this giant
space, or maybe even various spaces of varying sizes. Set up one microphone in one room
and let the action take place in the room next to it: you get the idea of ancient reverb
techniques before they got stuck in binary boxes. There are also lots of rumbling sounds,
lots of vague sounds around this place, sometimes leading up to a somewhat messy sound
picture. Coluccino uses the collage form, in which he places various bits one after
another, sometimes with short silent gaps in between. It's hard to say if he applies any
(computer-) processing to his music; sometimes one is inclined to think he does, but it
might also be very likely that he isn't. Throughout this is a soft release, I think;
I am not sure why Coluccino choose to do that. It all makes up, however, a mighty fine
album of a highly varied bunch of field recordings, all trapped inside two lengthy
pieces." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| COMES, MARTIJN & GIULIO ALDINUCCI |
Crystalline Tragedies |
LP |
For this collective release, Martijn Comes and Giulio Aldinucci neither worked in the same studio together, nor did they share and exchange materials. The two pieces on this LP were composed privately and without any sonic input of the other. And yet, it is far more than just a 'split'.
Both pieces were loosely based on a pair of opposites first proposed by Nietzsche: The moral codex of society, as represented by the Christian church. And the realisation that only by surrendering completely to emotion can we live life to the fullest.
Using a single field recording of a procession in rural Tuscany, Aldinucci investigated how sacred rites are capable of defining new soundscapes. Blazing a trail through three distinct sections, Comes's "Crystalline Tragedies", meanwhile, takes strong feelings evoked by certain life passages into a poetic dimension.
Never particularly strict or academic about their inspiration, the same conceptual source lends a strong sense of unity to the music – making it.
Tobias Fischer, May 2018.
https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/crystalline-tragedies-the-procession-distant-motionless-shores
"And finally what seems to me (I could be wrong of course) the split release by Martijn Comes
and Guilio Aldinucci; both have been reviewed before and, generally speaking of course, belong
to the wide, wide world of ambient music. Not really the world of abstract drones, but more or less ambient with a strong musical touch; processed guitars, synthesizers and such like. For this split LP they took as a concept two observations by Friedrich Nietzsche; Comes says about this that "for our album, we stripped them down to a simple pair of opposites: The moral codex of society, as represented by the Christian church. And the realisation that only by surrendering completely to emotion can we live life to the fullest." Each of them has a composition that fills the entire side of a
record. In 'Crystalline Tragedies', which is the title of the Martijn Comes' piece, there are two
distinct sections to be noted. In the first half there is guitar playing (courtesy of Constantine
Skourlis), set against a bed of layered drones, which could have been derived from the self-same
guitar playing and some less easy to define sounds, which could be humming. The other half of the pieces is a synthesizer section of mid paced arpeggio tones with an almost bouncing rhythm; it imitates a wind like sound and with a beat I would have said it is Porter Ricks like, but without the beat, as it is now, it is nice tumble of barren land. Aldinucci's piece is called 'The Procession (distant motionless shores)' starts out with field recordings in the leading role. It is the recording of a procession in rural Tuscany, which he takes apart, folds together, unfolds and expands again, but all along you will keep recognizing sounds from the procession; people humming, church organ and church bells. It is not easy to say to what extent Aldinucci uses his computer
transformations here; the eighteen minute is a very fine collage of all of the field recordings
captured during this procession, even including what seems to be animal sounds, building and
growing but slowly taking matters to a quiet conclusion. Two quite different sides are here to this record, perhaps a pair of opposites I should/could think, but it works very well, while the rest of the Nietzsche may be a bit lost on me." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2018 |
€16.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| CONTROLLED DEATH |
Requiem for the Boundless Flesh |
5 x 7inch BOX (wood) |
"Controlled Death is the dark-side project by the Japanese noise legend Masonna that started with Symphony For The Black Murder as first official work released in April 2018 in a vinyl edition of 199 copies. The activities of Controlled Death are like archaic revival to the music experience before Masonna. You can also find the pathology image of the early industrial period and the shadows of Vienna activism such as Hermann Nitsch. The existence and art that pierces through conspicuous consciousness and dives to areas of unconsciousness due to death and pleasure.
Controlled Death's incredible new work is released on a fivefold seven inch. Ten new tracks, to be precise ten requiem (Rè-quiem carnem I – X), between five and six minutes each for a total duration of almost an hour. The selection of the format is perfect for this composition: the analog support highlights the lo-fi recording and the choice of seven inches allows you to listen to the same song several times, or more songs without a preset order. Thus was born Requiem for the boundless flesh, a pulsating panorama of screams, Korg MS20 MK1 and EMS VCS3 The Putney synthesizers with the addition of the grand piano, electric guitar, tape and effects. Each piece is a short sound vignette, which fills the air with its otherworldly beauty and goes away with the same speed with which it arrived, where the presence of the Viennese master always hovers.
Like a cosmic journey, without a precise destination, we enter a new evolution of Controlled Death's work. The sound is darker, the darkness envelops you with its ancestral echoes, the use of synths is accompanied by inhuman screams, sounds on the edge of psychosis are lost in the infinite expanse of the gorges ''at the mountains of madness''. A sound tunnel is created that leads to the depths of the earth. The myth of Cthulhu mingles with the mangled flesh of human beings. The legend moves towards the harsh reality. Rotten, worm-eaten flesh lies beneath thousands of tombstones: boundless masses of flesh! The rumble of the synths becomes thunderous. The use of the guitar and the grand piano are thus distorted, slowed down and overwhelmed once again by the slanted and dilated screams and the intertwining of the pedal’s effects. The tape editing work is wonderful, with a mastery of machines that can be compared to the German cosmic duo Moebius & Roedelius. But the result is not as sugary as Cluster or Harmonia tunes. Honey has become blood and flesh in Maso's hands and harmony gives way to obscure and desolate side. But if it had been recorded in West Berlin during 1970, Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser would have certainly wanted it for his Ohr label!"
https://urashima.bandcamp.com
|
2021 |
€59.00 |
|
| CORDIER, ERIC & DENIS TRICOT |
Orgue de Bois |
CD |
"Wie urig die Welt der Prêles, der Schachtelhalme, ist, nach denen ERIC CORDIER sein zusammen mit Satoko Fujimoto betriebenes Label benannt hat - auf Englisch heißen die ‚lebenden Fossilien‘ übrigens ‚Horsetails‘ - , das hört man besonders gut bei Orgue de Bois
(prl003). DENIS TRICOT baut diese ‚Holzorgeln‘, große Land-Art- und gleichzeitig Klangskulpturen, die sich 30 Meter lang und 3, 4 Meter hoch durch die Luft schwingen. Es sind Konstruktionen aus geschweiften Birkenholzlamellen, die durch den Raum kurven wie bizarr verholzte Lianen oder erstarrte Mähnenhaare eines Riesenpferdes, von Drähten gehalten und mit Steingewichten geerdet. Zu ‚Orgeln‘ werden sie, wenn man diese Lamellen durch Klopfen und Schaben, mit bloßen Händen oder einem Streichbogen, zum Federn und Schwingen bringt, so dass sie knarrende und wummernde Laute von sich geben, manchmal so sonor, dass sie fast einem Didgeridoo ähneln, oft perkussiv als tockendes Klappern oder dumpfes Pochen, oder auch gestrichen wie knurrig, krätzig und quietschend vibrierende
Monsterbasssaiten. Das ‚Holzige‘ wird als Grundton gut hörbar, auch das Urige als dunkler U-Laut und dazu der Eindruck von etwas Großem, von raumgreifender Spannweite. In den hölzernen Langwellen ist Klang ja schon sichtbar, bevor man ihn hört, die ‚Holzorgeln‘ sind
wie zeremonielle Instrumente oder sogar Altäre eines uralten Klangkultes. Die Aufnahmen stammen aus Charentonneau à Maisons-Alfort (Festival de l‘Oh! 2006), La Ferté-sous-Jouarre (Festival Mémoires Vives à l‘initiative d‘Act‘Art 77 2006) und Ville de Vaux-sur-Mer (2007), wobei, anders als bei den multimedialen Events, die Tricot ebenfalls inszeniert, ausschließlich die ‚Holzorgel‘ zu hören ist, ohne Overdubs, aber eingebettet in das Environment, mit Stimmen, Glockenschlägen, Vögeln etc." [Bad Alchemy]
"In the last few years, with their Orgue de bois (Wooden Organ), Denis Tricot and Eric Cordier have installed constructions, which are at the same time sculpture and musical instrument in many public spaces. Each Wooden Organ is unique, conceived for the space that will receive it. A monument, a square, a street, a city... With its long undulating wooden lines (successions of joined slats), it creates privileged spaces which are exposed to the public eye. After a performance, the audience is free to explore and discover the instrument's vast potential for musical sounds and noises.
More that thirty Wooden Organs have been created in the lat four years in France and Italy. Generally around thirty metres long, these monumental yet extremely light sculptures integrate in their construction the basic principles of lutherie (instrument-building), and can be played like any string or percussion instrument. The Wooden Organ is very simply amplified. The recordings, like the concerts, use no electronic processing, but the monumental instrument itself intentionally contains principles of mechanical resonance and vibration." [label info]
http://www.prelerecords.net/prl003/prl003.htm
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| CORNER, PHILIP |
Through the two more than mysterious Barricades |
LP |
" “Les Barricades Mistérieuses,” the harpsichord gem by French Baroque composer François Couperin, has been a long-running source of exploration for Fluxus musician Philip Corner, who for years has used it as a jumping-off point for piano improvisations. Through Two More-Than-Mysterious Barricades comprises two very different takes on the same piece. The first dates from 1992, in collaboration with dancer Paulette Sears (who provides the ‘singings and screamings’ of the album’s subtitle); it moves from a frenzy of abstraction to a more meditative take on Couperin’s composition, with diversions and tributaries along the way. The second, from 2004, is a rougher beast: recorded with wildly over-saturated levels, the tape machine itself becomes a participant in the performance, with its heavy distortion bringing out stormclouds of overtones from Corner’s piano. Through Two More-Than-Mysterious Barricades is released in an edition of 318 copies, with Corner’s calligraphy silkscreened on Kozo rice paper and mounted onto the jacket. Download coupon included." [label info]
www.roaratorio.com
|
2014 |
€23.00 |
|
| COSTA, RUI & FRIENDS |
Sightseeing for the Blind |
CD |
"Ausgehend von der Idee, dass Touristen beim Besuch einer Stadt die Eindrücker derselben unbewusst mit ihren Wünschen, Vorstellungen und Ideen des Ortes abgleichen benutzte Rui Costa Empfehlungsrouten aus einem Lissabon-Reiseführer quasi als Instruktionen für eine Klangarbeit. Sightseeing For The Blind ist eine knapp halbstündige Soundmap der persönlichen Art geworden. Costa hat in der Folge der Fertigstellung seine Rohmaterialien seinen “friends” zur Verfügung gestellt, unter ihnen Gregory Büttner, Marc Behrens, Bill Jarboe u.a. Einige haben eher mental-psychische Kommentare abgeliefert, andere haben ihre eigenen Feldgeräusche mit dem Ursprungsmaterial vermengt und lösen so den direkten Zusammenhang zwischen Aufnehmendem und Geräuschpostkarte auf." [Zipo / Auf Abwegen]
"The idea for the piece first came to me in 2005, when I was invited to develop a sound project with the city of Lisbon as its theme. I decided to wander through the city, making a series of sound recordings using a pair of binaural microphones. What I concluded from these recordings was that, more than capturing the sound of the place or its “atmosphere”, they reflected a lot about me: my decisions of where to go, what places to avoid, how fast to walk, how long to linger in one place… preconceived ideas of what I wanted to be captured on tape. Later I followed up on this idea by introducing an element of “sonic sightseeing”. I grabbed a tourist guide of Lisbon, walked along the recommended hiking routes and made recordings with binaural and shotgun microphones. I wrote down my impressions, states of mind, mental associations and decisions and then mapped the recorded sounds against these notes, considering them as “instructions” or “cues” for a sound composition. I suppose that the experience that tourists get from a city is in great measure determined by the randomness of these almost unconscious impressions, of a permanent mapping out of what they see against their desires, preconceived ideas, memories, etc. All in all, my intention was to convert this process into a method for sound composition using field recordings. (Rui Costa, 2009)
Sound recordings made by Rui Costa between 2005 and 2008 in Lisbon, Portugal. Composed and mixed by Rui Costa in 2008,
About the Artist:
Rui Costa is a sound artist from Lisbon, Portugal. He has been publicly presenting his work since 1997.
From 1999 to 2003, Rui Costa collaborated with the Spanish musician Iñaki Ríos, under the name ja_dijiste. This duo explored improvisational and compositional techniques based on Max/MSP and Lisa computer software and developed a series of site-specific works in the village of Nodar, Portugal, with subsequent presentations in sound and media arts festivals in Spain.
In 2007, Rui started collaborating with the Italian vocal performer Manuela Barile, through a large scale intermedia project entitled ‘La Scatola’, which was conceived as a series of installations and performances. Rui developed processes that captured the reverberations of the voice inside the body (laryngeal microphones, amplified stethoscopes) so that the spoken word is invested with a musicality and spatial dimension that further extend the expressive capabilities of the voice.
Rui has performed in many venues and sound art festivals in Portugal, Spain, Italy and the United States. He has played with such musicians as Maile Colbert, Iñaki Ríos, Manuela Barile, Pablo Rega, Nilo Gallego, Toshio Kajiwara, Casey Rice, Lê Quan Ninh, Richard Antez, John Herndon, André Gonçalves, Carlos Santos, Pali Meursault and Cédric Anglaret.
Rui Costa is a founding member and artistic director of Binaural, an arts collective dedicated to the promotion of context-based sound and media arts. Binaural runs an artist residency space in Nodar, a small village in the north of Portugal.
Rui Costa’s current artistic research is centered on the use of the psycho-acoustic characteristics of sound to create “sonic fictions” where the notions of space, perception and meaning are submitted to a process of recontextualization and of creation of improbable and unstable relations. He investigates the different ways of making the space audible and of studying the place of the listener within the triangle formed by him/herself, the sound and the space. By capturing the sound resonating through the materials that structure a given space, manipulating it in real-time and then projecting it into the same space, it is possible to create “sensorial extensions” that configure a sonic architecture that operates in real-time and is therefore fluid and unstable. An example of this approach is his ongoing project “The Future Memory”, with the American sound and video artist Maile Colbert, where they visually and sonically map abandoned and almost silent spaces to create poetic fictions around them." [label info]
www.1000füssler.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| CURD DUCA |
Waves 3 |
LP + CD |
Magazine announces the album Waves 3 by Curd Duca, the third and last part of the trilogy Waves: Austrian electronic composer Curd Duca is widely known for his 1990s series of critically acclaimed easy listening 1-5 (Normal) and elevator 1-3 (Mille Plateaux). After a long break from the studio, Duca has issued part 1 of the Waves series in late 2020 on Magazine WAVES 001LP. This was in fact his first album in 20 years. The Waves recordings pick up the thread of his '90s work and open up a new chapter. Again, everything is shifting constantly and all tracks are quite different (soft, rough, melodic, abstract...), but complement each other in a surprisingly coherent way to form an idiosyncratic universe. While other experimental artists can sound as if they're attempting to lift lead weights over their heads, Duca is content flicking feathers into their faces. After his impressive 1990s/00s run on Normal and Mille Plateaux, Curd Duca had disappeared for 20 years before emerging from the aether last year. The albums of the new Waves trilogy represent a flawless examination of sound and texture. The Vienna-based producer still straddles high and low culture, but approaches his sonics with a more historically aware ear. So plain and resonant gong recordings are placed next to pop music loops and DSP-fractured cut-ups, and icy electronic jams nudge up against cassette warped instrumental sketches. Waves 3 is a continuation and culmination of the series. In the final chapter, you're drawn in with church bells on dome, but quickly transported to another era entirely with the crackly bläser and absurd zither, a tongue-in-cheek plunderphonic experiment assembled from zither samples. Duca follows this evocative run of tracks with a machine-gun blast of experimental sound, from the percussive 500 GRM to the ferric ASMR birdsong of "ziegenmelker." This is Duca at his most uncompromising, grabbing central European culture and dragging it through his array of processes. Playing the album from beginning to end opens up a weightless cut-and-paste mixtape, stitched together with expert foresight and a knowing wink to camera. Like the best psychedelic experiences, memories are triggered and turned inside-out, and knowledge is allowed to blossom. Curd Duca has been refining his process for three decades now, and few artists have quite the same ability to challenge, provoke, and inspire. |
2022 |
€22.50 |
|
| CURRENT 93 |
When the May Rain comes |
12inch |
"When the May Rain Comes, a cover of a track by Sand, whose work has had a profound affect on Tibet’s work, first appeared on Current 93’s influential album Thunder Perfect Mind. Also appearing on this 12" is an alternate version of the same track from a CD single which accompanied the first 1,000 copies of Tibet and Stapleton’s release of material by Sand, Ultrasonic Seraphim. This 12'' is part of a series of releases from rotorelief comprised of new albums from Sand, a reissue of their album Golem and albums by Nurse with Wound and Current 93. “INXOM” is the series of albums from Sand, the series title having one letter for each album. So, 5 albums of Sand are to be released. Two more albums from Nurse with Wound and Current 93, two groups who helped bring to light the mystery that is Sand, increase the number of letters in the title. With these last two albums the series becomes INXODEM. His First Steps – Golem - Desert Navigation - Sylph Ballet – North Atlantic Raven. And Chromanatron by Nurse With Wound and When the May Rain Comes, cover versions of Sand by Current 93." [label info]
http://rotorelief.com
|
2010 |
€19.50 |
|
|
When the May Rain comes |
CD-single |
"When the May Rain Comes, a cover of a track by Sand, whose work has had a profound affect on Tibet's work, first appeared on Current 93's influential album Thunder Perfect Mind. Also appearing on this 12" is an alternate version of the same track from a CD single which accompanied the first 1,000 copies of Tibet and Stapleton's release of material by Sand, Ultrasonic Seraphim." [label info]
http://rotorelief.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Moons at your Door |
CD |
"A very spooky album from Current 93, which finds David Tibet working alongside Andrew Liles as his only comrade in arms; this was released in conjunction with a book of the same title of macabre tales that Tibet compiled for Strange Attractor Press. This is not the avant-folk minstrel side of Current 93, but the devilish abstraction of dark, sicktone sound design, overlaid with a deconstructed collage of a gravel throated gentleman (not Tibet) reciting and chanting in monotone various elements from the book. Yes, this does hark back to the Crowleyian incantations from Current 93's Nature Unveiled and the Thomas Ligotti collaborations In A Foreign Land, In A Foreign Town and I Have A Special Plan For This World. These albums continue to appear within Current 93's visionary work, and always act as huge gravity well, grasping from depths of the macabre and the supernatural. Nightmare music, par excellance!" [Aquarius Records]
www.davidtibet.com
|
2016 |
€17.50 |
|
| CUSACK, PETER |
Favourite Berlin Sounds |
CD |
" “What is your favourite sound of Berlin, and why?” During 2011/12 many Berliners were asked this seemingly simple question and their responses are as fascinating and varied as the city itself. Almost no one says exactly the same as anyone else, but together they reveal the Berlin of the ear – quite different to that of the eye. A myriad of places and experiences, familiar and obscure, are brought to life in these recordings. From S–Bahn trains at speed to atmospheres inside the city’s unique courtyards, waves slapping in the River Spree to memorial bells, bustling markets and midnight nightingales to football matches heard citywide. These are Berlin’s favourite sounds.
The CD was compiled by Peter Cusack with recordings made by himself and Anna Bogner, Elen Flügge, Thomas Koch, Jasmine Guffond, Klaus Hamlescher, Valeria Merlini and Udo Noll. 31 tracks run for 77min.
Berlin is noticeably quieter than other European capitals such as London or Paris. Why should this be? Most obviously the traffic seems less dominant. Some roads are very busy, but on smaller streets moving vehicles are surprisingly sparse and at night Berlin can be very quiet indeed. The small number of planes is also a factor. Except in areas under the flight path into Tegel airport the city is relatively free of low flying aircraft. Berlin’s unique Hinterhöfe (inner courtyards) add to this impression. They create spaces of genuine calm, even in the liveliest areas. This quietness allows people-sounds to come to the fore: footsteps, conversation, children playing, outdoor café atmospheres and the buzz of nightlife are ubiquitous. All are mentioned as favourite sounds.
So too are natural sounds and those involving the elements. Berlin is a particularly green city with a considerable area of waterways and lakes. Springtime birds – nightingales and the abundant blackbirds - are often mentioned. The Spree is a working river where waves from deep sounding heavy barges, and puttering tourist cruises, slap along the banks.
Berlin also gains a special acoustic personality from sounds that are present citywide. The rising and falling tones of accelerating or decelerating S–Bahn trains are unique and everywhere. It is no accident that the S-Bahn system contributes the most nominated of favourite Berlin sounds. Church bells sound simultaneously across the city and are also regularly mentioned. They are synchronised to ring daily at 12noon and 6pm except on Sundays when the timing is more varied.
It is almost 25 years since the Berlin wall fell, but sonic remnants from the division still appear amongst Berlin’s favourite sounds. Tram bells and rumble continue to be associated with the east, whereas the shouts and bustle at Turkish markets, are very much of the west.
The Favourite Sounds Project explores what people find positive in their city’s soundscape. It started in London in 1998 and has since taken place in Beijing, Prague, Manchester, Birmingham, Chicago, Brussels and Southend on Sea. http://favouritesounds.org/" [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| CUTLER, CHRIS & THOMAS DIMUZIO |
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 |
|
| CUTLER, CHRIS / THOMAS DIMUZIO / FRED FRITH |
Golden State |
LP |
"A limited Edition of 1969 numbered copies pressed into 180 gsm virgin vinyl and rather beautifully (and horribly expensively, as it turned out) packaged. The music was recorded in California in 1999 with guest Beth Custer (clarinet) on one track. Carefully mastered by Tom Dimuzio in wide frequency, solid footprint, broad compass stereo. Solid and expansive. Though we waved goodbye to vinyl decades ago, we felt this release was made to be an LP - a CD just wouldn't be the same, sonically, visually or ontologically. And of course we took advantage of the exaggerated dimensions and physicality to make it a thing visually to savour. Off the groove, Dimuzio, Cutler, Frith and Custer do what they do and you get a ringside seat - as well as something exquisite to look at and play with while you listen. A thing of beauty. The first 500 will be pressed on white vinyl, so please order early to get these." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| CYCLOTIMIA |
Metamorphosis |
10 |
Music for the lost! Elegische Synth-Wellen voller Schwermut und Pathos, Piano-Tupfer, Choräle im Hintergrund, getragene E-Beats... schon die zweite 10“ für das Moskauer Projekt, die hier eine sehr traurig-sehnsüchtige, aber herbstlich-warme Stimmung verbreiten... erinnert an alte CONTROLLED BLEEDING, RAISON D’ETRE, REUTOFF.
“ New release of the Moscow project widely known today for its recent StateArt CD release "Wasteland". This 6-track release continues in the same vein as the above full-length album, but it's less rhythmic and more deep and meditative, being maybe the most dark and melancholic Cyclotimia release to date. Analogue electronic layers submerge listener to an atmosphere of uneasy hallucinatory reverie. Subtle clear sound and sad melodies unite to create the unique mix of cold psychodelia and soulful grief. The release is limited to 300 copies and comes printed silver on black deluxe paper.”
|
2002 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Music for Stockmarkets |
CD |
Das russische Projekt mit einem kritischen Werk zur Konsumgesellschaft & Finanzwirtschaft, eingespielt auf original russischen "Vintage Electronic" Geräten!
"Cyclotimia is a project from Russia and have created some very good and interesting albums. Albums like ‘Same Time Same Place’, ‘Wasteland’ and ‘Celestis’ are a combination of spatial ambient and IDM glitch, aided with the use of lush synthesizers. The music often times is very deep and free interpretable. A recurring theme for this project is the world of stockmarkets. With this new album ‘Music for Stockmarkets’, stockmarkets is the essential theme and motive. Though the album ventures into the typical Cyclotimia topics, it doesn’t sound at all like the former albums. Well, maybe in some places, but its most of all a totally different experience. Gone are the deep soundscapes as the music is stripped to its bare essential. With a fast listening, it reminds me of music created in the Amiga era, but upon closes inspection, the music is rather layered and there is a lot to be discovered here. The album consists of a lot of bleeps and clicks and cuts, but there is also room for the occasional (piano) melody, together with different sampled sources. The great thing about this album is that it’s very subliminal and can sometimes have a rather disturbing feeling to it. A lot of tracks are very clinical in its approach, but it is interspersed with more layered tracks and deeper sounds. This is really an album which should be listened to with headphones and requires your full attention. If listened to rather superficially, the album can seem somewhat boring, because all the details are missed, which is the essential of this interesting work.
It is music that can be difficult and cryptic, but that’s also the beauty of this album, which turns the music into a piece of art. The music therefore isn’t for everyone, because it’s not a ‘fun’ album. It’s maybe more academic, but with a more human approach. Hard to describe, you just have to listen to it. The artwork is also very nice and really makes the experience complete. The album gets a high recommendation because of its originality, but only to the more advanced listeners of experimental music, but a great album nonetheless." [Gothtronic]
"Cyclotimia is most probably the only project in the world which has chosen the creation of a soundtrack to "globalisation" and life of the "consumer society" as their concept. The project members more than anyone else are immersed into the magic of finance and probably therefore has their creative intuition allowed them to compose the main part of "Music for Stockmarkets" with its unforgivingly precise name "Wallstreet Requiem". Today the whole civilised world is listening to this requiem the first cords of which were played on Wall Street itself... The "Music for Stockmarkets" album with its radically experimental nature stands out in the extensive discography of this Moscow project. The 64-minute album includes 32 tracks divided into three conceptual parts: "Wallstreet Requiem" (25 minutes, recorded in 2004-2007), "Trivial Pleasures" (26 minutes, recorded in 2002, this part was the only one released as a seperate CD in 2003) and "Financial Glossary" (13 minutes, recorded in 2003)... The music material itself is nothing like the one heard in the previous records of Cyclotimia. There is no apocalyptic soundscapes of "Wasteland" times, no cybernetic hi-tech and media madness of "E$chaton", no cosmic downtempo of "Celestis: Space Ceremonial Music"... Minimalism, academic sterility, surgical accuracy and meditative ataraxy prevail on "Music for Stockmarkets". Then again it is not the familiar "idm", "glitch", "noise", "clicks and cuts" and not "minimal techno"... The sound of the album is chrystal-clear and warm at the same time. "Vintage" lovers have a wonderful chance to listen to the masterpieces of Soviet music production (such as Rhythm 1, Rhythm 2, Aelita, Formanta UDS, Formanta EMS-01, Polyvox) in pure sound, unprocessed by effects." [label info] |
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| D'INCISE |
(aral) |
CD |
"Geneva based, very active and free electron of an exploratory music with diverse accents, d’incise (whose real name is Laurent Peter) keeps on eating up the miles away from arbitrary categorizations… As well as being a graphic designer, coordinating the Insubordinations label, and having collaborated with a host of artists (Cyril Bondi, Jason Kahn, Tomas Korber, Norbert Moslang, Jacques Demierre, Jonas Kocher, to name a few…), he’s also fond of sound installations, manipulations of objects, and improvisation, and tours actually quite a lot…
Borrowing from musique concrète, electroacoustic music, drone, electronica, field recordings…, d’incise plays skilfully with acoustic sources, giving birth each time to powerful sound microcosms, catalysts of engulfing listening moments…
Here, a flux of particles, an effervescent gush, like an elementary wave with countless appearances…
(aral) sprays, letting curls and sulfurous steams slip in suspension…
sizzling blanket with an irregular & intricate weft, granular quiverings in bareness, a sea that never dies/remains…always the same, ever differing…
(aral) shakes the sediments inducing minuscule frictions, lashings…
an immersion in the course of an hidden side into the muddled and the turbulent…
Beyond the roughnesses, the pseudo-linear, looms then like an evidence, the emergency of another gaze…" [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
"From the slowly growing empire of Mystery Sea and Unfathomless this week a new release on the first label by our man from Switzerland, D'Incise, behind which we find Laurent Peter, who has perhaps a likewise growing empire of releases. Other than his musical talent, he is also a designer, working for the Insubordinations labels and as an improviser he played with Cyril Bondi, Jason Kahn, Thomas Korber, Norbert Moslang and others. Looking back on his previous releases, I think there is an upwards curve in terms of sound treatment, production and composition. He seems, but that's how I perceive things like this from the outside, more and more in control of his methods and creates some interesting computer music. No doubt there are a bunch of field recordings at the core of this, but none of them are easily be traced back to their origins. One should think sea sounds, sea shores and dunes, based on the crackles and sustaining sounds intertwining each other here. It works really well, and D'Incise uses the dynamic spectrum in an excellent way. Being very low end and very high end, and the whole forty some piece is clearly divided in various parts, each with its own character. Slow and peaceful but with some nasty undercurrent. Like the sea itself!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| DAMIAO EXPERIENCA |
Planeta Lamma |
LP |
200 copies. Though often compared to Frank Zappa, Moondog, Captain Beefheart, Sun Ra, Jandek, and Father Yod, Damiao Ferreira da Cruz, better known as Damiao Experiença, it's a truly unique outsider multi-instrumentalist (without any real capability to play any of the many instruments he uses) compulsive hoarder from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Reportedly born on September 27th, 1935 in Bahia, Damiao lived an unhappy childhood and ran away from home at the age of 10 to escape the mistreatment by his parents. In Rio de Janeiro he served as a radar operator for the Brazilian Navy; while in the Navy he allegedly fell off a ship's crow's nest, hitting his head on the floor, which could have provoked his erratic mental state. Desertion is also sometimes mentioned in his auto-biography as well as the fact that he was sentenced to solitary confinement for many years. After retiring from the Navy, Damiao went to live with a prostitute in a stilt house, became a pimp and was able to produce his record LPs thanks to money obtained via procuring. It was in the early '70s that he adopted the name "Experiença" as an homage to Jimi Hendrix Experience, his favorite band and major influence.
In 1974, he self-released his first album, Planeta Lamma, and many others followed throughout the 1970s to the early 1990s, all issued on his own Gravadora Planeta Lamma. Well known for his unsociable personality, he always avoided interviews and attention from the media, even refusing to give autographs or sign any documents. Damião's musical style is impossible to categorize accurately, since he experiments with numerous genres, more prominently freak folk, psychedelic rock, reggae, and experimental music. His songs have no logical sense at first sight, and most of them are sung in a dialect created by him, the "Planet Lamma dialect" (spoken in his eponymous "home planet"), with improvised lyrics. Side One opens with "1308 Registrou gravou rose Oliria Experiença" with Danimhao paying his one-string guitar and singing at the same time in a very primitive folk style mixing Portuguese with his own invented dialect in his lyrics. It continues with the heroic 18-minute "Ritmo Linguagem Planeta Lamma", a purely distilled Phase-3 Damiao Classic of the most refined nature, with the superimposing of many layers of over-recorded Planeta Lamma endurance. Side One ends with "Planeta Lamma", also from his first LP, an intense solo-screaming one-minute piece. Side Two is also pure Phase-3 with his 21-minute "SOL" masterpiece, one of the highest moments in Daminhao Experienca vast discography.
|
2023 |
€23.50 |
|
| DANIELL, DAVID & DOUGLAS MCCOMBS |
Sycamore |
LP |
David Daniell and Douglas McCombs's first collaborative LP, Sycamore, was assembled from seven hours of in-studio improvisations. Daniell and McCombs sifted through the material looking for their favorite moments, then combined, cross faded, mixed, and matched those moments into something that made sense to them as a long player.
For their new release, the double LP Versions, they gave the same seven hours of material to noted recording engineer and producer Ken Brown (ex-Tortoise), who was given free rein to assemble an LP of his choosing (subject to approval, of course).
The results are fantastic. Brown has chosen to highlight moments in the music that the normally reserved Daniell and McCombs probably would not have chosen. There's a wider dynamic range on Versions, from brutally raw to delicate to practically inaudible. The other interesting aspect is that Brown's selections rarely cross over with the material on Sycamore--this is in no way a "remix," and that is exactly what Daniell and McCombs were hoping for.
In addition, Versions includes a second LP of two live performances. These were chosen to show how Daniell and McCombs's music develops in a live setting. Improvising in a recording studio and improvising in front of an audience are two vastly different things. Montreal and Knoxville were two of Daniell and McCombs's favorite performances from their tours together.
Over the years Daniell has collaborated with many notable musicians, including Loren Connors, Rhys Chatham, Tim Barnes, Jeph Jerman, Thurston Moore, Greg Davis, and Jonathan Kane, as well as releasing numerous albums under his own name and with his band San Agustin on labels such as Table of the Elements and Family Vineyard. McCombs is more often seen wielding a bass guitar, whether as a member of Eleventh Dream Day, the acoustic collective Pullman, or the pioneering and inimitable Tortoise; in his role as the driving force behind Brokeback; or through his varied work with the likes of Tom Ze, Azita Youseffi, Will Oldham, Yo La Tengo, and Calexico.
www.thrilljockey.com/artists/david-daniell-and-douglas-mccombs
https://daviddaniellanddouglasmccombs.bandcamp.com/album/sycamore
|
2009 |
€20.00 |
|
| DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE |
Gleis3eck / Görlitzer Tunnel |
do-CDR |
"The long-running (22 years and counting) German-spawned outfit Das Synthetische Mischgewebe (The Synthetic Mixture of Fabrics in English) has a long history of site-specific performances and recordings, two of which are documented on the two CDs comprising this release. Recorded around the time the group departed from Germany for Barcelona and then France, it’s fitting that both of the sites here represented no longer exist. In 1986 and 1987, Berlin was still a victim of the Wall, and deserted spaces were seemingly easy to come by. One such was the Gleisdreieck, a railway junction where DSM set up their electronic and acoustic instruments for an extended recording, of which some 85 minutes are hereby presented. The second location, of which 46 minutes is included, was the Gorlitzer Tunnel, a pedestrian
underpass several hundred meters long under Kreuzberg. It would be of no avail to try to determine exactly what instruments, items and gadgets were used to make the sounds heard in these recordings – and that mystery suits these CDs well. It’s useful to recall that this was around the same time as Einstürzende Neubauten, also in Berlin, were releasing Halber Mensch and Funf Auf Der Nach Obenen Richterskala, their strongest statements. Berlin at that time (beautifully documented in the Berlin Super 80 DVD/book package) had more than its share of
experimental artists, and DSM’s sounds were emitted from the least-accessible cracks in the city’s pavement. From quiet rumblings, these performances grow via distorted hissings, squawks, clanks and grindings into a soundscape akin to a futuristic factory stamping out robots. Metal is scraped, mechanical contraptions buzz and squeak,
feedback squeals and vibrations summon deep groans. The second track on disc 2, the Gorlitzer tunnel set, is on the whole a quieter, more eerie evocation of the location’s deep reverberations, with what may be a generator rumbling quietly in the background. The occasional vocal interjections, echoing in the tunnel, are unexpected and deeply strange in the context of the overall darkly mysterious sounds. Limited to 200 copies, the two CDs come packaged DVD-style with a beautifully-printed insert of text and photos on translucent paper. The liner notes by member Guido Huebner nicely describe the place and time.
These recordings are marvelously evocative: of lost places, of a time and location that was certainly unique, of a group’s early works from 20 years ago, and of surreal, often intimidating imaginary places summoned by the mysterious equipment. One would hope that many more than 200 people would want to investigate these places."
[Mason Jones / Dusted Magazine]
"These days it's probably no longer known, but Das Synthetische Mischgewebe was a band, and not the project of G.do Hübner, which it is since some time. Before people like Yref, Chazev, T.O.W. Richter, Isabelle Chemin and Jean Rene Lasalle were member at one point or another. The recordings on this double pack are in more than one way historical. They are old, twenty years to be precise, but they were also made in the then divided Berlin, in a place you can't find anymore. Das Synthetische Mischgewebe used an old tunnel and a subway station going from East to West Berlin to rehearse for concerts that were later held. Abandoned industrial areas, in which they could easily find material to play their music on. Everything you hear on this double pack is recorded on the spot, using what ever is available there. Industrial tools, scraping metals, obscure objects which we can't visualize and such like. But they are played like musical objects and rather than trying out what the sound
possibilities are, the actors in Das Synthetische Mischgewebe want to play a piece of music with those objects, so they carefully move about and create pieces of improvised music with these objects. Battery run amplifiers and a walkman to record the whole thing onto give this a slightly rough edge, although I must say that the sound quality is more than excellent. Cut into sessions of thirty minutes, this can't be engaging to hear from beginning to end without leaping into a moment of boredom, but throughout I thought this was a very fine release. Not loud or heavy industrial as some of the early work was (or perhaps that's just a wrong memory? Apparently Vinyl On Demand is releasing some LPs with older work), but rather pre-dates a lot of the onkyo type improvisation of the last few years and a very fine work of electro-acoustic music. Topped off with a nice presentation and a most enjoyable set of personal liner notes. Great archival release." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Neunundvierzig Entgleisungen |
do-10 |
"....What you hear on this pack is four delirious sides of hermetically-sealed confusion, playing havoc with your acoustical preconceptions and expectations until you won’t know which way is up. Noise, glitches, murmurs and clicks are abstracted by careful processing, and apparently edited together into microscopic mosaic patterns to stimulate your perceptual receptors in ways you’d never have thought possible. Jean René Lasalle contributes profuse printed texts inside the cover, which are likewise streams of cut-up absurdist poetry containing such deathless observations as “glances irrigates elytrons in a trembling headlight”. Françoise Vigot did the cover paintings, featuring the domestic (and amorous) adventures of the red and blue cipher-like figures whose antics I have seen, I think, on a Hypnagogia release by DSM. Verily, Huebner’s universe is an elaborate many-layered puzzle which is slowly coming together for this listener." [The Sound Projector]
"aufabwegen is very proud to offer a new release by what we consider to be one of germany's most important sound projects: DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE. DSM is now the sole project of guido huebner, who has been working in the medium of sound and found objects since the early 1980ies. DSM have their very own take on the patialization of sound and the moving around of sonic objects in the stero field. the overall impression is of rawness and fragility at the same time. the music on these two 10" records is super-dynamic and fragmentated and sounds very fresh and alive. DAS have collaborated over the years with artists such as Michael Northam, Frans de Waard, New Blockaders, MSBR and many more and have released material on various labels around the globe. DSM have played many concerts all over and have combined their sound with different art froms, such as projections, film, dance and even conducting workshops fro kids.
"neunundvierzig entgleisungen" comes in a full cover fold sleeve and is slipped in a stable plastic seethrough. it plays on 45rpm, even if the label prints instructs you to run it at 33.
the record was recorded by guido huebner and features texts by jean rene lasalle and artwork (paintings reproduced) by francoise vigot. it was layouted by stefan hanser (anemone tube), mastered by josef suchy and cut by lupo at dubplates & mastering." [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2008 |
€18.50 |
|
| DATASHOCK |
Kräuter der Provinz |
do-LP |
Crossed the desert? Check. Seen the pyramids? Check. What's next? "Kräuter der Provinz"... Herbs of the Province. Smoking dope with Edgar Reitz (the man who made Heimat)? A homage to regional cuisine or a celebration of backwoods origins? Absolutely not. But two for the price of one can't be bad and a pun a day keeps the critics away. Still, how to get a handle on what's going on here? Can it even be explained?
Datashock 2018: Eighty fingers playing, but what are they all up to? Are Datashock in command of their instruments or is it the other way around? What we do know – this is freely improvised music, complete with rattles, rumbles and whistles. Music as a social happening, both in terms of process and outcome, where individual and collective development can thrive – an ecstatic experience! Sheesh! No, really! This much you already knew? Well, no harm in saying it again, is there?!
Imagine gathering eight people under one roof and ushering them into a recording studio – everybody's busy nowadays (sometimes in precarious situations, but always doing one thing or another, incessantly), this being the age of late capitalism and all that. Anyway, diaries checked and off we go. Next stop: Oetinger Villa, Darmstadt. Kolter has already swept the place clean, DJ Ulf Eyes has brought beer from the waterfront, MC Cobra is dressed in the latest threads from Berlin, McWerner and Cha Cha have everything they didn't forget to bring from Cologne and up the Rhine and – natch – El Haze and Biber Bergi line up alongside LL Cool P from Saarbrücken. Pizza delivery number dialled, bottles opened, lights, camera, action. Machines bleep, a violin cries out, a clarinet howls, guitar and bass weave their way around the drums. The spell lasts for several days, then the magic goes back in the box, the recording is done. Everyone heads back to where capitalist realism awaits in fifty shades of gloom. Alas, it was over so quickly! Luckily, a tour is in the offing, a chance to see one another again!
Groups like Datashock are few and far between, more's the pity – raise your glasses to friendship! – groups who, in spite of everything, meet up regularly to record free improvisations and then hit the road to share their experiences with an audience. It's a trust thing. So: bring on the herbs! Not provincial in the slightest – but they get everywhere, into every last nook and cranny. They may not have any songs to speak of, but they do have their instruments.
Salvador am Ei
German:
Die Pyramiden besichtigt, die Wüste durchquert, und jetzt? „Kräuter der Provinz“. Kiffen mit Edgar Reitz? Eine Hommage an die regionale Küche oder die Feier hinterwäldlerischer Herkunft gar? Natürlich nicht. Wie immer gilt: doppelter Boden hält besser, und ein Kalauer am Tag die Kritik auf Abstand. Wie aber sich nähern oder erklären gar, was vor sich geht?
Datashock 2018: Achtzig Finger im Spiel aber was wird gespielt? Spielen Datashock ihre Instumente oder spielen die Instrumente Datashock? Es rappelt, rumst und pfeift - soviel steht fest. Hier spielt eine frei improvisierte Musik. Musik, die im Prozess und dem Ergebnis ein soziales Ereignis ist das sowohl die individuelle Entfaltung als auch eine gemeinsame – mithin sogar exstatische! – Erfahrung ermöglicht. Sheesh! Aber hallo! Kennt man schon? Na und, das kann ruhig noch mal gesagt werden! Warum auch nicht!?
Aber wie muss man sich das vorstellen? Acht Leute unter einen Hut bzw. in einen Aufnahmeraum zu bringen – weil alle doch so (teilweise prekär aber natürlich dauernd mit irgendwas anderem) beschäftigt sind, ist doch immerhin Super-Spätkapitalismus und so! Aber dann, Terminkalender gecheckt, los geht’s, nächster Halt: Oetinger Villa, Darmstadt. Kolter hat schon durchgefegt, DJ Ulf Eyes bringt Bier von der Waterkant mit, MC Cobra hat die neusten Modetrends aus Berlin dabei, McWerner und Cha Cha kommen mit allem, was sie nicht vergessen haben, aus Köln den Rhein hoch und – klar – El Haze und Biber Bergi rücken nebst LL Cool P aus Saarbrücken an. Pizza bestellt, Flaschen geöffnet und dann geht’s los. Maschinen piepsen, die Geige ruft dazwischen, die Klarinette jault, die Gitarren und Bass schleichen ums Schlagzeug herum. Wenige Tage später ist der Spuk vorbei. Aufnahmen im Kasten und alle müssen erstmal wieder dahin, wo der kapitalistische Realismus in all seinen trüben Facetten auf sie wartet. Schade, war wieder viel zu kurz! Aber bald ist ja auch wieder Konzertreise angesagt, dann sieht man sich wieder!
Es gibt längst nicht genug Gruppen wie Datashock, die – ein Hoch auf die Freundschaft! – regelmäßig und trotz allem zusammenkommen, um frei improvisierend aufzunehmen und durch die Gegend ziehen, und so ihre Erfahrungen mit dem Publikum teilen. Das muss man sich natürlich auch erstmal trauen. Insofern: Kräuter, gerne! Provinz, mitnichten – aber sie kommen überall hin, noch in den letzten Winkel. Songs haben sie dann zwar keine dabei, dafür aber ihre Instrumente.
Salvador am Ei
LP version in a 3 color Gatefold cover.
The 2-Vinyl Version (indcluding CD) comes with a bonus track!
design by Manuel Wesely
https://datashock.bandcamp.com/album/kr-uter-der-provinz-2
|
2018 |
€26.00 |
|
| DE FABRIEK |
Terugkeren |
LP |
The world of noise, ambient and cosmic sounds doesn’t get much obscure than De Fabriek. They have been active since the late seventies, as a band and a label of the same name, and in the 80s they were very active players in the world of cassettes and exchanging sounds through mail. We haven’t heard anything from them in ages. This new release, their first on over a decade, sees some old players again, such as Klaas Mons (who was once responsible for the three concerts De Fabriek ever did), Nico Selen (from O.R.D.U.C.), Alex Nanuru (who contributed voice to Neveleiland, one of De Fabriek’s best LPs from the 80s) and Richard van Dellen himself. Other members (‘workers’ is how De Fabriek, translated ‘the factory’, called them in the past) here are Simon Steiner and Jan Peter van Aalst.
What is De Fabriek and their new LP TERUGKEREN all about? That is not an easy thing to say, as there is no defined De Fabriek sound. Over the years the group experimented with ambient music, with noise, with rhythms, industrial music and perhaps even cosmic music. This release of Terugkeren sees a bit of all of this and that makes release a nicely varied journey as well as an introduction into the world of De Fabriek, and we find the gentle guitar strumming of Machinerie/Luide Muziek next to a heavy guitar sound in Verleden, dark ambiences of De Terugkerenden and Zwarte Engelen or radio play like Rustpunt, with Alex Nanuru’s voice reciting a story (this could have easily been an outtake of Neveleiland). Guitars play quite an extended role here, but are transformed by the use of sound effects, without sounding too droney. De Fabriek keeps their pieces short and to the point. It is all in all a wonderful collection of pieces and it’s great to hear something new from De Fabriek. (txt with thanks to Frans de Waard).
TERUGKEREN is manufactured on 180 grams vinyl, and packed in a deluxe triple foldout sleeve with insert. The LP is limited to 300 copies. Release date: September 29, 2017.
https://tonefloat.com/2017/08/29/de-fabriek-returns-with-terugkeren-lp/
|
2017 |
€19.00 |
|
| DEAD MAURIACS, THE |
Beaute des Mirages |
LP |
Mysterious French outfit return to Discrepant in full exotic wind force after their sell out cassette, Un Cocktail pour la fin des temps''. Beauté des Mirages picks up on the same themes of frantic, abstract exotica and concrete cocktails the French act is known for. Running for two long 18min sides full of fake(?) vintage atmospheres and armchair jungle hallucinations. An abstract journey into a beautiful (and sometimes scary) world of mirages. All perfectly illustrated by yet another mesmerizing artwork collage by US artists Evan Crankshaw.
The Dead Mauriacs : computer, files, fields recordings, cassettes, text, piano, midi keyboard.
LP released by Discrepant. 2017.
CREP 043
An abstract journey into a beautiful (and sometimes scary) world of mirages.
Perfectly illustrated by yet another mesmerizing artwork collage by US artists Evan Crankshaw
thedeadmauriacs.bandcamp.com/album/beaut-des-mirages
|
2017 |
€19.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| DEATHPROD |
Occulting Disk |
do-LP |
OCCULTING DISK is an anti-fascist ritual. Recorded in Oslo, Reykjavik, Cologne, Berlin and Los Angeles between 2012 and 2019. It is the first Deathprod album to be released since the 2004 album «Morals and Dogma». Liner notes by Will Oldham (note: not the above below). LP cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin. Artwork by Kim Hiorthøy and Helge Sten.
“I remember driving over a mountain with my mother, she was in the passenger seat and we were being mauled and cuddled and battered and fried by sound; together. We were together experiencing something previously unimaginable, and we were facing the same direction, and we were moving through space and time knowing that a geographic destination some way ahead would bring an end. And the sound surrounded us, and for once our mutual silence was loaded with good. Because we were in the presence of each other, and we knew so much about how we had failed each other (it wasn’t a mystery any more), and we knew how we had maimed others when we worried too much about ourselves, how we had contributed to the faults of others simply by focusing in instead of out. Our mutual silences were laden with what that could only be called love. I used to hear love in music until I learned to hear love in sound. “ (Will Oldham)
Hinter Deathprod verbirgt sich der norwegische Musiker Helge Sten, seines Zeichens Ex-Mitglied bei Motorpsycho und Supersilent. Neben seinem Pseudonym Deathprod nahm Sten auch unter dem Namen Audio Virus als auch unter seinem eigentlichen Namen zahlreiche Alben auf. Zudem kollaborierte er mit Biosphere, Arve Henriksen, John Hegre, Lasse Marhaug, Sidsel Endresen, Christian Wallumrod, Nils Petter Molvær sowie mit seiner Frau Susanna Wallumrod, als Sängerin vor allem unter dem Namen Susanna bekannt. \"Occulting Disk\", das erste neue Album von Deathprod seit fünfzehn Jahren, ist ein antifaschistisches Ritual. Aufgenommen in Oslo, Reykjavik, Berlin, Köln und Los Angeles zwischen 2012 und 2019, ist es das erste Deathprod-Album seit \"Morals And Dogma\" aus dem Jahr 2004.
https://deathprod.bandcamp.com/album/occulting-disk
\"The Norwegian dark ambient artist Helge Sten, or Deathprod, is a master of atmosphere. Since 1991, he has been harnessing apocalyptic dread through immersive electronic sound design and bone-rattling live performances. For his first solo LP in 15 years—the follow-up to 2004\'s Morals And Dogma—the Oslo producer has conceived a politically minded album that considers the ways in which we confront fear and hate. The liner notes from Will Oldham dig deeper into Occulting Disk\'s political character. \"If you hear hate in the voice of another, it is your job, as the identifier, to address that hatred and reduce it by its opposite,\" he urges.
Stern expresses these political ruminations using a complex and chilling series of beatless, wordless tracks that command focus—his vision of ambient differs from Eno-led notions of the music as soft wallpaper. Occulting Disk serves a more confrontational, instructive purpose. Knowing the anti-hate messages at the album\'s core, it could be viewed as an amulet to ward off hate and bad energy, its unrelenting honks and bellows stirring up the hopeful sounds of protest. Stern\'s use of repetition is powerful and carefully considered, making space for deep thought and reflection.
Pockets of silence strengthen this concentrative quality. The opener, \"Disappearance / Reappearance,\" sends out a duo of ear-splitting foghorn blasts, an allusion perhaps to the album title\'s maritime reference—occulting light is a navigational beam used by ships. Thick walls of insectoid buzzing on \"Occultation 2\" urge you to step outside yourself, reeling you in with ugly-beautiful effect.
The LP summons a raft of mutated sounds from Stern\'s \"audio virus\" set-up—an array of electronics that has included homemade devices, tape echo machines, theremins and analog ring modulators—that feel eerily familiar and sinister. Case in point: \"Occultation 4,\" whose creaking, dissonant drones give the impression of dive bombers circling each other, while the weeping, warbling synths on \"Occultation 1\" are as evocative as human tears. The album\'s crushing \"Black Transit Of Jupiter\'s Third Satellite\" is a tidal wave of distortion, suggesting a final evacuation of dark energy. Stern\'s gift is to make that feel both unsettling and immersive.\" [Resident Advisor]
|
2019 |
€24.00 |
|
| |
Occulting Disk |
CD |
Hinter Deathprod verbirgt sich der norwegische Musiker Helge Sten, seines Zeichens Ex-Mitglied bei Motorpsycho und Supersilent. Neben seinem Pseudonym Deathprod nahm Sten auch unter dem Namen Audio Virus als auch unter seinem eigentlichen Namen zahlreiche Alben auf. Zudem kollaborierte er mit Biosphere, Arve Henriksen, John Hegre, Lasse Marhaug, Sidsel Endresen, Christian Wallumrod, Nils Petter Molvær sowie mit seiner Frau Susanna Wallumrod, als Sängerin vor allem unter dem Namen Susanna bekannt. "Occulting Disk", das erste neue Album von Deathprod seit fünfzehn Jahren, ist ein antifaschistisches Ritual. Aufgenommen in Oslo, Reykjavik, Berlin, Köln und Los Angeles zwischen 2012 und 2019, ist es das erste Deathprod-Album seit "Morals And Dogma" aus dem Jahr 2004. Aus den "Occulting Disks" Liner Notes: "I remember driving over a mountain with my mother, she was in the passenger seat and we were being mauled and cuddled and battered and fried by sound; together. We were together experiencing something previously unimaginable, and we were facing the same direction, and we were moving through space and time knowing that a geographic destination some way ahead would bring an end. And the sound surrounded us, and for once our mutual silence was loaded with good. Because we were in the presence of each other, and we knew so much about how we had failed each other (it wasn't a mystery any more), and we knew how we had maimed others when we worried too much about ourselves, how we had contributed to the faults of others simply by focusing in instead of out. Our mutual silences were laden with what that could only be called love. I used to hear love in music until I learned to hear love in sound." - Will Oldham
https://deathprod.bandcamp.com/album/occulting-disk
|
2019 |
€14.00 |
|
| DEISON |
Quiet Rooms |
CD |
On Quiet Rooms, the experimental artist builds four enchanting ambient soundscapes from field recordings of empty hotel rooms.
Delicately layered and processed, these lonely urban soundtracks evoke powerful tensions between serenity and alienation. In the he ethereal opener, “Room 1” Deison has captured the anxiety of isolation. Drones builds to such dystopian density that the sounds of our world become science fiction. In “Room 3”, with the inclusion of distinguishable ambient hotel noises, Deison listens in on forgotten stories trapped in the walls. Doors open and close, phonecalls fail to reach their recipient, a distant cat meows.
These are the intimate moments and mysterious lives of hotel guests.
Further adding to the tension of this powerful release is the 16 panel poster designed by Bas Mantel.
Lock yourself into these stationary images and slow moving sounds. Spend time in Deison’s Quiet Rooms and you will never look at an empty hotel room the same again.
Electronics, Synthesizer, Tape, Sounds [Field Recordings] by Deison
Design by Bas Mantel
Sounds were recorded on various locations in hotel rooms in Barcelona, Venice, New York, Los Angeles and Milan.
Processed and edited at #1st Floor Studio, Italy. |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| DEISON & MINGLE |
Tiliaventum |
CD-BOX & object |
"One needs a poet’s heart to appreciate the wrapped gift of Tilaventum: a stone from the river included with every physical purchase. Mine is a perfectly rounded skipping stone, so I’ll need to resist the urge to try it in my own sea. An instant connection is formed across bodies of water, across continents. The photos show that many stones are ringed; my grandfather once told me that such stones are good luck.
Stretching from the Alps to the Adriatic, the 111-mile gravel bedded Tagliamento River (whose Latin name is used in the title) incorporates glacial melt and the shade of black pines. It serves as a border, but is known more for its beauty. The current project, designed by Sandra Tonizzo, offers a tactile impression to accompany the music and keepsake box. One holds the stone in the palm and wonders at the impact of a river so beautiful that it turns the music of Deison and Mingle from dark to light.
Yes, this is the same duo whose music has been (pleasantly) unsettling people for years. But there’s something about the Tagliamento that calms the soul, and is translated to this release. The CD feels different from the duo’s other projects: more restrained, even reverent. The beats are still present, but the textures are more important. The river itself makes an appearance on “Tilament”, along with the sounds of birds in the trees. One imagines a river journey by boat or on foot. For a while, the album simply flows, awash in ambient touches like floating leaves. Not until the fourth track do we hear the expected Deison | Mingle sound, as the drums presage the entry of a nearly industrial timbre. At this point, it comes as a surprise, an accumulated density that imitates the collection of debris around a bend. After this, one begins to imagine the album not merely as a reflection of a river, but of the things that might happen along the river. The Tagliamento is not just a body of water, but an ecosystem, a divider, a bearer of history.
The processed river sounds add a sense of mystery. “Sotteraneo” (“Underground”) is as murky as its namesake, a descent into unknown territory, while “Grave” rattles with dark pulses. In these tracks, we are able to form a connection to the duo’s prior material. But there’s also a sense of excitement, found in the splashing of “Pietra Viva” (“Living Stone”). Water is the foundation of life, and life and death are always intertwined. In “21.00.12”, the battle finally breaks the boundaries, with electronic horns like trumpet calls and the sound of clashing swords. The banks are overflowing. But then, as they are wont to do, as they have been doing since the beginning of time, the waters recede, revealing soft placidity. The cycle is complete, ready to start anew, as sure as the stone thrown in the river will eventually find its way back to the banks." [Richard Allen / A Closer Listen]
deison.bandcamp.com/album/tiliaventum
|
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
| DEISON / K.K.NULL |
Yugen |
CD |
Ten years after their first collaboration (“Into”, Silentes, 2009) KK Null and Deison are back together with “Yugen”*, a new work exploring darkness and controlled chaos thru deep and dense sounds. Pulsating and fractured electronics are mixed with an eerie atmosphere of clunks, broken tribal drums and hovering electronic tones.
https://deison.bandcamp.com/album/yugen
"Both KK Null and Deison are musicians who love to collaborate, either in person or
through the exchange of sound files. I would think this is an example of the latter, as for Null it says recorded at 'Prima Natura Studio Japan' and Deison at '1st Floor Studio Italy'. He takes credit for 'field recordings, sound processing' and Null for 'electronics, noise'. I can't say anything sensible about how this worked out. Did Deison process also sound supplied by Null, or vice versa, perhaps? Or is a question of overlaying independently created sound work and see what dialogue can be formed? As said, I don't have the answer to this question. Both men are known, well perhaps to some, for their more radical sonic enterprises (although Null more than Deison), to avoid the word 'noise' (as a genre, not as an instrument). While the music here isn't necessarily
very quiet, it is also not the loudest and we see both gentlemen venture into the world of rhythm. Not techno-based, but rather minimalist beat stuff, inspired by the work of Pan Sonic. Interesting enough one could say the same thing about some of the more noisy outings on this release as well. A piece such as 'Nervi Scoperti' has some repeating sounds from a piece of vinyl that got stuck and along with that comes a bit warped electronics. Sometimes the two dwell upon a more ambient industrial/drone soundscape, thus creating a varied dish of musical interests. It is a release to play with some considerable volume, as I found out, as it will you give a slightly more presence of the music and it all shines a bit more. This is a collaboration that turned out to be great!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| DEL POZO, ARTURO RUIZ |
Composiciones Nativas |
LP |
BUH RECORDS IS PLEASED TO PRESENT A MASTERPIECE OF PERUVIAN AVANT GARDE MUSIC "COMPOSICIONES NATIVAS" (1978) BY ARTURO RUIZ DEL POZO - LP REISSUE
By the end of the 1970s, a new generation of musicians who brought together ancestral and forefront, became visible in Lima as they searched for native sounds and the new tools of technology. Amongst them, we find Arturo Ruiz Del Pozo, composer who studied with Edgar Valcárcel. After studying at the National Conservatory in Lima he traveled to London in 1976 to register himself at the Royal College of Music where he took a master's degree in electronic composition. Ruiz Del Pozo had left Lima with a bag full of Peruvian native instruments with the idea of utilizing them in his future compositions. In London he was taught by Lawrence Casserly, one the prominent figures of Britain's electro acoustic composition; a musician who was fascinated by the interaction of instruments and electronic media way back from the times of his fundamental audiovisual experimentation group Hydra. Ruiz del Pozo utilized a series of concrete music resources learnt from Casserly. Based on sounds that came from native instruments and diverse manipulations to which these sounds were subject of, he obtained textures and sonorities, which, at the same time they invoked rituals, they opened a new field of experimentation; a collage of sounds of Andean reminiscence, echoes and abstractions, which will entrance you an unprecedented sound universe. These recordings were named Native Compositions (Composiciones Nativas) and they were released in a cassette tape format in 1984 by the author himself. More than 30 years later Buh Records rescued these recordings to inaugurate its Essential Sounds Collection, dedicated to publishing strange and fascinating artifacts of Peruvian experimental music of this period, in a CD edition (2015), which was quickly sold out. Now the label presents its first release on vinyl.
https://buhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/br66-arturo-ruiz-del-pozo-composiciones-nativas-1978-sounds-essentials-collection-vol-1
|
2018 |
€21.50 |
|
| DELPLANQUE, MATHIAS |
O Seuil |
CD |
Seven years after «Drachen», Minds Travels Series invites you to discover the new album by Mathias Delplanque from Nantes: «Ô Seuil». Expert in sound landscapes, Mathias Delplanque is above all a multi-faceted artist: electronic music composer, performer, improviser, sound installation designer, sound creator for dance and theatre... All these hats have allowed him to multiply his musical journeys and to perpetually evolve his creative process.
It has been said that he creates «pieces that are both prospective and introspective, sophisticated and simple to access, in the heart of which it is good to move and be moved» (Mouvement). A meticulous composer of atmospheric works that he sees as «oceans of sound», Mathias Delplanque is also known for his excursions into dub techno (the Lena project), as well as for his collaborations with various musicians using traditional instruments: the Korean E’Joung-Ju (geomungo player in the Keda duo), or the Nazairian François Robin (veuze, duduk and mizmar player in the L’Ombre de la Bête duo).
This diversity of projects does not prevent him from revealing a musical path of great consistency. This sixteenth album under his birth name, in more than twenty years of career, demonstrates once again that the man from Nantes is a skilful, curious and passionate creator.
«Ô Seuil» was conceived as a direct follow-up to «Drachen» (his previous solo album, released in 2015 on Mind Travels). The same taste for powerfully immersive sound pieces, based on electronically processed acoustic instruments, can be found here. The album is an exhibition of constantly changing sound paintings, alternately simple and complex, constantly oscillating between light and shadow. Mathias Delplanque continues to develop his matierist approach to sound, which he carves, hollows out, cuts and models endlessly, like a composite sculpture.
But this new album differs from the previous one in many ways. First of all, it marks the return of rhythm in Mathias Delplanque’s work, through the use of a wide range of percussive instruments: dafs, gongs, cymbals, drums, metal percussion... Seuil 3 and Seuil 6 present all the aspects of a trance music, strongly inspired by various Middle Eastern musical traditions. Threshold 8 evokes some of the timbres and rhythms of Southeast Asian music. The other tracks regularly draw on the slowness and heaviness of doom metal drums.
Brighter than its predecessor, «Ô Seuil» presents a new melodic character and an enriched harmonic work. The instrumentarium has been broadened: bass, guitars, hurdy-gurdy, veuze... to which analogical synthesizers respond, trying to sound like acoustic
instruments.
The tracks (and the album itself) carry a strong narrative charge and are similar to winding tales, whose endings always seem unpredictable. Despite the extremely meticulous production, the accidental is the best part. A profuse work, « Ô Seuil » does not deny its author’s taste for «symphonic» electronic music, which plays on contrasts: bluesy or raging, static or agitated, chaotic or orderly..
https://mathiasdelplanque.bandcamp.com/album/seuil
|
2022 |
€14.00 |
|
| DEMEULENAERE, STIJN |
Latitudes - September 2016 |
CD |
Stijn Demeulenaere is a sound artist and field recordist from Belgium.
‘Latitudes - September 2016’ is the recording of a live set played in his Latitudes series at Q-O2 in Brussels. Latitudes is a project where he brings sounds from North and South together. On the album, the bulk of the sounds come from South-Africa and Iceland. Further recordings were made in Ostend, De Biesbosch, Amsterdam and ‘t Kuipke (Ghent). The album combines a mixture of natural sound recordings and heavily processed sounds.
The album is a cd in a custom A5 sleeve and comes out in a limited edition of 149 copies.
Latitudes is a project where Stijn collects and records sounds from all over the world. He brings these sounds together and explores the relation between climate, geology and how a place sounds. He looks for ways to have the sounds interact with each other and researches the ways nature sounds generate expectations and how one can play with these expectations.
Stijn uses the material to develop installations and live sets where he explores the sonic material, creating new sonic structures juxtaposing the sounds, or melting them together. Latitudes is a project in continuing development: the sounds from Iceland and South Africa are being mixed with sounds from other spaces, nature sounds with industrial ones. If there is enough time and space, Stijn also makes recordings in the cities and places where he performs, and works this material into his live sets.
Amongst others, he made recordings in the northern tundra climate of Iceland and the subtropical climate of South Africa. The recordings in Iceland were made during a Wildeye residency guided by Chris Watson and Jez Riley French in 2015. The sounds from South Africa were recorded during the 2013 Sonic Mmabolela residency under curatorship of Francisco López. Apart from traditional equipment, he also uses a myriad of unconventional microphones and transducers in his search for sound.
"You may not know this name, unless perhaps you visit Belgium quite a bit, as that’s where Stijn
Demeuelenaere’s activities as a sound artist mostly take place. Not really to release his music on CD but as part of sound installations, video work and dance pieces. ‘Latitudes - September 2016’ is his first release, and it is a registration of a concert at Brussels’ Q-O2, and it uses only field recordings, from his trips to South Africa, Iceland and The Netherlands (that man has time and money to burn, I was thinking!), in this piece, just under twenty-four minutes. That is a bit short, I thought. If I understand well there is not really a narrative Demeulenaere is telling his listeners, but more or less puts together sounds from all over the world, choosing and selecting together what he thinks fits best together. There is, so it seems to me, a love for sounds that involve water. In the opening sequence this
sounds like the sound of rowing, along with birds, insects and from there on he expands further into wildlife. It is hard, or perhaps for me impossible, to tell what it is that he’s doing with these sounds, if anything at all that is. This might be a work of pure, untreated sound events stuck together for all I know, but just at the same time it might also be that Demeulenaere creates loops out of his sounds, or
uses quite a bit of sound processing. Only towards the end there is definitely loops and processing going as Demeulenaere creates some odd rhythms out of his material, and whatever was the sound originally we no longer know. For much of the rest of this piece we don’t know if that is the case as well. Now, of course, after hearing the whole thing a couple of times, I would think it is the case; everything is some way or another a bit processed and enhanced. Overall I enjoyed this piece quite a bit, but found it perhaps a bit too short. Why not add another recording, from another concert but
within the same context and double the pleasure for the listener? Now it’s a fine but short debut, hopefully with the promise of more to come." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
https://silkentofu.bandcamp.com/album/latitudes-september-2016 |
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| DIE FORM |
Die Form ÷ Hurt |
LP |
This Die Form side-project was recorded in a few days in 1984 and remains the only trace under the name of Hurt, initially released on Bain Total label (K.29 cassette) at the same period as 'Some Experiences With Shock'.
As for the both previous volumes 1 & 2 from the double album 'Die Form ÷ Fine Automatic', it appears in the 'Archives of Industrial Music from France' collection, proposed by Rotorelief Records.
It brings together all the tracks of the cassette, and other titles from Die Form, close in the spirit and in the form, have been added.
It is a kind of snapshot, close to the tear and chaos, where the machines and the out-of-control guitars are used as a support for the cry up to the final exhaustion. Passion - Pain - Urge.
Again, these are experimental and industrial creations, characteristic of this particular period:time, in the spirit of bands as 'No New York' (Teenage Jesus, DNA, James Chance, Mars), and Suicide or Throbbing Gristle, SPK
www.rotorelief.com
|
2016 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Ad Infinitum |
do-LP & BOOK |
Die Form is the seminal post-industrial electronic act started in the late 70’s by French musician and multimedia artist Philippe Fichot. He began recording a number of experimental cassettes under different names but Die Form became the main project and with which he has developed a prolific career during more than four decades. Whilst the project was still in its first stage, the underlying concepts were already evident: a combination of esoteric electronic experiments with an underlying theme of eroticism, death and other taboo subjects, apparent in both the music and artworks.
“Ad Infinitum” was recorded with dark and stifling atmospheres almost simultaneously with the album “Confessions”. It includes cult pieces such as “Bite Of God” and “Chronovision”, which has made the success of Die Form in clubs, alongside more ambient and industrial tracks such as “In The Evening Of Life” or “Unlimited”.
“Ad Infnitum” was originally released on CD in 1993 by Hyperium Records and now is available for the first on vinyl record. This new edition includes the complete original track list plus a selection of instrumental versions and unreleased tracks from the same period. Limited edition of 474 numbered copies on double vinyl with a deluxe 16-page casebound hardcover book featuring unpublished images as well as other reworked photographs taken from “The Visionary Garden”.
"In praise of the shadow, fascination with the machine, attraction and repulsion, litany and liturgy, funeral Eros…"
“The taboo leads to transgression ... The taboo transgression spellbinds” (Georges Bataille)
https://mecanica.bigcartel.com/product/dieformadinfinitum |
2021 |
€55.00 |
|
| DIETER MÜH (DIETER MUH) |
Feeling a little Horse |
CD |
"Reissue of a live performance by Dieter Müh, originally released on CDr on the Mouth label
in an edition of 15 copies (1998).
Performers were Steve Cammack and Dave Uden.
New CD limited to 150 copies including 3 additional studio tracks from the same period,
taken from 2 CDr compilations on EE Tapes.
Packaged in a 7"-sized cover with 4 extra cards."
[label info]
www.eetapes.be
|
2017 |
€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 |
|
| DIRAC |
Emphasis |
CD |
"Our way to create a record is based on the simple principle of direct-recording – which means the shape and form of our music is basically created within one moment. It is not only about meeting in a studio to do the recordings, but to stay together at one place with a focus on creating music and concentrated listening each day. The isolation from other musical inputs and the reduced input in general, being far off from bigger cities, far off an everyday-live takes you to the point when you don’t want to sound like something you know, you just want to search, experiment and play. John Cage said, that experimental music is where the outcome can’t be foreseen. These things happen through passion and not ambition.
For ‘emphasis’, we again went to Salzburg, where we could set up our gear in the basement of Florian’s parents house for one week – the same place we recorded our first album ‘dirac’. We recorded about 4 hours everyday , experimenting with different materials and instruments. We later listened to the results at the studio garnison7 in Vienna and did more editing work in a small hut up in the snowy austrian mountains in February 2008 – it was cold, electricity was short, but it was silent.
The record contains many details that have personal aural connections to us. The bell which reappears on emphasis is an old-cuckoo-clock from the hut. The crows that fly away are a field-recording from vienna´s augarten park – we went in there during the night and triggered the birds with a short lightimpuls from a flash light. The kids playing were recorded in a village in northern India were Daniel and Peter spent some time doing field-recordings. The trumpet appearing in Bantu was recorded by Peter on a frozen mountain lake in Austria – thereby the natural reverb of the valley is transferred onto the record. The cover-picture shows the roof of an old abandoned farming-house, close to the mountain hut where we worked on the record." [Peter Kutin, DIRAC]
www.spekk.net
|
2009 |
€15.50 |
|
| DISKAHOLICS |
Live in Japan Vol.1 |
CD |
DISKAHOLICS = JIM O’ROURKE, MATS GUSTAFSSON, THURSTON MOORE! Live-Impro Japan 2002 ! Noise-Jazz !
"Documenting a 2002 sojourn to Japan that featured some slathering improv between Jim O'Rourke (synthi, noise), Mats Gustafsson (sax, noise), and Thurston Moore (guitar, noise). Although the purpose of the visit might have been to find bagloads of righteous collector-styled records, this recording flops onto the sidewalk with some of that old salted slug action you know -- deep breaths with a deadly spasm. The sounds here really get electro-acoustic in the same vein as leather elbowed warriors like Toop and Henri, but with scrappy crappy horizontal huddle of minds flowing with the JUICE! Really an inspired record that brings each player's pedigree upfront. This is a hot-wired jazz, really free blowing and joyous, but not so obvious you'll feel like the second time around. You're a grown up now, listen to grown up music. Step up to the bar!" [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| DISSECTING TABLE / VASILISK |
Saddharma / Tibetan Liberation |
CD |
"DISSECTING TABLE: Saddharma is a very intense Experimental Industrial-Noise Orgy, lasting over nearly 32 minutes. on this brilliant track, the mastermind of the Japanese Noise-Poineers DISSECTING TABLE, Ichiro Tsuji, combines different rhythmic oldschool-elements, experimental sounds and very dark/aggressive vocals, that remind to the band's early years.
VASILISK: after the mysterious Japanese Power-Noise band "WHITE HOSPITAL" split up into "GRIM" and "VASILISK", the newborn band released 3 fantastic LPs in 1987-89, which became some of the most wanted and most expensive records in the collector's scene, already short after their release. In 1990 the 3 LPs were followed by a brilliant "best of" CD (Liaberation & Ecstasy), which was definitely one of the best Ritual albums ever released.
after the release of this CD it went quite silent around the band, but now, after more than 20 years, Tomo Kuwahara (Vasilisk) is back with the same amazing Ritual Music than before! he played a great live-concert in Japan short ago (please find the youtube links below) and his brandnew album will be released on Steinklang soon!" [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| DOCKSTADER, TOD / DAVID LEE MYERS |
Pond |
CD |
Überraschende Collaboration zweier Urgesteine der experimentellen Elektronik – der wiederentdeckte TOD DOCKSTADER und der ebenfalls nach langer Pause wieder aktive „ARCANE DEVICE“ DAVID LEE MYERS. Hier frönen sie ihrer Faszination für Frosch- & Kröten-Sounds, die elektronisch bearbeitet werden - so entspringen ihrem „Klang-Teich“ die merkwürdigsten stakkatohaften & pulsierenden organisch-elektronischen Akusmen.....sehr kurios & obskur !
"Tod Dockstader and David Lee Myers are two pioneers of electronic music, but from very different epochs. Dockstader started working with optical sound in the 1950s, later working with vast Telefunken tape recorders that became so hot they had to be left overnight to cool down. His electronic soundscapes ('Lunar Park' and 'Apocalypse' among them) are now being re-discovered and given the respect they deserve. Pond is his first new album-length piece since 1967. David Lee Myers, on the other hand, made his name in the 1980s under the name Arcane Device, and the music was derived from almost uncontrollable feedback systems. His Engines of Myth was originally released by ReR on vinyl in 1988, and was re-released on CD in 2001. A collaboration between these two legendary figures -- the painstaking, highly organised researcher Dockstader with the younger, more go-with-the-flow Myers, is an intriguing proposition. The first problem to overcome was computers; Dockstader had never used them, having perfected methods of working with optical and tape formats. It was only with much coaxing from Myers that it became possible. Dockstader recently remarked that when he began working with computers he 'realised that many of the old principles -- slowing, speeding, pitch-change, reversal -- were the same -- but with much more control and better sound. And no tape hiss. Because it was faster and I could keep my belief in what I was doing, more fun.' Fun is what they had. Most of the sounds derive from frog and toad calls, garnered by hanging around ponds with recorded equipment late into the night. The results are extraordinary -- the cries are transformed into an electronic melee that does not so much resemble a pond, as fragments of a road-movie soundtrack left over by Kraftwerk or Eno."[label description]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| DONOSO, RICARDO |
Sarava Exu |
CD |
"Der brasilianische Komponist, Percussionist und elektronische Musiker RICARDO DONOSO kommt ursprünglich aus Rio de Janeiro und lebt mittlerweile in Boston, wo er am renommierten Berklee College of Music und am New England Conservatory Komposition studierte. Ricardo Donoso hat in den vergangenen Jahren an einer Menge Musikprojekten mitgewirkt; unter anderem ist er Drummer bei der Avant-Death-Metal band Ehnahre und formt zusammen mit Luke Moldof das Electronic Duo Perispirit. Ricardos musikalische Sprache ist von zeitgenössischer Komposition inspiriert und ebenso auch bestimmt von Drone, Techno und Noise. Im Kontrast zu dem beständigen Streben nach Leistung, das die heutige Kultur uns lehrt, ist das Thema des Abstiegs - wie es in vielen Mythen vorkommt in Form eines Helden, der in den Untergrund geht um eine Periode der Abgeschiedenheit zu durchlaufen - nicht länger in unserer Gegenwart repräsentiert. In den meisten traditionellen Gesellschaften existierte ein kultureller Freiraum für eine solche Periode im Leben einer jeden Person und es war allgemein angesehen, dass dies eine Notwendigkeit war um sich in Verbindung zu bringen mit der Vergangenheit und damit begleitend dem kollektiven Unbewussten bzw. der ursprünglichen menschlichen Existenz zu begegnen. "Sarava Exu" wurde durchweg in einer solchen Periode geschrieben - eine beabsichtigte Isolation, ausgedrückt und geführt durch die sakralen esoterischen Rituale des braslianischen Kults 'Quimbanda'. Die musikalische Folge bewegt sich entlang der '7 Lines & Kingdoms of Quimbanda', die durch die traditionellen Candomblé Rhythmen, brasilianische Percussion, Noise sowie klassische Streichinstrumente verkörpert werden - allesamt bekannte Elemente aus Donosos Vergangenheit, die er neu betrachtet und reinterpretiert. "Sarava Exu" ist das symphonische Poem eines Quimbanda Rituals und eine musikalische Begleitung des Abstiegs in die eigene persönliche Hölle. Sicherlich Donosos bisher ambitioniertes und herausforderndes Vorhaben, aber all diejenigen, die Zeit damit verbringen und die Schichten darunter aufdecken, werden belohnt. Die Linien sind nun verschwommen zwischen den kompositorischen Strategien von Donosos Soloarbeit, dem Scuba Death Projekt und den Techniken, die genutzt wurden um für Gruppen wie Perispirit & Ehnahre zu schre iben. Musikalisch nimmt das Album Inspiration von Filmtrailer-Musik; Musik die sich gewöhnlicherweise extrem und vollkommen in zwei Minuten oder weniger entwickelt und gänzlich darauf konzentriert ist, eine emotionale Reaktion beim Betrachter zu triggern. Obwohl jedes der sieben Stücke untrennbar miteinander verbunden ist, spürt man dennoch das permanente Push & Pull, das am Ende keine Auflösung bereit hält. Ein konstanter Antrieb als Versuch irgendwohin zu gelangen, aber doch niemals wirklich anzukommen - dynamische Crescendos kommen und gehen, entwickeln sich, fallen wieder auseinander und bringen uns dahin zurück, wo wir begonnen haben; die Musik, entfaltet sich konstant, führt doch gleichzeitig nirgendwo hin und schafft darin einen klares Gespür für die Zeitlosigkeit. Wenn das Album "Assimilating The Shadow" die Theorie war, dann ist "Sarava Exu" die Praxis - ein Nachtrag, der nicht ein zielloser oder destruktiver Fall in den Abgrund ist, aber eine bedeutsame Erneuerung. "Der Weg hin zur Weisheit, wie ihn Exu vorschlägt, ist einer des Höllenfeuers und Schwefel, von unbarmherziger Ehrlichkeit und Mut, wo der grausamste aller Feinde das eigene Selbst ist." Für Hörer von Emptyset, Alva Noto or Raime." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2015 |
€14.50 |
|
| DONZEL-GARGAND, BERNARD |
Still to be a Storyteller |
CD |
"No easy listening" hier von dem bisher nur durch eine CD auf PLATE LUNCH hervorgetretenen französischen Komponisten, dafür offenbart sich gleich ein ganzes Universum an schräger Geräuschkunst und weirden Klängen, alles sehr lebendig & überfordernd, viele field recordings & original Zitate werden benutzt & verfremdet, seltsame elektronische Sounds sind überall, das kommt uns manchmal vor wie die Schnittmenge aus BRUME, NURSE WITH WOUND und ASMUS TIETCHENS, viel weniger klassisch "elektro-akustisch" als das vielleicht bei seinem Werdegang zu vermuten gewesen wäre.
"The 20 years anthology of creative work from the french composer,consisting of only previously unreleased material. Fantastic soundscapes, drawing images without any visual similarities and presenting the best ever sense of acousmatic music.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Bernard Donzel-Gargand is the unique musician and composer. He is a celebrity in Annecy but unfortunately less known abroad, especially
because he published just one CD of fabulous works on Plate Lunch in 2001. Before discovering electroacoustic music in 1978, he participated in the free jazz movement and improvised music. Since that, he is the author
of acousmatic music, works for animation, dance and interactive contemporary art. In 1981, he founded the Collectif & Cie studio, together
with Philippe Blanchard, Alain Basso, Philippe Moenne-Loccoz, and Peter Ernrooth, amongst others. Later on, with Philippe Blanchard he founded Studio Forum and the yearly festival "Le Bruit de la Neige". Bernard was born in 1955 and composing the music since 70s, he knew personally Pierre Schaeffer and received some prizes at GMEB concours in Bourges.
He influenced Blanchard a lot, and his music was perfect example for many other young musicians in Annecy. But his musical career was not so active, because Bernard prefers to work alone in his studio rather than promote his music for publicity. But his works can be compared with the best electroacoustic music coming from France, and his name should be
mentioned with celebrities like Michel Chion, Xavier Garcia, Bernard Parmegiani, Luc Ferrari and Francois Bayle. His pieces are breathtaking
and transcending the sense of time.
'Bernard was my teacher there during 5 years between 1983 and 1988. With his help, I learned all inventives and sophisticated events in the sound art. I remember we have met together Pierre Schaeffer at a memorable concert that drew our way up to today. In such pieces as "Eloge de la folie" or "Erasme 1509", his music starts from a thought and constructs philosophical idea suggested by Mary, who was his muse for many years and until today, they used to travel together in the limbo land of the
universe and more beyond... Poetic! - it's the best word to explain the music of Bernard, his stretches of tones, sounds from nature, animals,
thunder, crazy cycle and subtle combinations of electronic sounds and field recordings. I also remember this early morning when we were waiting
for the rumour of a hunting horn in the distance of country, only to have a new life experience. For over ten years, we have established the Studio Forum and the Festival "Le Bruit de la Neige", this is a place where we work and develop our ideas, for which we may die one day! And defend also all projects of composers we invite each year. Finally, it is pure pleasure to be lost elsewhere in Bernard's music, primitive chaos, a confused state of the
elements that preceded the creation of the world. I hope this CD will interest a large audience because Bernard Donzel-Gargand is a unique composer and storyteller!'
Philippe Blanchard, May 2009 " [full press-release]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| DORELLA, BRUNO |
Paradiso |
CD |
Italian musician and producer Bruno Dorella guides us to \"Paradiso\", his new solo album, with the music for the homonymous choreographic project of gruppo nanou, to be released on CD and digital on November 25th, 2022 by the independent label 13 / Silentes.
\"Paradiso\" was born for the choreography of the new show by gruppo nanou, a contemporary dance and performing arts company, founded by Marco Valerio Amico, Rhuena Bracci and Roberto Rettura. The collaboration between Dorella and the company has started almost a decade ago and over time has also involved Ronin and OvO, the main bands of the Ravenna-based musician - OvO were on stage in 2021 for Canto Primo: Miasma | Arsura, an encounter between sounds and infernal images, with Dante\'s recurring reference.
But there is more than this. \"Paradiso\" is also the first electronic music album made by Dorella who, during the lockdown period, focused himself more and more on softwares. The tracks are composed according to the bodies and the choreography of the show. Dorella says: \"The composition took a long time. The choreographic needs, and the effect of music on the bodies, often led me to think with a broader perspective. Me and the members of gruppo nanou started the work from mutual suggestions and gradually we understood each other faster and faster. We defined a common conception of rhythm, deciding to work on apparently \'off-grid\' rhythms, creating the illusion of something wrong together but perfectly timed. In reality, these rhythms are parallel planes that travel in time with each other, even if out of phase.\"
\"Saturno\" is the first single taken from \"Paradiso\" and contains the fundamental elements of the entire work. That is, parallel, overlapping, sinuous rhythms, apparently out of phase but which \"turn\" together. In addition to abstract guitars and breath as the only source of voice.
According to gruppo nanou: \"Bruno has composed a choreographic work. We have verified together how sound can accommodate the body and be in dialogue with the scenic action. It was a transitive operation between scene and sound, bodies and the material density of sounds, vibrations and motion. The beauty of this musical work is that it is concrete matter and at the same time it is a precise thought. All the rules and limitations that we set for the creation of the show - regarding choreography, sound, lights and scene - have managed to be assimilated to become creative resources and therefore to become exact viscera.\"
The journey of \"Paradiso\" is articulated into thirteen tracks and ends with the title track, which is also the brand new single from the album and the only episode that can be assimilated to an \"alien\" song-form, featuring Francesca Amati (Comaneci) on vocals. Dorella speaking: \"We always thought that, at a certain point, we needed a \'song\'. With Francesca there is a long-standing collaboration and gruppo nanou loves her tone of voice, so it has always been clear that she would be the one to sing the song. But she had to do it in a non-existent and unidentifiable language. So, I broke down the syllables of what Francesca had sung, recomposing them with a new result.\"
In Dorella\'s long and eclectic career, \"Paradiso\" is only his second solo record, following \"Concerto per chitarra solitaria\", created for a contemporary classical music festival and released in 2019 by Bronson Recordings. \"I always thought of ensemble music, never really in the solo dimension, and I always imagined that if I ever made a record on my own and with my name on it, it would be related to pure composition\", Dorella explains. Active since the late 90s, Bruno Dorella is also known under the pseudonym Jack Cannon and was a member of Wolfango, as well as founder of OvO, Ronin and Bachi da Pietra, and more recently of Tiresia and the GDG Modern Trio, as well as an element of Sigillum S. \"Paradiso\" is the first record that testifies his experience in the field of theater music, developed through collaboration with various theater and dance companies.
\"Paradiso\" is a collective effort among the contemporary research dance company gruppo nanou and the artist Alfredo Pirri. Its path begins in 2021 and continues until July 2022 through appointments, called sketches, intended as the progressive deepening and development of research and tests for the construction of a performative process that removes the concept of the beginning and end of a performance, as well as its front use.
The space is intended as an active place in which to immerse oneself, creating an impromptu community that accesses the performance as it happens in a museum exhibition. \"Paradiso\" is the beginning of a common journey starting from the Third Canticle of Dante Alighieri’s Commedia; as a paradise, it is an elsewhere space, inhabited by light and evanescent figures; a long cinematic shot in which to immerse yourself thanks to the music of Bruno Dorella. The stage space consists of a mirrored dance floor obtained by combining different layers of silver and gold carpets where reverberating spaces and territories, intertwined and choreographed by gruppo nanou. Indirect lighting allows the carpet to reflect the surrounding space, welcoming it inside visually and creating a floating perception and making the floor like a pond where the bodies in movement flake with evanescent contours. The place determines each time the use and arrangement of the scene created by Pirri; the space, as well as the bodies and the light, is reflected by the mirrored surface of the carpets, redesigning the geometry of the space itself. For this identity of relationship between place and scene, each Paradise is unique and unrepeatable, thus finding the impossibility of describing a Paradise uniquely, as Dante wrote in the beginning of the Third Canticle.
The gestures lose all trace of naturalism to turn into an abstract choreography, whose meaning is in the desire to bridge the distance between the gaze (of the viewer) and the bodies in action. The limit of the backgrounds is forced, torn, deteriorated by the body that attacks it with its choreographic action. The choreographic images are produced “accidentally”, and the bodies are immediately pulverized thanks to the process of abstraction that produces pure plasticity that surpasses all other instances. The evidence of every research step or residency is called sketch and, even if is still a studio form, it shows how the performative device works on the space, its architecture or lack of it, recreating and rethinking both the stage and how the audience interact with it. As it will be in his final form, every sketch is different from the others; not a step forward but a step in deep the research. In each different spaces there will be different sets and choreographic compositions. A difficult experience to tell.
Album credits:
Music composed, played, recorded and mixed by Bruno Dorella
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Vocals on 6 & 13 by Francesca Amati
Vocals 4, 9 & 10 by Elisabetta Da Rold
Voices treatment on 1 by Bruno Dorella & Giovanni Lami, 5 includes parts of Old Vogue Dancer by Bruno Dorella, 11 includes a sample by Stefano Ghittoni
Layout and artwork by Marco Valerio Amico
Photos by Daniele Casadio
Project credits:
Project: gruppo nanou, Alfredo Pirri, Bruno Dorella
Choreography: Marco Valerio Amico, Rhuena Bracci
Scenic space: Alfredo Pirri
Music: Bruno Dorella
Lights: Marco Valerio Amico
Colors: Marco Valerio Amico, Alfredo Pirri
Costumes: Rhuena Bracci
With Carolina Amoretti, Marina Bertoni, Vera Borghini, Rhuena Bracci, Francesca Dibiase, Andrea Dionisi, Agnese Gabrielli, Marco Maretti, Emanuel Santos, Sofia Pazzocco, Michele Scappa
And the graduates (2019) of the Post Diploma – Dance Course of the Civica Scuola di Teatro “Paolo Grassi” of Milan: Livia Bartolucci, Alessandra Cozzi, Elisabetta Da Rold, Agnese Gabrielli, Nicolò Giorgini, Simone Mazzanti, Camilla Neri, Francesca Rinaldi, Pablo Ezequiel Rizzo, Bruna Romano
Production: Nanou Associazione Culturale, Ravenna Festival
Contributon: MIC, Regione Emilia-Romagna, Comune di Ravenna, Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna
Collaboration: Civica Scuola di Teatro “Paolo Grassi” di Milano
Support: Centro di Residenza della Toscana (Armunia-CapoTrave/Kilowatt), E Production, ATCL Circuito Multidisciplinare del Lazio per Spazio Rossellini Polo Culturale Multidisciplinare della Regione Lazio, C.U.R.A. Centro Umbro Residenze Artistiche, Spazio ZUT!, Indisciplinarte, La Mama Umbria International
https://brunodorella.bandcamp.com/album/paradiso
13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2258_bruno_dorella.htm
|
2022 |
€12.00 |
|
| DRAKH |
Bethlehem |
CD |
"One third of the cult post-industrial Swedish legends MZ.412, one half of the amazing experimental act Beyond Sensory Experience and Nordvargr’s long running loyal partner on classic endeavors – including the abyssal black ambient duo Nordvargr/Drakh. With such high caliber résumé, we are more than honored to present the first Drakh solo album!
While mostly known for his demonic, truly Swedish guitar interventions on the MZ.412 or N/D pitch black ambiences, Bethlehem finds Jonas Aneheim walking through slow, quasi-harmonic, subtle, yet thick drone fields weaving elaborate and unexpected damaged electronic rhythms and harsh, crackling ambient textures that can become – at the same time – both delicate and haunting, warm and freezing, to finally drown in a sea of reverb, glacial riffing and distortion on his own shadowy interpretation of the city of Bethlehem. Simply perfect.
Masterfully conceived and recorded on the road during his many world travels over the past years – from the US State of Indiana to Asia –, the album successfully narrates unknown angles from these places via ominous sonic vistas and pallets that truly honor the charming aura and tradition of the bleakest Swedish sounds.
Presented in our custom 6-panel digisleeve packaging with stunning and desolate photography by Seldon Hunt. Not coincidentally mastered by no one else than Jouni Ollila (aka Ulvtharm, from the MZ.412 fame) at oLLiLaboratories Studios." [label info]
www.essence-music.com
|
2010 |
€13.50 |
|
| DREAM WEAPON RITUAL |
The Uncanny little Sparrows |
CD |
"Formed in November 2006, Dream Weapon Ritual is the duo of Simon Balestrazzi and Monica Serra. They play free-form music that draws equally from droning electronica soundscapes and imaginary folk visions.
Simon Balestrazzi is an electronic/electroacoustic composer and sound artist active since the 80's. He released many albums and performed live around Europe under various names.
Monica Serra is a talented actress whose artistic research led to double as vocalist since 1999. Both are members of the long-lived Italian cult band T.A.C. (Tomografia Assiale Computerizzata).
Togheter as Dream Weapon Ritual they released their music through Radical Matters, Old Europa Cafe and Magick With Tears.
All music by Dream Weapon Ritual
Mastered by James Plotkin
Masks by Gabriela Mulas
Photos by Franco Casu
Artwork by Daniele Serra"
"Gut drei Jahre nach „Ebb and Flow“ lassen die beiden Multiinstrumentalisten Simon Balestrazzi und Monica Serra zum fünften Mal von sich hören und erzählen mit allerhand schrägen Ideen im Gepäck die Geschichte einer Gruppe von unheimlichen kleinen Spatzen – das klingt auf den ersten Blick vielleicht nach Ironie und Spielerei, v.a. wenn man von dem hierzulande üblichen Image dieser nicht gerade gruseligen Vogelart ausgeht. Doch „The Uncanny Little Sparrows“ lädt nicht gerade zu letztgültigen Interpretationen seines Inhalts ein, und das ist auch gut so.
Bei dem langsam an- und abschwellenden Drone, das an elektrisch aufgeladene Harmoniumklänge erinnert, den trunkenen Echolalien undeutbarer Stimmen, dem Rasseln und Scheppern und den seltsamen Bläserklängen des eröffnenden „Bird Mother“ zeigt sich schnell, dass die beiden sich in grundlegender Hinsicht treu geblieben sind, denn ihre „Freeform-Musik“, die ebenso von dröhnender Elektronik wie von folkigen Spuren durchdrungen ist, bewegt sich in den bekannten Bahnen, die quer durch moderne und primordiale Gefilde führen. In diesem Rahmen kommt es aber zu einigen Verschiebungen, denn auf den neuen Stücken scheint die Musik noch um einiges unregelmäßiger und unruhiger als auf den Aufnahmen zuvor. Kratzige Spielereien, eventuell erzeugt mit dem von Massimo Olla entworfenen [d]Ronin, allerhand Gereusel und geheimnissvolle Perkussion rufen Balestrazzis Projekte Hidden Reverse und A Sphere of Simple Green in Erinnerung, bei der Mischung aus untergründigem Brummen und falsettigen Hochtönereien denkt man vielleicht an so unterschiedliche Musiker wie Ka Baird oder die viel zu wenig beachteten Mailänder Sothiak – Vergleiche, mit denen nur eine vage Richtung angedeutet sein soll.
Deutlich erkennbare Vogelstimmen treten erstmals in dem kurzen, in einem seltsam schleppenden Rhythmus hinkenden „Mating Call“ auf den Plan, wo sie sich sanft und verhuscht in mysteriöse Rückwärtspassagen einweben. In dem folgenden Track, der von „zwei kleinen Spatzen, die auf einem Zweig sitzen und auf die Erleuchtung warten,“ kündet, erinnern sie eher an übermütige Spechte. Weiter geht es durch noisige Gefilde, in denen man nicht mit dem Klang orientalischer Flöten gerechnet hätte, hin zu einer Urwald-Kulisse, in der ekstatische Perkussion und tremolierende Stimmen wie das Echo eines schamanischen Rituals wirken. „The One with the Iron Beak“ ist das letzte Stück betitelt, und wieder beschleicht einen der Verdacht, dass all die tiefschürfenden rituellen Elemente, die ebenso wie rhythmische und melodische Pop-Ansätze um jede zweite Ecke lugen, zwar auch, aber nicht nur mit erhabenem Ernst eingebracht werden.
Das Album erschien jüngst bei Boring Machines als LP mit achtseitigem Booklet und ist darüber hinaus natürlich in den üblichen digitalen Formaten zu ergattern." (U.S./African Paper]
|
2018 |
€16.50 |
|
| DROUIN / OLSEN |
Snow:Field |
CD-R |
Schnee-Musik ! Alle Quellen-Klänge auf dieser CD-R wurden irgendwie mit Schnee erzeugt, und dann zu sieben langen Stücken verarbeitet. Sanftes Wummern, typisches Schnee-Knirschen, geheimnisvolles Wispern, eine detailreiche akustische Mikrowelt tut sich einem hier auf!
Ein Projekt von JAMIE DROUIN und LANCE OLSEN des Künstlerkollektivs INFREQUENCY.
Seven long pieces based on original sounds created with snow... soft vibrations, typical snow-crunching, mysterious whispers, a detailed acoustic micro-world opens..
check: www.infrequency.ca
“this 5" full-length cd documents portions of the audio installation of the same name recently seen at the folly gallery, uk. all sounds in this production are the result of the interaction with snow and feature drouin/olsen's best work to date. limited to 200 copies” [label info]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| DRUMM, KEVIN |
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 |
|
| |
Inexplicable Hours |
do-LP & CD |
Inexplicable Hours is the sequel of the successful six-CD boxset Elapsed Time, also released by Sonoris in 2017. The first LP documents a new direction in his music, with some of his last electroacoustic experimentations with audio generators, field recordings, and various electronic devices. The second one explores the same ambient/drone territories as the boxset, with tracks less static and more complex than it appears on the first listen. And as always with recent Kevin Drumm’s music there’s a sense of majesty, of mystery and a melancholic beauty that is uniquely his own.
Some words about the boxset are also appropriate for this record:
“Despite Drumm’s noisy reputation, his music can be overwhelmingly sensual even at its loudest, providing a form of minimalism replete with a delicate, melancholic motion. How wildly divergent emotions rise, hover, and fall using so little is a mystery that only Kevin Drumm can provide.” (Soundohm)
“The vast array of styles and works to be had here makes it an engaging challenge, one that can differ widely from disc to disc, but never lacks the cohesion and touch of a master craftsman and composer working at the top of his game.” (Brainwashed)
“These pieces, despiste their lenght, are like perfect miniatures, timeless puzzles that you try and unravel through close listening. And their sense of place, of home, of sanctuary, feels more important than ever right now.” (The Wire)
Mastering by Giuseppe Ielasi.
2 LPs packaged in a deluxe 6-panel/double gatefold sleeve, with CD version in cardboard cover included. 700 copies.
|
2018 |
€27.00 |
|
| DUBACH, PETRA & VAN HORRIK |
Failing Humans Failing Machines |
LP |
Performance artist couple Petra Dubach and Mario van Horrik produce electro-acoustic music. The A-side of this album consists of a collage of various instruments (abstract sounds) and the B-side is a 20-minute drone piece.
The Failing Humans' instruments:
Petra Dubach:
portable harmonium, toy harmonica, mouth organ, vibratone, small percussion, voice, marbles, kalimba.
Mario van Horrik:
prepared electric guitar, loop station, voice, cymbals, marbles, small
percussion.
zijn Eindhovense veteranen op het gebied van de electro akoestische muziek en klankinstallaties. Na een samenwerking van meer dan 20 jaar werd het tijd om een uitgave te maken. Op vinyl krijgen we 2 stukken van een volle plaatkant. Kant A is een wergave van de performances met bied een caleidoscopische blik in het instrumentarium van Dubach&vanHorrik. Kant 2 is een klank installatie onder de titel Failing Machines en laat een hypnotiserende drone horen. Nog niet overtuigd? Luister zelf:
www.kolonne.nl |
2014 |
€25.00 |
|
| DUNCAN / VON HAUSSWOLFF / ELGGREN |
Untitled |
7inch |
Another 7“ in this great series of concert-accompanying releases, as always designed very accurately.
“Released in conjunction with a live performance that took place at the 'Lagerhaus' Bremen on 26. September 2003. Exclusive tracks by all three artists. John Duncan's 'The Gossamer Dispatch' is another fine example of his work with Shortwave sounds and a sort of more agressive version of his acclaimed 'Phantom Broadcast' CD. C.M. von Hausswolff delivers a spoken word piece for the first time 'The way The Breeze Lays'. 'The Gobblestone Is The Weapon Of The Proletariat. No 8' by Leif Elggren is a short but powerfull example of his vibrating music. Edition of 500 numbered copies in color fold-out cover.” [press release]
|
2003 |
€8.50 |
|
| DUNCAN, JOHN |
Klaar |
LP |
"Sonic provocateur John Duncan has made a career through leaps into the unknown. During the heyday of Los Angeles performance art (i.e. Chris Burden, Paul McCarthey, etc.), Duncan conceived of a number of projects that deliberately antagonized his audience through perceived violence and shattered taboos. At the same time, he began exploring the empty channels on shortwave radio where unsettling noise, silence and crackle could propagate. He was particularly intrigued by the psychological colorings of the sounds that often reflected dread, anxiety and paranoia - themes that were commonplace in his performance pieces.
Duncan's first works were published in conjunction with the Los Angeles Free Music Society, with whom he performed on occasion in various ensembles. His work began to really blossom upon a decision around 1981 to leave America for Japan, a place where he knew no one and where he knew nothing of the language. His work with radio began in earnest both as a source material and as a platform for pirate radio broadcasts. By the end of the decade, he relocated once again, this time to Amsterdam to begin a fruitful series of collaborations with Andrew McKenzie (a.k.a. The Hafler Trio). Shortwave radio was still prominent, with his compositions becoming more complex and nuanced.
Klaar was first published on the Australian imprint Extreme in 1990. The aforementioned 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. The relative calm of the album's proceedings belie the implied threat within Klaar. Duncan actively seeks to reflect a psychic, subliminal violence within society through the unintended artifacts of commonplace technologies. Here, the existentially nihilist agenda is to spook through the haunted radio. Klaar, along with much of his catalogue that spans three decades, remains a remarkable work of spectral electro-acoustics.
And for the first time, Klaar is pressed on vinyl. Highest recommendation." [Stranded Rec.]
|
2017 |
€17.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| DUNKELHEIT |
Les Solitudes Cendrees |
CD |
"A couple of years ago, we released "Temps Modernes" by this Quimper (Brittany/France) based project, active since 1993. Les Solitudes Cendrées is in the same breed, between industrial noise, concrete cut-ups and cold ambient soundscapes.
Released by Steelkraft Manufactory, limited to 100 CD in a black digipak.
“Dans le silence et la solitude, on n’entend plus que l’essentiel” - Camille Belguise - Echos du silence
http://zikcard.com/dunkelheit
Tracklist :
01 - Mystère tellurique
02 - Eléments instables
03 - Volcanisme latent
04 - Nuages sur saison sèche
05 - Evénements secondaires II
06 - Le calme de la tempête
https://www.steelwork.fr/dunkelheit/705-
dunkelheit-les-solitudes-cendrees-cd-.html |
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| DUPLANT, BRUNO |
Quelques Usines Fantomes |
CD |
"As a listener, I’m always intrigued as to what attracts me or doesn’t with regard to works in the field recording vein. The same applies to other areas of music as well, of course, but it’s especially interesting in these works composed of sounds generally taped on site and, to a lesser or greater degree, assembled back in the studio. They’re simply sounds, after all, more or less what I could hear on my own by concentrating on my surroundings at any given moment (allowing for different sources from different locations) which I often do anyway. Why be so absorbed by someone else’s impressions?
Two things, I think, at least. One is a basic affinity with the assembler as far as particular sounds that he or she finds beautiful, fascinating, notable, resonant. As much as one might consciously think that such hierarchies are entirely beside the point, there remains that nagging tendency, whether culturally or genetically inculcated, to prefer one sound, or combination of sounds, to another, at least to the extent one hasn’t fully assimilated Cage et. al., often a more difficult, thornier task than readily admitted. Second is the way these sounds are ordered, layered and contrasted, certainly as subjective a judgment, but one having to do with an appreciation of the composer’s poetic sense, in the perceived “rightness” of the sequence of sounds, ultimately not so different, I think, to one’s enjoyment of post-AMM improvisation.
Though I’d heard examples of this approach since college days, the first such music to really make a strong impression on me was probably Luc Ferrari’s “Presque Rien”, and shortly thereafter, Toshiya Tsunoda’s “Scenery of Decalcomania”. They certainly, for me, contained the two elements described above and, more, evoked an extremely realsense of place, in the manner that I hear things, a very self-centered view, but one I think comes part and parcel when listening to work in this area. Over the years, hearing countless examples of field recording as it has become more and more pervasive (often mixed with live improvisation, sometimes set to disc untouched, often manipulated in the studio), I’ve often questioned myself as to why this example failed to move me while that one did. It’s usually very hard to quantify, somehow even more so than determining the relative value in a free instrumental performance.
I was thinking through this while listening to Bruno Duplant’s “Quelques usines fantômes” (which would be translated into English as “some ghost factories”). Why is this particular collection and distribution of sounds so appealing? They seem to have been drawn, largely, from a waterside area, perhaps a canal, not an overly busy one but where a certain amount of activity is taking place, maybe early in the morning a la Ferrari’s classic work. Duplant eschews going for overt watery sounds, contenting himself with low-level, subtle lapping, the soft creaks of hull on wooden piers, the gentle puttering of a small outboard motor, etc. These serve as the spine of the piece and are consistent throughout (after the first few minutes, at least), another aspect I tend to find compelling: choosing a given sound world and sticking to it, investigating its features in detail, allowing it time to generate a larger effect than mere sonics. There are plenty of other sounds, to be sure: metal objects dropping to the floor, unidentifiable hums, an odd, theramin-like wavering tone, wind billowing in enclosed spaces—at least this is how I hear them; who knows their actual source? But that’s of no import; one accepts this world, which is a basic thing for me. As in any good story or film, the reader/viewer has to accept the presented world as valid, as internally consistent, as “real” at least in the mind of its creator. “Quelques usines fantômes”, whether one picks up on the spirits being manufactured or not, readily achieves this. One is immersed in the world, deriving both sensual enjoyment and, more, generating one’s own narrative, trusting that one is on solid ground. The periodic, electronic-sounding hums that surface give the world a bit of a science fiction or otherworldly sheen, perhaps appropriate given the work’s title, though it’s those real world sounds that anchor the piece for me. Duplant has said he wanted to create a “between world” and I think he has.
A full, rich work then, one of the better things I’ve heard in this lineage in recent years and very much worth losing oneself in.”
(Brian Olewnick, May 2011)
www.unfathomless.net
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| DURAND, WERNER & ALIO DIE |
Aqua Planing |
CD |
„Aqua Planing“ ist eine begeisternde Veröffentlichung, bei der ALIO DIE sein Klangspektrum beeindruckend erweitert und keine elektronischen Klangquellen oder Synths benutzt! Kern dieser ungewöhnlichen Zusammenarbeit sind die improvisierten Drones von WERNER DURAND: Dieser steuert hier Klänge von diversen handgespielten (ethnischen), z.T. selbstgebauten Blasinstrumenten bei (NEY, KHEN, SHAKUHACHI, Klarinette, ein „Drone-Rohr“), die er sehr flächig einsetzt, während ALIO DIE v.a. field recordings dazusteuert. Fünf Stücke von sehr natürlicher Atmosphäre, energetisch & dynamisch..
“In the enigmatic Aqua Planing, Werner Durand and Alio Die create a sonorous, powerful, impervious space; sometimes liquid, subtly endearing. A meeting of mysterious sounds, both improvised and organised, of the traditional and self-made wind-instruments and their hybrids by Werner Durand (persian and circular water ney, circular clarinet, khen, prepared shakuhachi) with the editing, loops and enviromental recordings by Alio Die. As in the title track, where they recorded the sound of the wind blowing on the edge of a PVC tube sticking out of the car window, while driving on an italian highway and mixed it with the sound of the ocean, filtered acoustically by the very same PVC tube, or the noise of a night train, the church bells in a mountain village, the musicians cause you to loose tracks of home and move towards purely surreal places. Their performance is always rigorous, the accurate tunings accuracy and special timbres of Werner Durand`s playing settled in the peculiar atmospheres created by Alio Die evoke unique interwoven listening spaces, rich with hues and shades, continuously evolving.” [label press release]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| EARTH |
The Bees made Honey in the Lion's Skull |
CD |
"... und die „bees" ist dann so etwas wie die positive „hex": die kräfte sind gesammelt und fast mit einem fingerschnippen rollen die riffs (in typischer earth-manier, zweifellos, aber sie rollen und verharren eben nicht in ihrer eigenen statik wie zuvor). wie ein soundtrack zu einem extrem verlangsamten cruisen. dazu die in einzelfällen uplifting melodieführung... da könnten einzelne freunde der erde schon dran zu knacken haben... in ihrer mischung aus hypnotisch (die wiederholungen) und dem neu entdeckten drehmoment (der innere, ja, swing) plus dem offenen sound und der harmonik aber einfach ein sexy gesamtpaket." [N, Unruhr.de]
"...After refaceting some old gems for greater illumination on "Hibernaculum". The band returns once again to it's continuing evolution. Where "Hex" reveled in dark satanic twang and austere american beauty, "The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull" finds Dylan Carlson and the band growing into a harder, more rock, american Gospel and improvisitory direction framed by truly psychedelic production and blazing guitar sounds. Earth shows it's affinity with a nod to the best elements of the more adventurous San Francisco bands of the late 60's and 70's, and the more spiritually aware and exciting forms of Jazz-Rock from the same era. This is no nostalgia trip but a thoroughly inspired and original metamorphosis. Earth is also very honored to be joined on this record for three songs by legendary and virtuoso guitarist BILL FRISELL (doing some of his most fuzzed out playing in years!) . Bill Frisell adds a brilliant texture and counterpoint to the scintillating and inspired riffs of Dylan Carlson and the band. Adrienne Davies joins again on drums lending a classic and steady feel to the proceedings. Steve Moore also returns adding heavy hammond organ and his intense jazz inspired piano playing. Live Bassist Don McGreevy also makes his full length Earth debut on this record. Earth will begin touring throughout the world when the album is released, Australia, Europe and a full US campaign and on from there. The new songs are equally compellinglive where EARTH takes the vehicles and expand and explore them for further musical and meditative exploration..." [from the label notes]
www.southernlord.com
|
2008 |
€15.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| EINHEIT, FM / ANDREAS AMMER |
Hammerschlag |
CD |
"Hammerschlag" - created by FM Einheit (member of Einstürzende Neubauten early 1980's to mid-1990's), with Andreas Ammer - features many percussive industrial elements and 'machine music' (chains, scraping, coiled springs, objects), noise, experimental electronics and provocative musical compositions familiar to the ears of Neubauten fans. An oratorio with prelude and two noise interludes, based on Russian futurist Aleksej Kapitonovič Gastev, the "bard of the machine age".
FM Einheit (Mufti) is an industrial and electronic musician and actor, primarily known for his percussion work with Einstürzende Neubauten. He has also collaborated with musicians such as: Diamanda Galás, Eraldo Bernocchi, Mona Mur, KMFDM, Goethes Erben and many more. He was also involved in the projects Stein and Gry. Andreas Ammer has been creating works with FM Einheit since the early 1990's.
"Just a moment longer, and through the confused chaos of these days, the legendary realisation of the future roar of events is triumphant" (A.K. Gastev, "A Bundle of Orders").
"Hammerschlag was premiered in 2019 at the Diaghilev Festival in Perm as a live concert with Teodor Currentzis , the chief conductor of the SWR Symphony Orchestra, as Aleksej Kapitonovič Gastev. The concert served as the basis for a German-Russian radio play version.
In his last lyrical work "A Bundle of Orders", published in 1921, Russian futurist Aleksej Kapitonovič Gastev wanted nothing more than to finally destroy literature. In a historical document there is a description of a concert based on the text: "The choir master stood on a balustrade, who conducted the sound with the help of a complicated signaling device. After this noise overture had raged for long enough time to completely numb the auditorium the real passion game began".
Aleksej Kapitonovič Gastev (1882 - 1939) was a Soviet revolutionary, poet, high-ranking union activist and scientist. When he became head of the Russian revolutionary Central Institute for Work with the psychotechnical optimisation of workflows (How do I really hit with the hammer?), he swore off poetry with "A Bundle of Orders" and at the same time created his most important lyrical work . He was executed under the orders of Stalin for counterrevolutionary activities.
CD in digipak.
FM Einheit (objects, electronics)
Andreas Ammer (sirens)
Rica Blunck (voice)
Saskia von Klitzing (drums)
Volker Kamp (basses, tuba, trombone)
with Teodor Currentzis as Aleksej Gastev and the musicAeterna Choir under Anton Bagrov
FM Einheit likes to thank Softube for their generous support.
Mastered by Martin Bowes, The Cage Studios.
Layout by Abby Helasdottir.
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/hammerschlag-csr281cd
|
2020 |
€12.00 |
|
| EINHORN, NIKOLAUS |
+++ arbeiten +++ |
LP + 7inch |
"N. Einhorn gibt es wirklich, mit Einträgen in Ubuweb und im Transpersonalen Lexikon. 1940 in Dresden geboren, praktiziert er Gestaltpsycho- und Familientherapie und angewandte Tiefenökologie.
Daneben jedoch hatte Einhorn ein Faible für Lautpoesie und Klangexperimente entwickelt, das Anfang der 70er zur Mitherausgeberschaft im S-Press Tonbandverlag führte, einem Forum für Arbeiten von etwa Raoul Hausmann, Oskar Pastior, Ernst Jandl, Ludwig Harig, Hartmut Geerken oder Bazon Brock. Der Tonbandvirus packte ihn auch selbst, mit Resultaten wie ‚Cudrefin (minuit) - Found Music No.1‘ (1973), windspielähnlichem Stabglockenbimbam, von Wind umblasen und von Wasser beplätschert; und dem bei S-Press veröffentlichten Titelstück ‚Arbeiten - ein Stück für alle‘ (ebenfalls 1973 entstanden), das drei Loops des Wortes ‚arbeiten‘, einen kommandotonhaften, einen ‚tüchtigen‘ und einen monotonen, durch die Asynchronität des Schlaufenlaufes miteinander roboterhaft ‚arbeiten‘ lässt. Der Bonustrack ‚Don‘t you may be, the essential interview‘ (1975) mit den Stimmen von John Cage & Hans G. Helms war - neben Gerhard Rühm und Franz Mon - Teil der Futura 5-LP der POESIA SONORA- Anthologie von Cramps Records gewesen. Helms ist ein Avantpionier zwischen Jazz & Poetry, Frankfurter Schule, Studio für Elektronische Musik Köln und Darmstädter Ferienkursen sowie Autor von John Cage – Gedanken eines progressiven Musikers über die beschädigte Gesellschaft. ‚Don‘t you may be‘ operiert ebenfalls mit den Repetitionen von Satzfetzen, Gelächter, Schnieflauten. Mit dem Haupteffekt Keine Lust auf Arbeit und der Nebenwirkung Mehr Lust auf Helms." [Bad Alchemy]
www.youdonthavetocallitmusic.de
"And oh: that Nikolaus Einhorn record is an interesting piece from 1973 of sound poetry. A loop like Steve Reich's 'Come Out' phasing in and out on the word 'arbeiten' (working). The other side is also from 1973 and not released before. It applies the same working method but then for chimes in the wind - or perhaps its just chimes in the wind. Get a copy while they last." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€18.50 |
|
| EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN |
1/2 Mensch |
LP |
"Halber Mensch ('half man' in German) originally came out in 1985, at the height of the apex of punk self-immolation, pure German expressionism, and industrial theatricality. The infernal vocal chorale of the title track is about as intense as a vocal piece could ever be, without resorting to pure guttural howling. Here is it a searing repetition of an atonal plainsong, buttressed by the always unique snarl of frontman Blixa Bargeld. The repurposed metals from junkyards and constructions site which have become synonymous with Neubauten immediately appear afterwards on their anthemic single "Yu- Gung (Fuetter Mein Ego)," whose insistent rhythm works almost Gamelan- like as the principal melody to this amazing tune. It should also be pointed out that Pussy Galore, who were already heavily indebted to EN, covered this on their Sugar Shit Sharp ep! later. As a grand climax to the album, Neubauten again returns to hellish imagery through the symphony of bowed metals on "Der Tod Ist Ein Dandy," where these cacophonic scrapes amass into a dramatic arc of acoustic noise that easily parallels those same constructions that David Jackman built in Organum.
This is one of those seminal records that should always be in print, and one of those records that you should already have. But if not, you shouldn't pass this up!" [Aquarius Records]
www.neubauten.org |
2002 |
€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 |
|
| ELEH |
Homage |
3 x LP-BOX |
"Presenting a unified whole, the Homage 3LP boxed set contains Homage to the Square Wave, ...Sine Wave and ...Pointed Waveforms, all out of print until now. Initially released separately in 2008, 2009 and 2012 respectively with custom letterpress jackets, this collection includes new retrospective artwork by John Brien. Each disc comes in its own one-color silkscreen jacket using the same blue, orange and green from the original editions; all housed in a rigid white satin-coated slipcase with spot varnish printing hand-numbered out of 800. Eleh, an artist who flourishes in restraint, uses a reduced sonic vocabulary to highlight delicate intricacies in a logical path toward harmonious satisfaction. The organization of hypnotic square waves, rippling sine waves and triangle saw tooth waveforms is a discourse in the infinity, rather than the limits, of reduction. By employing a natural practice of balanced interpretation Eleh enables an individual reaction free of the clutter of white noise." [label info]
www.taigarecords.com
|
2013 |
€55.00 |
|
| ELLENDE |
HALLO KAPTEIN |
mCD-R |
During the early 2000’s we experimented as a collaborative in trying to erase the notion of being a band. Instead, we aimed at operating as an anonymous musical assembly. Through the rise of the internet and its collaborative economy we thought that by pouring various (found) sounds into a large database, we could mix this into music with an incredible complexity that would amount to soundscapes (ugh) so deep that each time the listener would have a multifarious listening experience. In the mid 1970’s Ellende’s founding band members, the cousins Wim and Martinus had tried something similar when they over-dubbbed every 7” vinyl record found at their Cape Town home (mostly Dutch and Afrikaans popular music) onto tape, with mixed results.
Conceptually we continued to experiment with this idea of overdubbing; by randomly layering found sounds, but also juxtaposing images or tv images on top of each other in anticipation that this technique could lead to interesting new images or sounds. We can safely say that the Post Modern concept of a hyper-collage has been an obsession for us for over 45 years. This idea reached for us its zenith in 2003 with the double cdr release on Somnabulant Corpse: No Holiday Without a Funeral - Damaged Beyond Repair. This release was extremely deep (sometimes 20 layers deep), but also very, very data heavy (it crashed our at that time top of the line Apple computers). Despite this technical feat, the resulting albums never reached the level of complexity that we had in mind. The result just sounded muddy.
In 2010 we tried it again. The sessions for Hallo Kaptein started in 2010 and were mixed in 2011. It follows the same collage approach and contains many found sounds that are layered. However, we consciously aimed at remaining sonically spread out, leaving space for the various layers to be heard in context to the other sounds that are stacked on top of them. Some of the tracks are very open and give a feeling of having been recorded outside, while others are more metallic and enclosed. The last title track of the album is a live improvisation by adding one instrument upon the next one. As this was recorded in one take, we depended heavily on a compressor to keep everything within an acceptable dynamic range.
Although recorded more than 10 years ago we felt that Hallo Kaptein was a layering exercise in which we achieved, to our own ears, more acceptable results.
Ellende was Martinus Antonius and JJ. Scholtz with many anonymous contributions. Recorded in Cape Town and Tokyo.
https://ellende1.bandcamp.com/album/hallo-kaptein
"Experimental music is not constrained to a specific part of the world. And experiments, in general, are everywhere: it's a 'human' thing to think outside of the perspective we're given in our upbringing, environment or culture. The only thing is that it is sometimes difficult to get informed about what is all happening outside our little bubble of western influences. But thankfully, sometimes, the sounds of these unknown territories reach our side. We get to hear so many beautiful things ... One of the lesser-known continents where experimental music is made in Africa. Still, the best-known experimental group from this continent is South-African (and Tokyo) based Ellende (Dutch / Afrikaans for 'misery'). They also have a label called Smeerlappen (tr: Scumbags), and in the player are two 3" CDRs from that label.
"Hallo Kaptein" by Ellende is the first, and it contains six tracks with a total playing time of just under 18 minutes. Way too short if you ask me
because what I hear is serious of a higher level. The combination of field recordings, vocals and (mostly?) synthetic sounds are folded into hypnotizing sound collages, which I simply can't get enough of. Especially the title track - with its almost 7 minutes also the longest track - is so subtly layered and has excellent sound perfectly aligned and mixed ... A constant tension because of subtle changes in the attack of the recurrent sounds, layers in the background that after a bit of while shifted from the back to the front and then back again. And the use of vocals where I must say that being Dutch, the Afrikaans is in a way foreign to me, but with enough overlap to understand the basics. Damn, 18 minutes. Replay. I need a complete CD. And I believe I understand the "ETERNALLY ILLUSIVE DRONESOUP" words on their website." [BW / Vital Weekly]
|
2022 |
€9.50 |
|
| ELOY, JEAN-CLAUDE |
Erkos / Galaxies (Chants pour l'autre Moitie du Ciel Part III & IV) |
do-CD |
"Songs for the other half of the sky. With 'Erkos' (1990-91) and 'Galaxies' (1986-1996). Performed by Junko Ueda (satsuma biwa and voice) and Jean-Claude Eloy (sound projection).
Erkos is a word from the Indo-European language and means song, praise. It is close to the Sanskrit word Arkas (hymn, chant, radiance) and to the Tokharien term Yarke (reverence, homage). The texts consist of extracts from the Devî-Upanishad and Devî-Mâhâtmya writings, in Sanskrit. In those texts, an homage is paid to the Goddess who, in Indian philosophy, is considered as the mother of all energies. For this work, I have been inspired by Junko Ueda, a particularly gifted young musician whom I met in Japan in 1987, mastering at the same time the traditional technics : those from Japan (Shômyô and Satsuma-Biwa), those of the other countries of Asia (Gamelan), as well as the western technics (piano, composition). It was possible, with a performer of such a vast background, to translate these ancient and original techniques into a free contemporary creation without distorting their original nature. Erkos was commissioned by the Cologne Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), at the invitation of Karlheinz Stockhausen, in collaboration with the Institut Français de Cologne and was produced in its entirety in 1990-91 at the WDR Electronic Studio. The electroacoustic materials are essentially concrete in nature and have been drawn from three sources Junko Ueda's voice, Satsuma Biwa (plucked string instrument with plectrum), Unban (metallic plate with complex resonance). Consequently, the recording studio is not used here as a generator but as a 'multiplier-transformer' to the soloist, who is the real origin of all sounds. Symbolically, she is the source, the Goddess-mother as written about in the Sanskrit texts I have used here.
'Galaxies' is an electroacoustic work composed of two large groups of elements, contrasting with each other in function, construction, etc. but still unified as they are born from the same sources of timbre and treatment : the Japanese Shô (traditionnal mouth organ) from which all of the work's sound material is taken, to which are added an ensemble of five Bonshô's (temple bells from Japan and Korea)." [label info]
www.hors-territoires.com
"...In 'Erkos', three parts are instrumental, and the two use the voice of Junko Ueda, and the title means 'song' or 'praise'. Whereas on the other CD the voice material prevails, here's it's the other way round, and the instrumental parts are much stronger. It's hard to see this as an electro-acoustic work, since the percussion sounds most of time as percussion, and it doesn't always seem to swirling around in electronics. 'Erkos' is a particular more 'quiet' work, which meanders slow and peacefully, with very few outbursts. 'Galaxies' is more like a sandwich, with an electronic piece at the beginning and at the end and three solo voice pieces in the middle, which make a nice contrast. Here the music sounds much more electronic indeed, with clusters of sounds derived from temple bells, making a beautiful, powerful drone. The form a great contrast with the solo voice of the three shorter pieces in between, which have a likewise contemplative character, but then perhaps of an entirely different nature. It's great to see two such different sides of the same coin work together on this work." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€22.00 |
|
| EMERGE |
Cycle |
mCD-R |
Endlich was neues vom süddeutschen Experimental-Drone Projekt, bekannt geworden (hoffentlich) durch die DR-64 DRONE EP.
Cycle ist ein one-tracker, bei dem Quellensounds von AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF bearbeitet werden. Höchst seltsame Klänge (Tiere? Geschepper? Metall?) erscheinen in aufbrausender Bewegung an der wallenden Oberfläche, um gleich darauf wieder in einer Drone-Brandung zu versanden. Während sich die Ratio keinen Reim darauf machen kann, sinken die Klänge an der Analyse vorbei ins schwarze Loch des Bewusstseins....
Ein klasse one-tracker (fast 23 min ) mit vielen Details, der zeigt wie vielfältig heutige Drone-Muzak ist. Unsere wärmste Empfehlung !
“Verato Project, the CDR sub-division of Suggestion Records always know how to come up with new names, that at least sound new to me. Not that I understand much of this new 3"CDR: the band is apparently called Emerge, from Augsburg Germany but the cover also says 'original sounds by Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf', whoever they might be. So maybe it's safe to say we are dealing here with some sort of remix project? The music is rather ambient, but in a refreshing way. Sounds swirl in and out of the mix; sounds that remind the listener of processed wind recordings (that form the ambient backbone of this release) and animal calls (birds going past the microphone). A piece of floating music, that may last a bit too long, but when played in right ambience and with the right mood, probably goes straight into your subconscious. A great piece indeed and made me curious to hear some of Emerge.” [FdW / Vital Weekly] http://www.verato-project.de
|
2005 |
€8.50 |
|
|
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 |
|
| |
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 |
|
| ENCEPHALOPHONIC |
Exhuming the Perversion |
do-CD |
The re-edition of the first 3 ENCEPHALOPHONIC tapes released between 2010/11.
Encephalophonic as project is still very much active, it has progressed from early days, yet the core remains the same.
Dark and abusive nature of recordings set it far away from heart warming jams and free-noise energy blasts.
Of course, there is energy and ripping power, but it is razor sharp, cold and cruel and filled with destructive feel.
Combined with negative feel of sound samples emerging between some tracks, band steps away from usual spirit known from Japanese harsh noise.
While music nods towards masters of Japanese noise, Kazumoto Endo, Pain Jerk and such, Encephalophonic stays away from contemporary cut-up in means of technological methods.
Lack of post-production and computer editing, keeps sound of physical and full of flesh and blood.
Double CD with booklet including reproductions of all original artworks of tapes and added sleaze.
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| ENO, BRIAN |
Music for Installations |
6 x CD BOX |
Though containing music that goes back to 1985, Music For Installations is hardly a retrospective in any traditional sense. It’s more a whimsical line connecting ideas in Eno's own personal Long Now.
Not long after Brian Eno coined the term “ambient music” in the late 1970s, he generated another Eno-ism with an extended lifespan, one with an appropriately slower dissemination.”I want to be living in a Big Here and a Long Now,” the producer wrote in a notebook. He thought of his then-recent recordings as sound “suspended in an eternal present tense.” Perhaps unconsciously channeling Baba Ram Dass's brand/mantra, Be Here Now, the always-conceptual Eno began to expand his sense of scale. Two decades ago, Eno helped start the Long Now Foundation, working to connect the present moment to the far-extended arc of human history. One project was the 10,000 Year Clock, for which he created patterns for the clock's chimes, each to be rung once and never repeated.
By the mid-’90s, the period representing the general starting point of the six-disc Music for Installations, Eno's “ambient” work had largely fallen under the subtly different rubric “generative” (that is, music that is created according to a system of algorithms, only partly under its maker’s control). Each piece here represents its own individual slice of one possible Long Now, with Eno providing the finely considered coordinates so that the music itself can run infinitely, changing into new patterns like a river or an ocean. Grown from mid-’80s experiments with four tape recorders looping cassettes of differing lengths, Music for Installations contains what are essentially field recordings from a series of different environments, each its own universe. 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. Though Music for Installations contains sound created for specific situations and places, as a box set, it might be used to step outside of time.
Of course, a streaming service might still label all of the above as “ambient,” part of the new chill-out economy seemingly driving Spotify to its own kind of generative musak. But what Music for Installations proves beyond a doubt is that, to paraphrase Chevy Chase, he's Brian Eno and they're not. Though containing music that goes back as far as 1985 (”Five Light Paintings”), Music For Installations is hardly a retrospective in any traditional sense. It’s more a whimsical line connecting ideas in Eno's own personal Long Now.
Eno is everywhere and nowhere in this music, much of it not so much performed by him as willed into existence, like a character from a science fiction novel who dreams in sound. On several of the longest pieces, such as the 44-minute 77 Million Paintings, low rolling notes played sparsely at long intervals seem to indicate melodies unfolding too slowly for immediate comprehension, perhaps even direct continuations of the similar motifs from 1978's Ambient 1: Music for Airports. Released in DVD editions in 2006 and 2007, 77 Million Paintings constitutes the audio accompaniment of a generative video program Eno created. As he recounts in the liner notes, when he first set it up, he began to document individual frames of it with a still camera, shooting off some 800 pictures before surrendering to the ephemerality. The feeling of listening to Music for Installations is often similar. Its pieces are beautiful and always different, and yet always the same, generic without losing character.
Much of it is resolutely not chill-out music. The nearly 40-minute piece “I Dormienti” is filled with a ceaseless moving richness that's hard to reconcile with the idea of machine creation. High-frequency electronic tones and clusters of upper register piano notes flutter between percussive samples of vocalist Kyoko Inatome, amid other layers. Composed for a joint installation with the sculptor Mimmo Paladino in the subterranean space beneath London's Roundhouse, the music is perhaps more suited for the kind of contemplation that goes along with quietly freaking the fuck out, an accompaniment to Paladino's haunted work as it was seen in the darkroom, pieces displayed on the floor like strange creatures preserved after a Pompeii-like disaster.
The set's final two discs don't actually contain music for installations, except in ever more conceptual ways. Making Spaces was a CD sold at installations, and little of it feels generative in composition or structure, though the liner notes don't clarify. In the context of the box set, it feels not only like a separate, hidden Eno album of its own, but a brilliant one, demonstrating that Eno is still perfectly capable of seizing the means of production. The nine pieces feel less like spaces and more like the objects inside, sculptures with distinct shapes and boundaries and artistic intentions. The unearthly “New Moons” features a sparsely strummed guitar part with defined chords (and even a bridge), aglow from start to finish, perhaps one haunted vocal away from fitting perfectly onto the song-based album some strata of Eno fans always want dearly. “All the Stars Were Out” contains a background flutter that could equally be the sound of crickets or the flicker of a film projector, but is just one more expressive tone carved out by Brian Eno. Each of the tracks contains its own inventions and deployment of color-forms or unexpected tonal voices or structural turns.
The set-concluding Music for Future Installations, meanwhile, is perhaps the box's cheekiest conceit, music for new places, new situations that haven't yet happened.”I often find it helpful to have an alibi for making a piece of music,” he observes, and the seven discs of Music for Installations might serve many contexts. Music For Airports was never for airports (though it certainly is capable of providing calm inside one), and the function of Music for Installations is wherever the listener might like to install it, less about the purpose of the music and more about the listener's desired level of engagement. But no matter what level of engagement one chooses, Eno will be there, too.
The set's 60-page liner notes are filled with documentation, though it's sometimes unclear which recordings correspond to which installations, if any. More, though, it acts as a Little Red Book of Eno-isms, where he lays out one deeply awesome hot take after another.”I thought of television as a light source rather than a narrative source,” he writes about his video installations, “at that time the most controllable light source that had ever been invented.” (I… had never thought of it like that.) No matter how vibed-out the music may get, there is always the sense of a voice and mind behind it. Even when trying to abdicate the order and arrangement of the notes being played, Eno's control over sound remains at a practically spiritual level. “Eno is God,” ran the early ’80s graffiti, and depending on how you define his domain it might still be true, manifesting in the smallest of breezes and the tiniest of bleeps.
|
2018 |
€55.00 |
|
| ERCETIN, TURGUT |
Panopticon Specularities |
CD |
"Istanbul native, Turgut Erçetin (1983) studied composition and completed his doctorate studies at Stanford University. His work engages with sound as sonic entities that interact with time and space, with an inherent focus on acoustics and psychoacoustics. He uses computer-aided compositional processes to realise unique impositions of space and place that question notions of physicality and metaphysics: employing a highly technical approach to stage practically impossible soundscapes, bringing the meridian sounds of Istanbul - seagulls, ships horns, street noise, the muezzins’ call-to-prayer - and the uniquely purposed Byzantine architecture of the Hagia Sofia, once a venue for singing, then an Ottoman mosque, and now a museum where music is banned, via the CCRMA facility at Stanford, and into the performance space of a Berlin church.
Unable to actually use the Sofia Hagia for recording, Erçetin did the next best thing and modelled its architecture with a computer after gauging its space with sine waves and balloon pops. In the recordings they found the Hagia’s acoustics created specular reflections, localised echoes that highlight specific places, particularly int he 56-metre high dome, which gave the impression of sound descending from above, or from heaven itself. Applying this ancient crafty way of manipulating audience perceptions to the relatively modern idea of F-prisons, smaller cells introduced in Turkey in 2000, as a way of disrupting, segregating prisoners, stymieing their communications, he arrived at the belief that “one could be resilient and free form the solitude to which one is condemned inside and outside, as long as one can move.”
The four works in ‘Panopticon Specularities’ bring this idea of freedom of movement within space - and spaces within spaces - to light in remarkable ways that will have ears and eyes wandering across the whole soundsphere, bewildered and rapt. In effect he’s reverse engineering Goethe’s notion of architecture as “frozen music” by using the reaches of technology to “thaw” and make the building’s music liquid again. Directing four spatialized chamber ensembles in the same space, together with pre-recordings in anechoic chambers, to create a complex space of interaction between gendered voices, both human and instrumental, to wonderfully conflate the ideas of the Panopticon - an 18th century British prison design whereby all points are visible from the centre - and public squares where people of all social strata would see and be seen, establishing their identities and social status in the process, in turn revealing the power of freedom of movement."
https://soundcloud.com/turgut-ercetin
|
2019 |
€15.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| ERLANDSSON, MATS |
Minnesmärke |
LP |
Mats Erlandsson makes his debut on the Swiss label Hallow Ground with »Minnesmärke,« at once a nuanced sonic exploration of the industrial and political history of his native Sweden and a deeply personal album. One of the key figures of the Stockholm drone scene, the prolific composer worked with The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble’s Hillary Jeffery, violinist and long-time friend Gaianeh Pilossian as well as sound artist and frequent collaborator Yair Elazar Glotman for a two-part composition built around tuned sustained tones performed by electronic and acoustic instruments that were combined with field recordings 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. Following up on releases on labels such as Hallow Ground label mates Kali Malone and Maria W Horn’s XKatedral imprint, »Minnesmärke« is Erlandsson's most accomplished work yet.
Originally a commissioned work by the Non Existent Center for a month-long artist residency in Ställbergs Gruva last Summer, »Minnesmärke« conceptually picks up on the socio-political and economic history of the Bergslagen region where the mine is situated. After mining operations had been on-going for decades prior, in the Industrial Age iron became one of the country’s largest exports, making the mining industry an integral part of the country’s progression towards a socialdemocratic welfare state in the years after World War II. With the rise of neoliberalism and the simultaneous erosion of the welfare state however, the mines around the region started closing, which resulted in the surrounding community losing its relative prosperity. Erlandsson’s interest in this story though does not exclusively stem from the historical significance of the mine, that has been re-opened in 2012 as a centre for cultural activities and critical thought. In fact, his grandfather was born and raised in the vicinity of it and thus his life - and, by extension, his grandson’s - was inextricably linked to its fate and the ebbs and flows of the industrial development in the area.
It’s no surprise then that the two parts of »Minnesmärke,« which translates to »memorial« or »monument,« is marked by a sense of dislocation and dissociation. »Working in Ställberg was a somewhat surreal experience from the point of view of a musician some one hundred years later,« says the artist. »Being in that environment makes you view time from the side - since the place remains the same it accentuates the deep chasm that separates my perspective from those of my relatives, while at the same time providing a form of intimacy with them.« This naturally shaped the recording process, which saw Erlandsson create an interaction between the acoustic and the electronic, the human and the machinic as well as the natural environment and the technology that has shaped it as much as it has been shaped by it. A combination of synthetic and recorded sound sources was processed by reamping it in various rooms of the vast mining complex. The resulting hybrid field recordings were transferred to tape and have then been treated extensively. An arrangement for Pilossian’s violin, Jeffery’s tuba and trombone playing as well as Glotman’s parts on double bass were recorded separately and similarly manipulated to create an expanded chamber ensemble with a wider range and an ability to transcend the usual temporal bounds of the instruments.
The outcome of this intricate working process calls to mind Phill Niblock’s most dense compositions, the iconic yet subtle work of Pauline Oliveros in the field of deep listening or even Jóhann Jóhannsson’s evocative examination of similarly politically charged topics on the »The Miners’ Hymns« OST amongst others. While Erlandsson shows his knack for creating emotive dynamics by bringing the acoustic recordings into a pulsating flow, the manipulated field recordings are used as a counterpoint throughout both parts of the composition, commenting on and fostering the ever-shifting dramaturgy of the record. Most importantly though, the 41 minutes are marked by a continuous tension that almost feels tangible. It’s the looming shadow of history, materialising in the form of a monument, a memorial for the past generations that have etched their hopes and aspirations into the walls of Ställbergs Gruva.
Hilary Jeffery - Trombone, Tuba
Gaianeh Pilossian - Violin
Yair Elazar Glotman - Double Bass
Mats Erlandsson - Everything Else
Mastering by Andreas Lupo Lubich
Artwork by Marijn Degenaar
https://hallowground.bandcamp.com/album/mats-erlandsson-minnesm-rke
|
2020 |
€21.50 |
|
| ERTHAD |
Gma |
CD-R |
Erste VÖ eines russischen Projekts, der mit uraltem Analog-Equipment ausgerüstet zu sein scheint, Rausch- und Sirr-Felder, Kurz-Echo-Räume, seltsame Pulsationen.. analoger Drone-Ambient...
"Russian project Erthad, originating from Kazan, exists since late 90-ies, but until now still hasn't made any official releases and preferred to stay in underground, recording music only for himself and his friends. We have been endeavouring to change this situation for a long time and now we're glad to present this wonderful disk to your attention. "Gma" was recorded in 2002 with the use of voice and software noise synthesizers. If one says that the album's style is called "ambient noise" - is to say almost nothing. The disk has very specific atmosphere: this is a noise meditation, calm and detached from emotional fuss. An intuitive electronic pulse synchronizes with brain frequencies, rising and falling waves of non-aggressive white noise pacify thoughts, and constantly rustling high frequencies when listened to attentively evoke dissotiative sensation, dissolving perception in the sonic field. However, everything as always depends on a listener himself." [label info]
label: http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| ESCAMA SERRADA |
Echis Carinatus |
LP |
Echis Carinatus” is the second release and first long-player by Barcelona-based post-industrial project Escama Serrada. In the two years since “La Reina està mala” (their debut split-CD with Ô Paradis on Tourette Records), the band around S. Méndez has moved from musical Dadaism to musical Surrealism, leaving behind some of the more cabaret influences to develop a darker, more psychedelic, almost prog-rock sound, and thus find their very own sonic identity. If the collage aesthetics remain, the incantatory, “écriture automatique” vocals and above all R. Riba’s psyché rock guitar input invest the opus with a surreal, intensely ritualistic mood, between shamanic trance and psychedelic improvisation. Reminiscences of Faust, NWW and Richard Pinhas lurk around the sinuous coils of this Echis Carinatus, which will slither its way under your skin like the serpent of the same name. Featuring guest appearances by Demian (Ô Paradis), Laszlo & Sofia (Wermut) and Moonchild Eric (HDG).
www.tutrur.com/tutrur_html/rur016.html |
2010 |
€7.50 |
|
| ESOTERIC |
Subconscious Dissolution into the Continuum |
CD |
Langsamer Doom Metal mit extrem melancholischem & düsteren Einschlag von dieser britischen Band, die einen recht einzigartigen Stil begründet haben, die Gitarrenarbeit erinnert an GODFLESH oder mitunter gar COCTEAU TWINS, dann wieder gibt es disharmonische & abgründige Arrangements, immer langsam, schleppend und schwer... an den Gesang muss man sich vielleicht etwas gewöhnen, aber wir meinen der ESOTERIC Sound kann auch für Drone & Dark Ambient Hörer durchaus interessant sein..
"...ESOTERIC befinden sich irgendwo auf der Kreuzung von Noise, Psychedelia und extremem Doom Metal. Da sie mit Funeral Doom Geschwindigkeit mit stark verzerrtem Bass, einer Steinmauer aus Gitarren, verfolgenden Samples und haarsträubenden Vocals spielen, ist ESOTERIC’s Sound mit einem schlimmen LSD-Trip oder einer Überdosis einer harten Droge vergleichbar. Sie sind zweifellos die düsterste, selbstmörderischste, psychedelischste und verwüstendste derzeit existierende Band und schaffen es, mit ihren bizarren Soundlandschaften gleichzeitig zu entzücken und zu bedrücken. Und wenn euch diese Beschreibung nicht ausreicht, um euch ein Bild zu machen, kann ich euch nur empfehlen reinzuhören." [Ben Meulemann]
"It's never an easy job to review an Esoteric release. They have gained such a reputation for being one of the most unique and extreme bands in the Doom spectre that it is hard to oppose, they are almost untouchable - and with good reason. The fact is that "Subconscious Dissolution Into The Continuum" is not an easy listen. It's devoid of any pleasant human feeling; it's savagely cold, heavy and droning. It'll put you in a miserable state - yes, it is as fascinating as it seems.
The sombre torturous atmosphere of this album left me speechless. This is not typical Funeral Doom; it is basically as slow as you probably expect, but there's this whole psychedelic sense, and really raw and mechanical distortion. As opposed to that more ethereal sound of other bands that rely on keyboards and clean vocals, for example, like Pantheist or Skepticism. Esoteric is closer to bands like The Funeral Orchestra, with their frightening sound and disharmonic, multi-layered structuring [...] Esoteric may seem monotonous at first listen, but you have to let yourself be absorbed by its aesthetics, you can't listen to this on just any day. Once you get past beyond its fever-inducing slowness you'll be ready to realise the true power and beauty of "Subconscious Dissolution Into The Continuum" and actually enjoy everything about it. Even the same slowness that used to put you off. This is truly a devastating and intense experience that I recommend highly to anyone who can appreciate extreme Funeral Doom Metal." [Passenger / Metalstorm]
www.season-of-mist.com
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| ETANT DONNES |
Le Paradis Blanc |
LP + DVD |
"This album, recorded in 1983, is also the music of a movie directed by Etant Donnés the same yearand titled “Le paradis blanc”. Mastering Norscq.
The album Le Paradis Blanc was recorded in 1983. This unreleased album until today is also the music of a film directed by Etant Donnés the same year.
The film and music were part of a three days installation and performance of Etant Donnés in the ELAC (Espace Lyonnais d’Art Contemporain) at the Fifth Symposium of Art Performance in Lyon in 1983 : one day for the construction of the installation, one day with a performance and one day for the destruction.
The film on the DVD is an edit made with the movies of the construction and the destruction of the installation.
This music like all first works of Etant Donnés was made without any instrument or effect but is the fruit of a long work on a raw sound material coming from nature field recordings and other source like TV, films, radio, streets, factorys, etc.
In 1977, Eric and Marc Hurtado founded Etant Donnés that quickly became essential in the field of experimental films, performance and experimental and industrial music, recording approximately 30 albums and counting numerous collaborations with major artists of the international music scene and cinema : Alan Vega, Genesis P.Orridge, Michael Gira, Lydia Lunch, Philippe Grandrieux, Mark Cunningham, Bachir Attar and the Master Musicians of Jajouka, etc."
|
2017 |
€24.00 |
|
| ETZINOY, YAIR |
Flawed |
CD |
"When i started working on this project i wanted to create two separate albums, one with smoked jazzy feeling with emphasis on beats and second one with only textures,a piano and pads. At that time i was performing a lot with this sort of music in galleries, art events and museums. In my live show performance i used to combine elements from both albums, i liked the way it sounded and slowly i got the notion that i can fuse all the sounds and ideas into one album.
I tried to use the same working techniques for all the tracks in the album, most of them were created on a computer, some beats and stabs that were created on an old analog sampler. Most of the work effort was to edit the raw material i had and than arrange in on my computer.
All composition deal with mistakes, non-perfect things and flaws. I think that sometimes when dealt in the right way a mistake or a flaw can be a beautiful thing, like a broken CRT monitor that still sends a signal. I got my inspiration from day to day things like : walking at night, sounds of machines working and office ambiance at night.
During the process of making the album i lost all my hard drive data and all the projects i already created for the album were deleted. I never backup my work, my only luck was to find a DVD with some of the projects thrown somewhere around my studio (i burned one DVD to test the new burner)." [Yair Etzinoy]
www.spekk.net
|
2007 |
€15.50 |
|
| EVIDENCE |
Iris |
CD & DVD |
EVIDENCE ist der Projektname eines Duos von SCOTT SMALLWOOD und STEPHAN MOORE, dies die zweite Veröffentlichung mit 11 Stücken, die auf der DVD von verschiedenen Videokünstlern visuell "begleitet" wurden. Auf "Iris" dominieren flächige und loopige Arrangements, die wohl grösstenteils auf Feldaufnahmen basieren. Es ergeben sich mitunter rhythmische Muster, dröhnminimalistische (Anti)-Statik fusioniert mit field recordings...
"Iris, the second CD release from the duo Evidence (Stephan Moore and Scott Smallwood) on the Deep Listening label, is also their first video release. The DVD has the same sonic material as the music on the CD, but it features video pieces by the duo's favorite live-video performers, including Benton-C Bainbridge, Betsey Biggs, Fi$h2000, Madeleine Gallagher, Dawn Haleta, David Lublin, Jonathan Lee Marcus, Olivia Robinson, skfl, Diana Reed Slattery, Jack Turner and Walter Wright. These pieces emphasize the spontaneity of the artists' live performances, the practice of using 'found' materials, and suggest the emergence of a regional aesthetic stemming from the recent hotbed of media performance centered around Troy, New York. Stephan Moore is a composer, improviser, audio artist, sound designer and software programmer from Marquette, Michigan, currently based in New York City. His work is grounded in the collection and investigation of environmental sound recordings and a fascination with the perception and properties of acoustic environments. Scott Smallwood deals with real and abstracted soundscapes based on a practice of listening, improvisation, and phonography. Ranging from sonic photographs, studio compositions, instrumental pieces, and improvisations, the resulting pieces are often textural, always mindful of space and subtlety." [lable info]
www.deeplistening.org
|
2007 |
€18.00 |
|
| EYELESS IN GAZA |
Everyone feels like a Stranger |
CD |
"The edition is limited to 1000 copies and as with other Eyeless In Gaza albums, we do not know when or if there will be more editions coming, so get it now. The album is song-focussed and the running time is 46 mins 52 secs. The 12 tracks are: 1. Voices, 2. Dance of Hours, 3. Much Wants More, 4. Morning Singing, 5. Seeing/Book of Days, 6. Among the Gathering Skies, 7. So You Appear, 8. Slow Eve, 9. Childhood Knives, 10. Dreaming Body, 11. If I Could Live as the Sun Does, 12. Endless Trees.
Dance of Hours, Childhood Knives and So You Appear have appeared in pre-view versions on radio programs and on YouTube, but have been perfected for the final release here. Morning Singing is a new take on the Martyn Bates solo classic from 1982, but since Eyeless In Gaza has performed this live as a band several times lately, this reflects how it is interpreted these days as a song by Eyeless In Gaza.
Martyn Bates writes about the new album:
Through the Summer of 2011 while we were putting together the tunes for Everyone Feels Like a Stranger, an unexpected pattern began to emerge. Clearly, as we were recording and completing pieces, much of this new work was showing a distinct prejudice /alignment to the form of songs, as opposed to instrumental explorations and improvisations, pictures without words. Now of course, all of the music we make has a story to it – much as we are all stories, because, well … that’s all we have really: stories beautiful / terrifying / ecstatic / anecdotal / awake / asleep etc. etc. These particular song-stories all naturally feed into Eyeless In Gaza directly, and, as far as I’m concerned, the songs then go on to take on a life of their own.
That being said, I was already aware that these particular songs seemed to have arrived coloured with something that struck me as being particularly inward looking and reflective, for the most part. It was Peter Becker who first suggested that we title this album of songs Everyone Feels Like a Stranger – and initially I was unsure, as I felt that somehow this phrase ran the risk of conveying the ‘wrong kind’ of negative connotations. However, I see now that he was right. What we have here within these songs is a collective meditation upon the double-edged sense of exhilaration and closeness that can occur when one enters that peculiar state of mind and being that being alone can sometimes give.
Where to ‘feel like a stranger’ oddly brings about a wayward sense of subtle happiness or comfort. And where distance and separation somehow connect with a sudden elevation and insight, and link in with an unsettling sense of security within that isolation. Where being ‘alone’ takes on an almost religious intensity .Where you are connected to the Quiet, the calm, the silence. Where Everyone Feels Like a Stranger, true … but, at the same time, no-one ever feels like a dispassionate collaborator.
Dance of Hours – a YouTube film directed by David Black for Black Creative Limited with additional footage from Elizabeth Bates, recorded at Mont St. Michel out of the shores of Normandy in late August 2011.
My own initial reaction to Everyone Feels Like a Stranger – not as negative in mood as the title might suggest. This is an album that is hard to tell why one should hold in high esteem, but one should, because it is greater in some ways than previous albums. It shows a deep respect for the song format and that is at the core here. I might find more improvisational material more exciting, but here they really bring out the best of what is central to making music – melody/harmony, wonderful voice, thoughtfulness, inventiveness, atmosphere, colouring and all without sounding presumptuous, nor trying to live up to what others might regard as great, but rather define it. An album not to be missed!" [website info]
www.eyelessingaza.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Sun Blues |
CD |
"An album of unusual songs, sounding both exotic and as a new take on things, but somehow familiar and the music comes together in a way only Eyeless In Gaza music can. The music often sounds stern and sometimes deeply melancholic, with exciting and successful soundscapes. I am sure this album will stand out as one of the more memorable albums from last 10 years, but we never know where they go from here. Always an exciting adventure to follow as it unravels!
Listen to Tamarisk (early version) on YouTube, which gives an idea of what to expect from the album, even if the album cover quite a big territory:
https://youtu.be/Lv1uXVByACw
Martyn Bates : e-guitars/voices/clarinet/kybds.
Peter Becker : bass/drums/e-guitars/voice/percussions/slide-guitar/piano/wasp/drum-machine/tapes/all engineering & recording.
❖ First album of all-new Eyeless In Gaza material since 2014’s Mania Sour.
❖ Completed August 2016 recorded at A-Scale studios Warwickshire, the Bates/Becker produced Sun Blues sees Eyeless In Gaza offering a 2016 styled distant cousin to 1982’s classic Pale Hands I Loved So Well. In an environment where the studio is very much a musical instrument, the band deliver a collection of filigree musics created via an organic osmosis, layering techniques, together with a painstakingly considered collaging of all elements. Here are instrumental discoveries & improvisations/pictures painted with words – songs that have an inbuilt claustrophobia and sonic density – playfully investigating the soundworlds/territories of the kosmische.
❖ On Sun Blues, of particular note is the combination of Martyn Bates’ at times melancholic, sometimes passionate vocals – which come across exceptionally strongly – teamed with the extraordinary, mercurial bass guitar work of Peter Becker. Sun Blues album would seem to be a groundbreaking distillation of everything that Bates & Becker have ever produced during their 36 year lifespan. Quite simply, Sun Blues is already being acclaimed as the definitive Eyeless In Gaza album."
www.eyelessingaza.com
"Eyeless in Gaza have had several trajectories since their original lo-fi outings in Coventry and Nuneaton in the early 1980s. The duo of Peter Becker and Martyn Bates seemed to be heading towards pop at one point, but en route diverted through textural soundscapes, improvisation, avant-folk, sonic experiment and occult rock; indeed, they still visit these places. Picture the Day is a well-overdue compilation that actually covers all the band’s output, including both the Cherry Red releases from the 1980s and the self-released albums on Ambivalent Scale that have been issued since the 1990s.
The story of course starts with Ambivalent Scale and a 7 inch single, following some cassette releases. The edgy, synth-driven ‘Kodak Ghosts Run Amok’ is tucked away here in the middle of the first CD (unfortunately the superb ‘Feeling’s Mutual’ from the B-side isn’t) which selects from the band’s Cherry Red releases. Listeners are edged into the music with some of the more accessible end of things, a quick drift through some folkier songs and then the gorgeous emotive instrumental ‘Falling Leaf/Fading flower’ before restlessly moving on, from genre to genre, or more often falling between genres.
The second CD features the Ambivalent Scale recordings, and is a similar mix of work. If more recent work isn’t as familiar to me it’s mainly due to growing up and not being able to spend time with new music in the same way that being a teenage and then a student previously facilitated with the original LPs. It’s clear I need to get my act together and have a relisten – this stuff is great.
Together, the two CDs paint a broad, involving picture of this peculiar and engaging band. I like the fact it in no way pretends to be a ‘best of’ or ‘greatest hits’, but simply showcases some of the highlights from their numerous releases. I’d like to have seen the uplifting brassy pop of ‘Sun Bursts In’ here, but otherwise it is a perfect snapshot of one of my favourite bands, lovingly compiled and superbly sequenced.
Eyeless’ new CD, Sun Blues, shares one track, ‘Tamarisk’ with Picture the Day and is a set of new music from the more experimental end of things. Having said that it’s more about mood and texture than the wild excesses of the band’s early output, although ‘Ill-Star’ is intense and loud, with some great honking sax in the pulverising maelstrom of sound. Elsewhere, Martyn Bate’s warm vocals are positioned within rich, dense music that both propels and entwines the songs and the listener. There are also three instrumental vignettes, two back to back in the centre of the album, the third a coda or finale.
It takes some time to truly ‘hear’ the layers and complexities of this album, in the same way it takes time to grasp the width, breath and achievement of Eyeless in Gaza’s musical history. But time spent will be rewarded: Eyeless in Gaza remain one of the most accomplished and interesting bands to have emerged from the music-making underground post punk and postpunk. Here’s to further decades of experiment and beguilement." [Rupert Loydell/ International Times]
"After nearly half a century performing together, Martyn Bates and Peter Becker must seem like a married couple – finishing each other’s sentences, telepathically sensing where their individual muse is leading them and effortlessly hopping on and enjoying the ride. With an extensive catalogue of well over two-dozen releases, they still sound as fresh and invigorating as that ground breaking EP, “Kodak Ghosts Run Amok” that started everything way back in 1980. Looking back to those early releases, the duo suggest their latest is a “distant cousin” to 1982’s classic Pale Hands I Loved So Well. But this is another century, and technological advances have enabled them to use their studio almost as an additional instrument, layering sounds, playing with various improvisational techniques, and offering, perhaps, a third pair of ears and hands to the proceedings.
Yet at its heart is the combination of Bates’ breathy, almost theatrical vocal styling (a little Antony Hegarty, a tad Andy McCluskey) and intelligent, thought-provoking lyrics, revealing numerous layers of meaning and intent as each verse trickles off his soothing, emotional delivery, and Becker’s inquisitive bass lines, harmonic tape manipulations, and various percussive effects. While tracks like ‘Solar Logic’ may initially sound like a simple love ballad, further listening reveals intricate harmonic vocal interweaving, funky, almost African percussives, and the perfect placement of bells and tape manipulations that demonstrate how much the studio has been welcomed in to add lustre to their creative juices.
‘Tamarisk’ envelops the listener in swirling effects and percussive embellishments that wouldn’t be out of place on a Peter Gabriel album, while ‘New Take/Notkar’ offers a harsher splash of ice water in the face, evolving out of an almost industrial percussive backbeat and syncopated guitars that push the listener towards Faust or Nine Inch Nails gut crunchers. But never ones to fall into a rut, the following ‘Longing Song’ is an uplifting, lilting lover’s plea that rises from the ashes of desolation “To bring the morning alive...to be amazed/n you’ll be mine....”
The duo occasionally include improvisational instrumentals in their albums, and the cinematic, provocative and evocative ‘Wind, Sand, Sea & Stars’ pretty much covers the gamut of the external universe – a breakneck journey through land, sea and sky, while ‘Unborn’ traverses the inner universe, wallowing, swallowing mouthfuls of life-giving amniotic fluids on the 9-month journey into a cold, shattering life that no one asked for or had any choice in bringing to fruition.
But before we get too deep, let’s enjoy the sprinkling, sparkling, shimmering flourishes of duelling ukuleles, thumb pianos and glockenspiel on the celestial ‘Juniper’, and the soft, reflective instrumental closer ‘Long Gon Pa’, full of meticulous slide and acoustic guitar and Becker’s fascinating, dreamy devices and tape loops. An imaginative, emotional, headswirling buzz to wrap up another fascinating release from the always reliable duo, who never fail to excite us while eliciting nuances of emotional responses that are all-too-rare in this cookie-cutter, commercial world of Voices, Idols, and other nameless, brainless distractions."
[Jeff Penczak/Ptolemaic Terrascope, November 2016]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| F:A.R. (FINAL ALTERNATIVE RELATION) |
Mechanics & Music (nastri ’81-’85) |
do-CD |
Si intitola “Mechanics & Music – Nastri '81-'85” il doppio cd antologico dedicato ai F:A.R., celebre collettivo industriale che ha fatto la storia del genere nel nostro Paese. Troveremo al suo interno i nastri “Duello sul cervello” (1981), “Final Alternative Relation” (1982) e “Lust” (1985), uscito all'epoca a nome F:A.R. Prosthesis. La band ligure, capitanata dal polistrumentista e vocalist Mauro Guazzotti, è considerata la prima e più importante formazione industriale italiana, che ha attraversato tutti gli anni '80 pubblicando dischi importanti, fuori da ogni schema. Nel cofanetto, dove i brani si susseguono in ordine rigorosamente cronologico, si nota un raffinato lavoro di restauro e rimasterizzazione, fatto su audiocasette vecchie di oltre trent'anni.
https://lucesia.bandcamp.com/merch/032-f-a-r-mechanics-music-nastri-81-85
"Dopo Officine Schwartz, Detonazione e Gronge, la Again Records (in cordata con Der Klang e Luce Sia) continua l’opera di recupero di fondamentali formazioni sperimentali degli Ottanta. È la volta dei F:A.R. di Savona, cangiante collettivo multigender guidato da Mauro Guazzotti (poi MGZ), tra i primi in Italia a fornire una personale versione del suono “industriale” alla CV/TG, ibridando il rumorismo e i cut-up di nastri ed elettronica specifici del genere con una fisicità di derivazione punk (soprattutto nelle esagitate interpretazioni vocali) e con imprevedibili deviazioni dal kraut-rock (vedi l’incipit di F.V. Awakening) al lounge pop (No Future), dall’astrazione più temeraria (New Dawn) a folli parossismi di tribalismo elettronico (Fedelissimo Elogio Primordiale). Da tempo si attendeva la riproposta delle storiche registrazioni del gruppo e qui si inizia dalla ristampa integrale delle prime tre cassette Duello Sul Cervello, Final Alternative Relation e Prosthesis – Lust (seguiranno, ci auguriamo, i vinili ufficiali usciti per Amen e Minus Habens). Niente bonus o inediti, ma in ogni caso materiale in quantità da (ri)ascoltare con attenzione, per cogliere intuizioni e peculiarità di questo “laboratorio” in progress, capace da subito di elaborare un suo linguaggio distintivo, descrivendo i più foschi incubi distopico-tecnologici con sofferta, psicotica e grottesca carica emozionale. (7/8) [Vittore Baroni / Blow Up} |
2017 |
€18.00 |
|
| FAITH & DISEASE / JEFF GREINKE |
Dream the Red |
10 |
Traurig-fragile Kompositionen zwischen dark wave und sad ambient, eine ungewöhnliche Zusammenarbeit des ambient-composers GREINKE und der PROJEKT Records-Band!
300 Stck auf rotem Vinyl! Auch als mCD erhältlich..
“The second WEIRD AMPLEXUS releases a incredible collaboration between the great FAITH & DISEASE (do you remember their last album on PROJEKT?) and the well known master of ambient electronic JEFF GREINKE... DREAM THE RED CLOUDS is a 21 minutes of pure poetry. Pure emotions as maybe only the old AREA knew how to put in music... Sweet harmonies with a celestial voice that speaks to our souls... and the little dark sounds that penetrates in our bodies... do you want to classify this release? Well, file it among gothic-dark-ambient... but the reality that it's only pure poetry. This release is published on MCD in special package (the cover is the same of the 10") and in ltd.300 copies 10" VINYL.” [Amplexus press release]
|
2002 |
€10.00 |
|
| FANUM & EXIT IN GREY |
Dust Storm |
CD |
"Dust storms happen to be very romantic. Not romantic in the “hey baby, let’s get it on” way, but in the way that they are a complete sensual experience. It could be a perfectly clear sunshiny day-not a cloud in the sky, when…you smell it. You always smell it first before anything else. Depending on where you are, you can sometimes see a dust storm approaching. I remember seeing a dust storm on the outskirts and half of the big open sky was an amber color. You could even see a line in the sky: serene, calming, crystal blue on one side and wild, turbulent amber on the other. What I miss is that you can see the weather, and see it approaching and forming. As the dust storm rolls in the scent of dust becomes stronger. The full sunlight slowly fades and shadows appear, altering colors and perceptions. Sounds become muffled and you hear the wind. Even though you are in the same place, in a house or a car, it definitely feels like a different place. You can see how colors and the light and shadows are shifting, you can smell the dust, sounds are muted, and you can even faintly taste dust. What you don’t realize at the time is that small dust particles are swirling around and being deposited everywhere in a sand blanket. Depending on the dust storm, you could have enough dust outside your door that makes it hard to open or close your door. Or maybe it’s less. The dust is everywhere; in windowsills, on your car, in your hair, in your clothes. You can’t directly see it on your clothes but you can smell it and if you shake out your clothes it falls off. In the middle of the dust storm it seems as though you’re in a parallel universe. It completely envelops you. It’s subtle yet very powerful, very soft, harsh, and gentle, all at the same time." [Robin Montgomery]
www.ss.semperflorens.net
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| FATHER MURPHY |
Lamentations |
10inch |
"The release of 'Lamentations', presented on 10-inch vinyl, completes Father Murphy's 2015 'Trilogy Of The Cross'. Inspired by a far from orthodox reading of the Book of Jeremiah and by the tradition of the Holy Week Lamentations, the Italian duo recorded two long compositions that feel like classic Father Murphy, but at the same time reveal a substantial enrichment of the band's usually spare sonic palette. For this project core members Rev. Murphy and Chiara Lee teamed up with producer Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (Larsen)." [label info]
www.backwards.it
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| FAUST |
71 Minutes |
CD |
" '71 Minutes' erschien in etwas abgewandelter Form 2001 als Teil der 5-CD-Box "The Wümme Years" mit verändertem Cover (schwarzweiß, anderer Schriftzug) und teilweise anderen Betitelungen der Stücke. Nach den Angaben auf der Website von Faust stammen die Stücke "Munic A" und "Munic B" (in der Wümme-Box heißen sie "Munic/Yesterday" und "Knochentanz") von 1975, die anderen Aufnahmen aus den Jahren 1971-1973.
Es handelt sich hier um eine ähnlich kuriose Sammlung wie "The Faust Tapes", vielleicht nicht ganz so wüst und durcheinander. Faust zeigen auch hier wieder ihre Ausnahmestellung in der Krautrockszene, wobei die Musik oft recht wenig mit "Rock" im eigentlichen Sinne zu tun hat.
Herausragend sind die beiden Teile oder Variationen von "Munic", vor allem "Munic A". Monoton hämmern sich elektronische Rhythmen, die eher einer Fabrik als einem Instrument entsprungen scheinen, ins Ohr, hämmern sich gnadenlos ins Hirn. Dazu ein ebenso monotones Schlagzeug, seltsame Stimmen und Geräusche - viel mehr passiert eigentlich nicht. Heutzutage würde man so was "Industrial Music" nennen. Ein zeitloses Werk, das man nicht ohne weiteres in die 70er Jahre einordnen würde!
Ansonsten gibt es hier seltsame Klangcollagen, gnadenlos sägende Gitarren bis hin zu punkigen Ausbrüchen ("Baby"), aber auch leisere, manchmal geradezu lyrische Stücke wie "Das Meer", "Party 8" oder "Psalter".
Insgesamt zeigt sich hier mal wieder, dass der Krautrock nicht einfach nur eine vorübergehende Erscheinung war, sondern die Entwicklung der populären Musik bis heute ganz entscheidend beeinflusst hat. Empfehlenswert!“ [Babyblaue Seiten]
“Re-released, now in digipak packaging. Combines the late 80s posthumous 5th & 6th Faust LPs: Munich & Elsewhere/Return Of A Legend LP ("various unreleased tapes intended for release") and The Last LP (the '71 "Faust Party" tapes ). Recordings are from Faust's classic era, 1971-3.” [label info]
|
1998 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Nobody knows if it ever happened |
DVD |
"At last, a well made film that captures the intensity, caprice, craziness and visionary beauty of Faust's late '90s performances, when, for a moment the core members of the original band were temporarily reconciled. Professionally filmed at the legendary 1996 Faust Garage concert, this release fills in what has until now been sorely missing from the record - the sheer physicality of Faust's performances: the litter of scrap, cement mixers, hay blowing machines, angle-grinders and instruments that form their workplace (shared here with sculptress Insa Winkler, toiling away on sheet steel with an oxy-acetylene welder throughout the show). In the middle of the stage hangs a battery of drums, chunks of wood and metal, mounted on a massive open frame, and around it bassist Jean-Herve Peron and drummer Zappi Diermier prowl and play in constant motion. Peron takes time out to strip and fling buckets of paint at a huge white wall of blank LP covers; Zappi attacks his kit with sticks like tree trunks. Meanwhile, organist Jochen Irmler sits placidly in the wreckage, smiling the same smile whether he is unleashing the hounds of hell or underpinning the chaos with meditative drifting pitches. Alongside, guest guitarist Steven Wray Lobdell creates sheets of noise that keep the whole juggernaut rolling, now and then stepping out to tear a hole in it. Between firestorms are quieter moments, enigmatic events, which emerge and then sink back into time. This is not quite the dignified revival expected of rock legends: no question of a perfect sound or mature stage act for Faust. This show, like all their shows during this period, is a tempest of chaos, disruption and moment to moment action. No band was ever more phenomenologically driven than Faust. Sparks fly, machines rattle, the room fills with smoke, and eventually we all wind up on the street as the band stumbles out, and the fire engines arrive. Classic. The DVD also includes 'Struktur' - an exclusive 50 minute behind-the-scenes document shot by the late Arthur Howes, and a bonus performance of Flashback Caruso. It is packaged with commissioned liner notes from Andy Wilson author of 'Stretch Out Time'. And indispensable release for any Faust fan." [label info]
|
2006 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
j US t (Just us) |
LP & CD |
"Die Hamburger Krautrock-Pioniere mit einem Überraschungspaket aus Avantgarde, Dada und Folk.
Die Hamburger Band Faust gehört zu den großen Namen, die der Krautrock der 1970er-Jahre hervorgebracht hat. Als Jean-Hervé Péron und Zappi Diermaier 1971 ihr Debütalbum vorlegten, wollte das in Deutschland niemand hören, im Ausland jedoch verkauften sich "The Faust Tapes" über 100.000-mal. "There is no group more mythical than Faust", schwärmte der englische Musiker und Krautrock-Kenner Julian Cope Jahrzehnte später. Mit "Just Us" setzen Faust ihren musikalischen Weg fort. Während Diermaier seinem Handwerk - Schlagzeug und Perkussion - treu bleibt, integriert Peron allerhand unübliche Klangquellen in sein Bassspiel, verschiedene Streichinstrumente, Klavier und sogar eine Nähmaschine als Metronom. Tracks wie "Nur nous" und "Ich bin ein Pavian" zeigen, dass Faust nichts von ihrer Vorliebe für Avantgarde und Dadaismus verloren haben. Ausflüge ins folkloristische Gefilde ("Cavaqui-ho", "Gammes") runden das wahrhaft faustische Überraschungspaket ab. //
j US t - pronounced "Just Us" - is the new album from legendary Hamburg band Faust. Founder members Jean-Herve Peron and Zappi Diermaier have laid down twelve musical foundations, inviting the whole world to use them as a base on which to build their own music. The tracks presented by Peron and Diermaier are clearly, intrinsically typical of Faust in their own right, yet offer enough space for completely different works to develop. Which is exactly what they hope will happen. Whilst Diermaier largely remains true to his habitual handiwork - drums and percussion - Peron, as we might expect, incorporates all manner of unusual sonic sources alongside his bass, various string instruments and piano, even using a sewing machine as a metronome. Tracks like "nur nous" and "ich bin ein pavian" show that Faust have lost none of their predilection for avantgarde Dadaism and improvisation. Peron and Diermaier actually surprise us with folkloristic excursions ("cavaquinho", "gammes"). In short, there is something for everyone to work with here. Peron and Diermaier await the results with bated breath. Faust will follow the same principle on the accompanying tour by inviting local artists to collaborate with them on stage." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
"Faust’s intentions have never been easy to discern. Over their 40-plus years of morphing, discontinuous existence, they’ve been so good at dodging expectations and confounding analysis that even when they’re playing it straight, you wonder if something else is going on. So when the press sheet for j US t (pronounced "just us") claims the band is "inviting the whole world to use [the album] as a base on which to build their own music," it’s hard not to get suspicious. Is this a decoy? Do Jean-Hervé Peron and Zappi Diermaier want you to imagine other music so you won’t focus on theirs? Is it simply a way to say "if you don’t like it, make your own"?
Perhaps Faust truly are earnest about wanting this album to inspire public collaboration. But the idea does point to something that’s always been intriguing about Faust’s music: it’s often just as much about what they aren’t playing as what they are. Their work is full of implications and innuendos, spaces waiting to be filled in. j US t doesn’t necessarily have more of that than most Faust albums, but implication does seem to be a main theme here. This is music in which every note suggests many more possibilities.
j US t begins by proclaiming more than intimating, and in this way it bears an uncanny resemblance to the last Faust effort, 2011’s stellar Something Dirty. That record began with three bold, practically rocking tunes, and so does this one. Based around simple riffs and looping beats, these songs are like free-form post-rock, sturdy in their rhythms but opened-ended in their direction. And despite how well-defined the base of each track is, there’s also tantalizing space in each one. Take "80Hz", whose simple two-note bass figure flows beautifully with the well-timed accents of Diermaier’s percussion and Peron’s sonic grab bag. At times it dips to near-silence, in other places it crests to frantic peaks, but throughout it maintains a tension that compels attention.
The balance between action and suggestion tips more toward the latter for the rest of j US t, in ways both fascinating and frustrating. Some songs maintain the attraction of anticipation, hinting at where they might go without ever fully abandoning other options. But others feel more flat than ripe, not so much flirting with tense silence as drifting into empty inertia. One in particular, the seven-minute "Palpitations", is mostly limp. Its intermittent percussion and electronic squiggles sound more random than impulsive, making it the only instance on the album where I find myself wishing I could already hear other bands filling it in.
It takes a few tracks to recover from that mid-album drop, but Faust manage to rebound on closer "Ich Sitze Immer Noch", whose slow, rising lope sounds like a sunny homage to Spiderland-era Slint. Like the bulk of j US t, it offers a lot worth hearing and just as much worth daydreaming about—in other words, it achieves the band's stated goals. Maybe Peron and Diermaier really did mean what they said." [Marc Masters / PITCHFORK]
|
2014 |
€22.00 |
|
| FAVARON, GIANLUCA & STEFANO GENTILE |
Entretien |
CD & booklet |
"The project sources from "in black" images taken by Stefano Gentile. Takes that flow in the most hidden sides of the soul. Gianluca Favaron gives sounds these images with notes that don't let space to imagination. Fields recordings and electronics to telle the same visions. The same soulmoods. The work is released with a A/4 16 pages booklet featuring the workshop by Stefano Gentile and a cd with sounds by Gianluca. The edition is 230 copies limited." [label info]
13.silentes.it
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| FEAR FALLS BURNING |
The Carnival of ourselves |
CD |
"... beide CDs sind da natürlich erstmal für die interessant, die die limitierten LPs nicht haben, aber, nicht nur für die: neben schickem cover-artwork (martina verhoeven + carl clover/aleph) und genau so schicker ausführung als pappschuber, kommen beide reissues mit je einem, dafür gleich ellenlangen (27.57 + 34.22) bonustrack: "and the land torn down" (live aufgenommen von ronald marien am 16. may 2006 bei den audio-unit living room concerts in hamburg) und "dead wisdom". ersterer in unbedingt vergleichbarer qualität zu den auf "the infinite sea of sustain" kompilierten 6 konzerten, allerdings, im gegensatz zu den meisten der dort versammelten (und auch im gegensatz zu dem auf "the rainbow mirrors a burning heart" konservierten live-set) vollständig auf langsamen, fast endlosen aufbau setzend; ohne breaks, ohne harmonische veränderung, fast ein suchspiel, was sich / ob sich überhaupt etwas verändert / ab einem bestimmten punkt (etwas) verändert hat. perfekte ergänzung der oben genannten und musterbeispiel für "wie lange laufzeiten gleichzeitig hypnotisch UND abwechslungsreich anlegen“. "dead wisdom" dann gleich vom start weg sperriger; passt ja, ist / war die original "numb" ja auch schon. und viele der sounds auf "dead wisdom" sprechen dafür, dass alle drei stücke aus der gleichen session stammen. siehe z.b. die von mir damals als fast twang / surf / dub abstraktionen etikettierten, leicht schrägen, abstürzenden flächen, die auch hier, schon innerhalb der ersten 10 minuten, auftauchen. und nach ungefähr der hälfte der spielzeit auslaufen und vorgeben, das stück beenden zu wollen. nach dieser antäuschung dann der echte auslauf, fast 20 minuten lang...
und tatsächlich: die "numb" bleibt auch in der extended version noch immer so ein ding ohne fassbaren anfang, ohne fassbares ende... irgendwie faszinierend." [N, Unruhr.de]
"when the carnival of ourselves and i'm one of those monster numb with grace were originally released, dirk serries had only just started recording under the name of fear falls burning. the albums turned out to be decisive in shaping his vision of an ongoing drone-manifesto: during several exploratory sessions initiated in mid-2005, he quickly expanded the project's catalogue by a staggering eight releases within a single year. these would take the cosmic, post-rock- and kraut-infused production of his early recordings into new directions and eventually lead up to his current, raw and unpolished symbiosis of hypnotic guitar power and percussive thunder. the carnival of ourselves was the first full-length to follow the double-album »he spoke in dead tongues« and pointed towards an immersive and ghostly ambient sound. an extensive european tour, however, catalysed the inclusion of rock elements and heralded the advent of a more edgey and tribal approach: i'm one of those monster numb with grace, especially, was an important record, as it aligned the more refined studio output of fear falls burning with its direct and passionate live sound.
as these strictly limited releases sold out in no time (resulting in numerous requests for a second print), tonefloat and fear falls burning decided to leave the legacy of the vinyl untouched and to reissue both albums on cd - featuring new cover designs and bonus tracks culled from the abovementioned sessions. the astounding quality of these discoveries from the vault should convince even those already in possession of a vinyl copy: the twenty-eight-minute »and the land torn down« (on the carnival of ourselves) at first seems to build into a dense, dirge-like drone-sheet but intruigingly cools off to a disturbing soundscape haunted by muffled feedback and echoes of theremin-chants. the monumental bonus track to i'm one of those monster numb with grace, »dead wisdom«, meanwhile, would have made for a complete album in its own right: thirty-four minutes of subcutaneous feedback hum lead the listener down a spiral staircase into a place of deep calm and tantric concentration." [label info]
www.tonefloat.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| FEAR KONSTRUKTOR |
Nonexistence |
7inch |
"Fear Konstruktor is Nikita Evsuk, a Moscovite and this is his first vinyl release. Two tracks of disturbingly dark droning ambience and industrial clatterings, that stay the right side of noisy! Fear Konstruktor is a brave new sound from Russia, inspired by brightness and vibrance of modern the world. However it contains retro-futuristic touch as seen through the prism of ultramodern devices. All that chik-chik and wao-wao are just words of the significant phrase...Listening to FK is being inside yourself and outside our Universe at the same time. Because those billions of living sounds are caught for you by the daring one. Limited to 300 copies on black vinyl, with insert." [label info]
www.peripheralrecords.co.uk
|
2011 |
€7.50 |
|
| FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM (F.T.B.P.D.) |
A Bug's Life |
CD |
"Jürgen Eberhard aka Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim celebrates 25 years of his artistic activity with the first full-length album on Zoharum entitled "A Bug's Life". keen observers of our activity certainly know his name, for instance from a common vinyl 7-incher entitled "Both Sides of The Looking Glass" shared with Bisclaveret duo or from the composition "Enigmatic Visions", which appeared on a commemorative compilation "07|100|15".
"A Bug's Life" is the tenth full-length album in the discography of Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim. It was being created, like the previous ones, for several years and is another conscious artistic statement. Seven compositions included here are of a collage nature and combine echoes of post-industrial ambient, drone music, musique concrete, field recordings and even plunderphonics. On his first studio album since "Die Legende vom Heiligen Trinker" from 2011, Jürgen Eberhard consciously continues his sonic quest on a depleted terrain and he manages to avoid traps of empty experiments. "A Bug's Life" is at the same time an atmospheric, and even accessible, album, and sonically elaborate and demanding of the listener." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM ist ein Projekt, das ja eher unregelmäßig in der Musiklandschaft auftaucht, dabei aber bereits recht langlebig ist. Das letzte reguläre Album von JÜRGEN EBERHARD unter diesem Banner erschien 2011. „A Bug’s Life“ – so hieß übrigens auch der Pixar-Film „Das große Krabbeln“ im Original – widmet sich dem Namen entsprechend den Geräuschen von Insekten, die Grundlage für die Soundgestaltung des Albums gewesen sein sollen. Hierbei sollte man aber kein dauerndes, möglichst naturnahes Gezirpe oder Gesirre im Kopf haben – quasi ein Field-Recording-Overkill, sondern Klänge, die extrem stark bearbeitet und verfremdet wurden, wobei am Ende dennoch der Charakter von Sounds, die von Insekten erzeugt werden – auch knisternde, schabende Geräusche –, erhalten bleibt.
Tatsächlich ist der Sound auf „A Bug’s Life“ aber relativ vielschichtig, teils auch wuchtig und massiv oder mit Drones durchsetzt, sodass das Ganze recht gut funktioniert und eben nicht an einen Abend auf der Terrasse erinnert. Auch Stimmen werden – verfremdet oder nicht – eingesetzt und Abwechslung kommt zusätzlich durch Stücke ins Spiel, die mit weiblichen Gesangslinien, die quasi als Zusatzinstrument fungieren, ausgestattet sind. Hier wäre wohl auch der Punkt, an dem man die Unterstützung von diversen Gästen wie u.a. MISS POLYESTER, FRL. LINIENTREU oder GENEVIÈVE PASQUIER erwähnen könnte. Das Klangspektrum reicht letztendlich von orientalisch angehauchten Sounds inklusive Rhythmus („Metallifekuwagamon“) bis hin zu düsteren Soundcollagen, die auch aufgrund der Bilder, die im Kopf entstehen, Unruhe auslösen können. Somit ist „A Bug’s Life“ eine spannende Sache für Freunde des Ambient oder der experimentellen Elektronik. Idee und Ausführung passen in jedem Fall hervorragend zueinander und die Qualität stimmt hier sowieso."
[Tony F. für nonpop.de]
"In der Geräuschmusik und überall sonst, wo mit Samples gearbeitet wird, sind Tiergeräusche eine beliebte Soundquelle, und zu den gefragtesten Geräuschproduzenten zählen seit jeher Insekten – was wäre ein sommerliches Kitschkolorit ohne das Zirpen von Grillen und Zikaden, und dass man aus dem Summen fliegender Insekten Noise und elektroakustiche Musik machen kann, ist hinlänglich bekannt.
Beliebt sind Feldaufnahmen, bei denen die Sounds weitgehend naturbelassen bleiben und nur gelegentlich etwas Struktur eingebracht wird wie bei Dave Phillips’ und Hasegawa Hiroshis “Insect Apocalypse” oder “The Progeny of Flies” von Daniel Manche und Andrew Liles. Seltener sind Aufnahmen, bei denen die Sounds so stark verfremdet sind, dass man ohne Hintergrundwissen die Quelle kaum erkennen kann. Etwas derartiges hat der feine Pinkel, ähm: Trinker Jürgen Eberhard vor Kurzem unter dem Titel “A Bug’s Life” zustande gebracht.
Die komplette CD wirkt wie ein Zoom, bei dem die Kamera dem lebenden Objekt so nah auf den Panzer rückt, dass man nur noch kleinteilige Strukturen in Übergröße erkennt, während größere Zusammenhänge nur noch zu erahnen sind. Vieles klingt wie ins Monströße vergrößert: Maschinell klingendes Summen, dass zeitweise in Noisewände übergeht, Detonationen, verursacht von einem enormen Insekt, das gegen eine überdimensionierte Scheibe knallt. Zirpen und Flattern, das eher nach einem Vogel klingt, und dem Tier, dessen rhythmischer Flügenschlag gegen Ende zu hören ist, möchte ich nicht im Dunkeln begegnen. So furchteinflößend es hier zugeht, hat die bizarre Szenerie auch irrsinnig Komisches zu bieten.
Neben all dem gibt es zahlreiche Stellen, an denen kaum zu erkennen ist, ob die Aufnahmen ganz unkenntlich gemacht wurden oder anderen, z.B. elektronischen Ursprungs sind. Dies gilt für geschliffenen Ambientsound und zirkushafte Melodien ebenso wie für den entspannten Ethnosound, der irgendwann ganz überraschend eine Sängerin begleitet (die meisten Stimmbeiträge von Geneviève Pasquier, Allseits vs Troum, Frl. Linientreu und Joke Lanz sind spoken words). Ebenso gilt dies für monströses Brüllen, dass hoffentlich von einem Wirbeltier stammt.
Aber warum eigentlich? Im Unterschied zu naturbelassenen Insektensounds lassen die Aufnahmen hier die Tiere enorm groß erscheinen und brechen so mit gänigen Wahrnehmungsgewohnheiten. Die nachhaltige, über den bloßen Schock weit hinausgehende Wirkung, kann im besten Fall in einem veränderten Blick auf das Tierreich münden." [J.G./U.S./African Paper] |
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| FENN O'BERG (FENNESZ / O'ROURKE / REHBERG) |
Magic & Return |
do-CD |
"Zwei junge Klassiker der Liveelektronik von 1999 und 2002 wiederveröffentlicht. Als Bonustracks mit aufgenommen wurden der Beitrag zur Sonar‘99-Compilation und ‚Adidas Sun Tanned Avant Man‘, der nur auf der japanischen Edition von Return Of enthalten war. Christian Fennesz, Jim O‘Rourke & Peter Rehberg hatten bei ihren Konzerten 1998/99 und 2001 - alles Material entstand damals als Livemitschnitt - als Indieallstartrio den Versuch unternommen, Avant-Electronica, d. h. komplexe, beatarme, polymorph-pervers improvisierte und untanzbare ‚Konzertmusik‘, als Attraktion auf der Höhe des Zeitgeistes etwas breiter zu streuen als üblich. Mit falschen Erwartungen von einseitigen O‘Rourke-Fans, die von ihm akustische Gitarre (wie mit Mazzacane Connors) oder gar Sonic Youth-ähnliches erhofften, musste man zurecht kommen. Gegen Borniertheit und Schmalspurigkeit kann man letztlich nicht mehr tun, als auf die verführerische ‚Magie‘ der eigenen Qualitäten zu setzen. Die
Soundcollagen bis hin zum orchestral-opulenten ‚Fenn O‘Berg Theme‘ mit der Lizenz zu Betören sind geschichtet und verzopft eben nicht aus allem, was die Laptopspeicher hergeben. So beliebig und als bloße Summe ist Klangzauber nicht machbar. Ständiges Morphing und wuchernde Vielspurigkeit, Loops, Verzerrungen und Kompressionen, molekulare Diffusität, Einbrüche von Noise ebenso wie ungeniert melodiöse Einschübe von orchestralen Samples kitzeln die Empfänglichkeit und spotten - mit Schreibmaschinengetippe - dem Versuch, etwas derartig Logofugales in Worte zu fassen." [Bad Alchemy]
"All tracks by Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke & Peter Rehberg. Artwork by Tina Frank. Remastered at Piethopraxis, Köln, January 2009. The legendary Fenn O'Berg are resurfacing eight years since their last performance. Starting with this double CD reissue of their two albums; 'The Magic Sound Of...' and 'The Return Of...', originally released in 1999 and 2002. Fenn O'Berg (Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke and Peter Rehberg) first hit the scene after a surprise appearance at the Nickelsdorf Festival in 1997. Throughout 1998 and 1999 the trio toured extensively throughout Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain, as well as shows in North America and Japan. The highlights of these trips were presented on 'The Magic Sound'. Although they were not first group to utilise mainly mobile computing devices, they were the first to bring such a set up to venues that would not normally book or even be interested in such things. This resulted in some very polarised reactions from both audience and promoters alike. In many instances the group needed to 'escape' the city they played. In Rome Jim O'Rourke was even given an acoustic guitar and more or less forced to play a short acoustic set before anyone could leave the building. Despite all of this, there was a generally positive response, with some shows going down as local legend. However its worth considering that the technology at the tine didn't offer the convenience of 'plug in and play' of current operating systems and applications. This of course led to set of recordings like no other. Not only was the rule book ripped up but the tour book as well. Each show became an improvised twisted journey through the various strands of electronic music where popular music sources (some more obvious than others) clashed with more academic tricks, but never sounding like being part of either. By 2002, the groups live output was drastically reduced due to all three members schedules moving in different directions. Only two performances were committed that year, and although the sound was more polished and one could even suggest that 'they knew what they were doing', their polarising effect was still there. One show was a sold out over enthusiastic Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the other a miserable 'count them on one hand' turnout at a jazz club in Vienna. Edited highlights of these shows made up 'The Return Of'. Since then the trio has been on a constant pause. In October 2009 they will get together in Tokyo to record a new studio album planned for early 2010 release. This reissue is repackaged with new artwork by Tina Frank, and contains two bonus tracks from the same period."
[label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2009 |
€18.00 |
|
| FENNESZ |
Becs |
CD |
"The last time Fennesz released an album on Austrian label Mego it was 2001 and the name of that release was 'Endless summer'. Now, in 2014 Editions Mego is extremely proud to release the conceptual follow up that landmark of abstract pop. Bécs (pronounced 'baeetch') is Hungarian for Vienna and is the first full length Fennesz solo release since 2008's 'Black Sea'. Eschewing the more drone orientated works of 'Black Sea', 'Bécs' returns to the more florid pop mechanisms as deployed on Endless Summer. 'Static Kings' features the extra leverage of Werner Dafeldecker and Martin Brandlmayer who deploy a range of atmospheric abstract effects to shape a bewitching sound world. The 10 minute centrepiece 'Liminality' (featuring Tony Buck on drums) is classic Fennesz: epic, evocative, beautiful, impossible. 'Pallas Athene' creates a sanctuary of hovering beauty which leads into the title track. Emotional and assured, the track Bécs' is an astonishing contribution to contemporary pop. 'Sav' (co-written by Cédric Stevens aka Acid Kirk) inhabits a less structural terrain as one enters a forest of small sounds and oblique atmospheres, where the closing 'Paroles', a gentle melody unravels amongst swirls of electronics and fried disruption. Bécs is not just an album or a series of songs, it's a world to inhabit, a landscape ripe with sounds, songs and that esteemed Fennesz signature. A singular work by a singular artist. All tracks by Christian Fennesz, except 'Sav' by Cédric Stevens & Christian Fennesz. Modular Synthesizer on 'Sav' by Cédric Stevens. Bass on 'Static Kings' by Werner Dafeldecker. Drums on 'Static Kings' by Martin Brandlmayr. Drums on 'Liminality' by Tony Buck. Recorded & mixed at Amann Studios, Vienna, 2013/14. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Cover design by Tina Frank." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
"Aside from a couple of respectable collaborations and some soundtrack work, Christian Fennesz hasn't released a proper solo album since the album Black Sea, which came out on Touch WAY back in 2008. On Becs, Fennesz returns to the label that introduced him to the world, in Editions Mego; and he pretty much continues along the same path that he set for himself on that last album he recorded for them, the much lauded Endless Summer from 2001. That was a fracturous record of polygonal melodies bathed in a candy-crush fuzz of pixelated, shoegazing blur, always alluding to the sunkissed glow of the California Dream, whatever that may be. Becs may not have the advantage of following up one hell of a single by Fennesz (in the very late '90s, he covered The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones, the latter of which was originally commissioned for tUMULt's Painted Black anthology!), whereby he contextualized his sonic dislocation within the lineage of rock'n'roll and all of its mythologies of dissent, rebellion, sex, and whatnot. Yeah, it's a tough act to follow; but Becs is a wildly adventurous album with a substantial parity when it comes to the risk/reward equation. A heavily flanged, blindingly bright corona of digital treatments surrounds the Fennesz' guitar sound at the album's introduction, with all of the soft melodies buried in twinkling electronics and mirrored refractions. Fennesz follows this with a detuned alarm-call pulse that forms an insistently crawling rhythmic structure blasted with a malleable distortion, which in turn he counterpoints with a gorgeous, cathedral drone of sustained harmonics. An incremental retinal burn of guitar distortion shapes the brilliant track "Liminality" built upon a beautifully bittersweet, slowcore guitar chord whose roots lie in Slint, Codeine, or maybe even the Durutti Column. Sparkling ambient passages beget discordant piano treatments akin to a computer-cracked Angelo Badalamenti which in turn beget more blossoming noise. Fucking brilliant." [Aquarius Records] |
2014 |
€13.50 |
|
| FENNESZ + SPARKLEHORSE |
In the Fishtank |
CD |
"Spätestens seit seinem Album "Endless Summer" (2001) zählt Christian Fennesz zu den bekannten Namen der elektronischen Musik. Wo viele seiner Kollegen der Gefallsucht verfallen, kreiert der Österreicher eine Welt voller ungehörter und neuer Sounds. Seine Idee, mit Mark Linkous von der US-Band Sparklehorse zu kollaborieren, begeisterte die Macher der Serie "In The Fishtank" sofort. Beide Künster waren bereits live zusammen aufgetreten, es wurde also Zeit, die gemeinsamen Ideen auf Tonträger zu bannen. An zwei Tagen im Dezember 2007 entstanden die vorliegenden sieben Songs: Soundgebilde von seltener Schönheit und Atmosphäre, in denen sich abstrakte Sounds und traditionelle Songstrukturen, akustische und elektronische
Instrumente verbinden. Die Serie "In The Fishtank" ist eine Idee des niederländischen Musikvertriebs Konkurrent, in den vorangegangenen Folgen trafen u. a. Tortoise auf The Ex, Willard Grant Conspiracy auf
Telefunk und Low auf The Dirty Three." [label info / Indigo]
www.konkurrent.nl/labels/fishtank.html
|
2009 |
€12.50 |
|
| FERIAL CONFINE (=ANDREW CHALK) |
First, Second and Third Drop |
CD |
"Fully remastered and repackaged second release of the final Ferial Confine album 'First, Second and Third Drop' by Siren Records (Japan). Here presented in Japanese mini-LP style sleeve with obi, mastered at Skye Masteringby Denis Blackham in 2012. 'First, Second and Third Drop', although never actually released when it was completed in late 1985, became the final cycle of music by Ferial Confine and marked a departure from the closing moments of the preceding album 'Meiosis' (Siren 022).
Its impression is austere and surreal, even though the instrumentation is limited to the use of bowed acoustic percussion and wind instruments and some tape treatments later in the album.
Ferial Confine is the alias formerly used by Andrew Chalk in the 1980s for his noisier endeavours. "First, Second and Third Drop" is an album that was recorded in January of 1986 and remained unreleased until now. After giving this disc several listens, I have to wonder why it wasn't released much sooner!
Although not as mellow as most of the work for which Andrew Chalk is known, "First, Second and Third Drop" is definitely not a barrage of noise, and really has little in common with most of his Broken Flag label-mates from back in the 1980s. The comparison that immediately comes to mind listening to this album is Organum's material from around the same time period, something which makes a bit of sense since Andrew Chalk was involved in Organum for a time. The first three tracks definitely have the metallic, tense atmosphere that I've come to associate with Organum's earlier material - high-pitched scraping noises, creaking metal and general uneasiness." [Soundohm/ press release] |
2016 |
€15.50 |
|
| FERRARI, LUC |
Son memorise |
CD |
„In Entwicklung zum ersten P.R. von 1970, dessen einzigartige Aura ja schon beinahe schmerzt, scheint das ‚beinahe nichts‘ des Presque Rien #4 einem ‚allmählich alles‘ gewichen zu sein. Luc Ferrari hat allerdings von P.R. zu P.R. den Erinnerungen immer mehr Pinselstriche hinzugefügt, und ist auch selbst immer mehr Bestandteil der Hörbilder geworden. Wird also beinahe nichts mehr weggelassen? Zögerlich ist nach eigenem Bekunden Ferraris kompositorische Herangehensweise. So brauchte es zur Realisation des Presque rien #4 ¬ La remontée du village 8 Jahre. 1998 vollendet, spannt es nun als „opener“ den Bogen der vorliegenden CD zu einer Studie über die Wirklichkeit von Erinnerung und wie sie sich im Nachhinein als immer verfremdet darstellt. So erzählt „Promenade symphonique dans un paysage
musical ou un jour de fète à el qued en 1976“ (1976-1978) von einem Spaziergang in eine Stadt. Ein Mann stimmt einen erotischen Gesang an, auf dem Marktplatz beginnt eine Trommelgruppe zu spielen, Passanten kommen zusammen, Schüsse knallen, zum Abend hin kündigen Frauenrufe den Auftritt der Hochzeitsbraut an. Die Party steigt bis die Trommelgruppe tanzend in den zur Nacht vergehenden Abend verschwindet. Durch Hervorhebungen einzelner Passagen und der behutsamen Bearbeitung der Klänge insgesamt, offenbart Ferrari das Nichtreale der Tonbandaufnahme. Die illusorische Vorstellung einer objektiven Realität wird dem Hörer unterschwellig, fast unheimlich (schön) offenbart, wenn Ferrari mit subtilem Feingefühl in weiser Lässigkeit auf den Grenzlinien zur Manipulation spazieren geht. „Saliceburry Coctail“ (2002) ist ein ebenfalls ca. 1/2stündiges Werk. Wie in einem Cocktail die Zutaten so eingerichtet sind, das Aromen sowohl verstärkt als auch ausgeblendet werden können, wurden hier realistische sowie synthetische Sounds vermischt, geschichtet, transformiert. Was es mit diesem Stück genauer auf sich hat und warum es sich charakterlich von den vorhergehenden unterscheidet, ist aus den beiliegenden Kommentaren des Komponisten zu erfahren.
Presque Rien #4 seems to be ‚about everything‘ instead of the ‚almost nothing‘ from 1970. However, Ferrari has developed his „Presque Rien“ pieces in a more and more extensive way. There has always been hesitation on his part before releasing a „Presque Rien“. To release the fourth one took nine years. Now it’s the opener of this CD starting a study about the reality of memory and the problem of it’s transfigured portrayal afterwards. So „Promenade symphonique dans un paysage musical ou un jour de fète à el qued en 1976“ (1976-1978) tells about a walk in a nearby city. A man starts an erotic singing, on the market place a drum ensemble is playing, passerby are crowding around them, shooting armguns, in the night woman are announcing the wedding bride. The party is rising until the drum ensemble disappears in the night still dancing. Through empasize of special parts
and the carefully processing of sounds, Ferrari reveals that there is nothing real, it’s just a tape recording. „Saliceburry Coctail“ (2002) is also a 30minutes work. Just as in a cocktail the incredients are used to intensify or to tone down the flavour of the drink, real and synthetical sounds have been mixed, layered and transformed.” [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records]
“This is the second of three Sub Rosa releases of instrumental works by this important artist. Luc Ferrari is considered one of the most legendary musical figures of the twentieth century, whose work and aesthetic continues to influence several generations of contemporary composers. Director of the Groupe de Recherche Musicales which he established with Pierre Schaeffer in Paris from 1958-1966, he is also one of the masters of musique concrète who influenced and expanded the genre with electro-acoustic instrumentation. Right from the start, the idea had been to release three very different CDs: one hörspiel, one of concrete music (new and older pieces) and one CD of instrumental works. Les Anecdotiques was the first step: a vast sound-film of more than an hour that explores in 15 steps the intensity of re-composed sounds from his continual travel around the world, with electronic additional structures. This album is the second step -- one that offers a retrospective -- the previously unreleased \"Promenade Symphonique dans un Paysage Musical\" from 1976-78, the final \"Presque Rien #4\" and a fresh reflection dating from the last months of 2002, \"Saliceburry Cocktail,\" a large-scale composition exploring the idea of hideout, scrambled listening -- a tortuous entanglement of concrète and electronic. The forthcoming third and final release will be three recent instrumental compositions for electronics, piano and viola which were recorded under Luc\'s supervision -- the last works he ever recorded, as he passed away in August 2005.” [press release]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Didascalies 2 |
LP |
"First record after our Luc Ferrari trilogy (see list below), Didascalies 2 is not to be
confused with Didascalies already published 3 years ago - it's another composition
unpublished and a premiere. This production will only released on vinyl.
'The other day I found a file from 1993, a score for 2 pianos entitled "revenir à la note
de départ" ["getting back to the initial note"]. So I decided to turn it into a new composition without changing a single note in it - it contained very little notes actually, which suited me just fine. So I called it Didascalies 2, in memory of what I had done the previous year: a piece for piano and viola entitled Didascalies tout court. That piece was played on two notes, one for the piano and the same one for the viola. It had an obsessive feel. Very, very obsessiiiiiiive !!!' Luc Ferrari " [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Atelier de Liberation de la Musique |
LP |
"Alga Marghen proudly presents Luc Ferrari's Atelier De Liberation De La Musique, a collective he created together with Martin Davorin Jagodic, Philippe Besombes and Alain Petit in 1975 for a series of performances at the Galliera Museum in Paris. It was in those years that Luc Ferrari investigated open forms and created some of the most experimental and elusive works of his entire catalogue.
"Exercices d'improvisation", first recorded by Brunhild Ferrari with GOL, issued on PLANAM in 2010; but specially "Ou donc est-t-on?", a very complex piece soon to be documented on alga marghen including both "Dance", issued on alga marghen on the occasion of the presentations at Centre Pompidou in 2009 and "Ephemere", issued on CD by alga marghen in 2010, as well as the "Labyrinthe de la violence", an audio-visual permanent labyrinth for which Ferrari created four fantastic electronic music pieces soon to be published on Alga Marghen.
After these experiences the composer decided to discontinue these open practices for a more controlled work in the studio. And within the "Labyrinthe de la violence" installation Luc Ferrari conceived a series of electro-visual concerts to be performed by the newly created Atelier de Libération de la Musique. The collective included some of the most creative artists of the time: together with Luc Ferrari playing the electric organ we find on electric piano Martin Davoric Jagodic (whose masterpiece of electronic music titled "Tempo Furioso" was issued on Cramps in Italy that same year), on synthesizer Philippe Besombes and on sax, flute and clarinet Alain Petit.
These four artists met in February and March of 1975, rehearsing for a series of concerts to take place within the audio-visual labyrinth. It is the previously unheard recordings from these wild rehearsals which make up this incredible LP. The sound of Atelier de Libération de la Musique is a thrilling and overwhelming ride. Rattling, difficult polyrhythms play against droning, pulsing and simmering sonorities. These recordings are human and open, wild and incredibly ahead of their time." [label info] |
2018 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
Labyrinthe de Violence |
do-LP |
Capturing the four soundtracks conceived in 1975 for the multimedia/audiovisual performances at Galiéra Museum in Paris, the previously unreleased Labyrinthe de Violence stretching across two LPs represents a peek into Luc Ferrari's creations connected to his Atelier de Libération de la Musique experiences. Luc Ferrari was always keen to disrupt habits and engrained practices, to open his mind to new ways of apprehending the world of art, considering it not so much as a separate realm but as an inroad into society. In keeping with the spirit of 1968, he advocated taking part in daily life, casting a critical, but amazed, eye on the world around us, and always questioning the meaning of the occupations and preoccupations the world imposes. From the 1970s, Luc also wished to shed the solitary status of the artist, and to truly communicate with society. He thus gathered around him a group of people from different backgrounds with an aim to create, together, new ways of working and new forms of expression that would address unusual audiences rather than traditional concert audience. Having created his Studio Billig in Paris in 1973, Luc wanted to make the most of that place to promote exchanges with other artists, to share, think, and improvise together. This is what gave rise to the Atelier de Liberation de la Musique workshops, whose objective was to "Liberate music from the constraints of style and esthetics." The idea was precisely to free the artist from abstraction, leading him to perform accessible and intelligible actions; to promote the imagination; to use the dramatic dynamism of sound and image to trigger ideas; to ignore the sensational and instead to observe our social environment and daily life with an intuitive eye-ear; to invite the visitor to come up with their own analysis. This craving for collaboration led Luc Ferrari to create, in 1975, a collective of musicians with Martin Davorin Jagodic, Philippe Besombes, Alain Petit and David Jisse. That year, they worked at Labyrinthe de Violence, a looped audiovisual labyrinth which evoked the violence of contemporary society, and was a reaction to the political situation of the time. It was a multimedia work, spread across four rooms, on the following themes: Power/Profit/Violence/Pollution. Each side of this 2LP set reproduces the sonorization of one of the four rooms in the Museum, automatically mixing in the central space. The same recordings focus on questions of utopia through many of the same themes. As in the rest of his work, pleasure was also at the heart of these pieces. First press limited to 500 numbered copies; gatefold sleeve.
A1. Pollution
B1. Violence
C1. Pouvoir / Profit
D1. Mecanique / Paysage / Danse |
2021 |
€37.50 |
|
| FERREYRA, BEATRIZ / CHRISTINE GROULT |
Nahash |
CD |
L’aventure a commencé en 2011, Christian Zanesi directeur artistique de l’INA-GRM a eu l’idée saugrenue de commander à Beatriz Ferreyra et Christine Groult un duo improvisé avec des magnétophones dans le cadre d’un Week-end « retro actif » à la Gaité lyrique de Paris. Beatriz Ferreyra a ressorti son vieux studio analogique des années 70 avec quatre magnétophones Revox, augmentés d’une matrice analogique et d’une boite de synchronisation avec variateurs de vitesse conçues à sa demande. L’utilisation de la bande magnétique est très manuelle, elle met en relation énergétique directe le mouvement du corps avec le son qu’on façonne. Christine Groult, a eu envie de retravailler avec des échantillonneurs mais numériques cette fois ci et de tester les interfaces bon marché actuelles (plusieurs claviers, 2 pads, faders, potentiomètres, pavé tactile X-Y). L’utilisation de l’échantillonneur, outil incontournable des années 90, est très particulière et ludique, elle a tendance à être abandonnée. Or elle permet l’usage du son enregistré avec sa palette sonore singulière et personnelle.
L’interaction entre ces deux technologies très différentes a plu à ces deux compositrices et les a stimulé. Mais elles cherchent avant tout l’expression musicale. Elles ont donc travaillé ensemble à l’élaboration de l’improvisation. Une thématique commune et des images porteuses de sens les guident ensuite à la recherche des corps sonores et vers une configuration des outils de jeu.
Pourquoi deux versions ?
Il leur semblait intéressant de proposer à l’auditeur une expérience : deux improvisations différentes sont proposées à partir donc des mêmes sons, des mêmes dispositifs et de la même thématique mais en permutant les différents moments de la structure et en ajoutant des nouveaux complexes sonores. Qu’en est-il de la perception de ces différences en électroacoustique ?
Beatriz Ferreyra : studio analogique des années 70, quatre magnétophones Revox augmentés d’une matrice analogique et d’une boîte de synchronisation avec variateurs de vitesse conçues à sa demande.
Christine Groult : échantillonneurs, interfaces, claviers, pads, faders, potentiomètres, pavé tactile X-Y.
https://tracelabel.bandcamp.com/album/nahash
"Her latest release, in collaboration with French composer Christin Groult (to whom 'Un fil invisible' was dedicated) continues the sensory parade through changing states, this time seeming to focus on modes of physical movement, as opposed to chemistry. Improvisations for Ferreyra's four Revox tape recorders and Groult's multi-triggered samplers, the two tracks are different versions of the same piece that are equal in effect, so can feel a bit duplicative, but go some way to prove the aleatoric nature of the order of the events. Both works take its listener through a busy, erratic parade of modes of movement - smooth snake-like slithers, fussy butterfly flutters, splashing, trickling, galloping, zooming that combine to form tidal waves of sound that defy the laws of physics. Restlessly oscillating between recognisable natural sounds (water, kids’ voices, horses’ hooves, car engines) and synthetic ones, Nahash is best described as a somewhat literal embodiment of para-normal or super-natural where normality and nature are examined in a new light and found to be far beyond our understanding. But, descriptions in words of work such as this can feel a poor way to negotiate its transformative power. Liked Reinhold Friedl’s Golden Quinces…, Ferreyra and Groult's Nahash need not be aligned or exposed to other contexts, their compositions can work purely as enquiries into sound - where it can go, how it can change, and how it feels as it does so - where the best route to its comprehension is to listen." [The Quietus] |
2015 |
€14.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| FIESEL, CHRISTIAN |
The Dark Orb |
CD-R |
Christian Fiesel (also known from Modul303 web radio) is an electronic musician, mostly into all kinds of ambient, dark ambient and drone. His work is based on musique concrete, treatments and analogue synthesizer sounds.
His approach to creating music is deeply moody, dark, creating small otherworldly spaces within the soundscapes.
Having about an hour long, The Dark Orb album is probably the most intense and expressive work from him. It can be described as cinematic dark ambient, with traditional electronic (analogue) music parts that give it a touch of originality and making it also a very enjoyable release.
https://essentiamundi.bandcamp.com/album/the-dark-orb-em041
"Christian Fiesels musikalische Produktivität ist schon erstaunlich, ist doch The Dark Orb sein mindestens drittes Album (ich weiß nicht, wie vollständig seine Diskographie auf unseren Seiten ist) im Jahre 2018 - und als es erschien (Ende Mai), war das Jahr nicht einmal zur Hälfte vorbei! Aber wie eine Rezension höher schon zu lesen ist, sind hier Aufnahmen aus den letzten fünf Jahren versammelt.
Der Infozettel des Labels bezeichnet die Musik als „cinematic dark ambient“, eine durchaus passende Kategorisierung, bei der das „cinematic“ allerdings meist im Vordergrund steht. Über weite Strecken wirkt die Musik geradezu abweisend, und auch in den Momenten, wo die Musik Form annimmt, sich eine melodische Struktur herausbildet, scheint sie von Einsamkeit und Verlorenheit zu künden. Wie die akustische Umsetzung eines Schneetreibens klingt etwa Of Passing Clock and Time, bei dessen später einsetzender, Oboen-artig klingender, elegischer Melodie über einem stoischen Mellotron-Chor man sich vorstellen kann, selbigem aus einer nicht gut beheizten Hütte heraus zuzuschauen. Und bei den mächtigen, dunkel und drohend wabernden Mellotron-Klängen von Cinematic, die noch von einem klagenden Cello begleitet werden, fühlt man sich endgültig mitten in einer nächtlichen Schneelandschaft. Beide Stücke zeigen übrigens deutliche Reminiszenzen an die frühen Tangerine Dream, also ihrer Prä-Sequenzer-Zeit; diese Einflüsse zeigen sich auf diesem Album immer wieder mal.
Gänzlich oder zumindest weitgehend abstrakt wird es in Winds of East II, das phasenweise schon wie eine Geräuschcollage anmutet, wenn sich seltsames Rasseln oder Klackern in den Vordergrund schiebt. Ansonsten steht die Musik im Spannungsfeld zwischen melodischen und Ambient-artigen Klängen, wobei letztere in den drei abschließenden Stücken noch einmal verstärkt zur Geltung kommen.
Somit ist The Dark Orb ein schönes Werk elektronischer Musik, das geschickt bis ins Abstrakte reichende Dark-Ambient-Klänge mit Einflüssen aus der Frühzeit deutscher Elektronik verbindet. Auf Bandcamp kann man reinhören und neben der Download-Variante auch die auf 50 (!) Exemplare limitierte CD erwerben." [Babyblaue Seiten]
www.babyblaue-seiten.de/album_17436.html
|
2018 |
€8.00 |
|
| 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 |
Violent::Sedated |
CD |
"Elektronische Soundscapes eines neuen deutschen Projekts ; thematisch geht es metaphorisch um zwanghafte Intoxikationen von Drogen, die die Wahrnehmung & Realität verzerren. Die Titel tragen entsprechend Namen von Psychopharmaka und psychoaktiven Substanzen. Soundmäßig geht es in die elektronisch-atmosphärische Industrialrichtung mit hohem Synth-anteil, langsamer Percussion, einigen Stimmen-Samples....gutes Debut!" [Drone Rec info 1999]
www.loki-found.de |
1999 |
€14.00 |
|
| FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC |
New Communications : One |
CD-R |
NEW COMMUNICATIONS: Nur die 4 Elemente werden zur Klangerschaffung eingesetzt, um das nicht-sichtbare fünfte Element (die Musik?) zu erschaffen... hier verbinden sich field recordings sehr schön mit Obertönen, wie in einer rauschenden Unterwasserfahrt tauchen mechanisch wirkende Sounds auf. 46 Minuten, 2 tracks, professional cover.
"Russian project FEM works approximately in the same conceptual course as Japanese Aube, but oriented towards "natural" approach. While Aube uses only one sound source for an album, may it be tone generator's waves or sounds of water, FEM chooses only 5 elements: air, water, earth and stone. And while Aube often goes mad with building mathematically precise multy-level constructions with hi-fi sound, FEM on the contrary inherited droning structure of tracks from other projects of [S] (Sister Loolomie, Exit In Grey) with muffled lingering sounds. This album starts with literally stone ambient but by 10th minute the identification of sound practically disappears and only sometimes kind of familiar timbres emerge: cicadas, radionoises, etc." [Zhelezobeton]
|
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 |
|
| |
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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| FORT, BERNARD |
FRACTALS / Brain Fever |
LP |
FRACTALS (1981), 21’26
Composed at the GMVL from December 1979 to September 1981, this work was commissioned by Fnac.
Fractals are mathematical oddities that, when crossing our path, turn the smallest island into an immensity to be explored.
FRACTALS is a series of short studies, all based on the same sound source. Seeking in the sound and its very logic a proposal upon which a construction is elaborated, each Fractal remains open and is a mere fragment of itself.
FRACTALS, music pieces sculpted in four dimensions, are vast microcosms that can only be inhabited by the mind. Each Fractal can be approached from several angles, far, near, etc. Some can be listened to at different speeds, forwards or backwards.
FRACTALS: amorphous and endless music pieces whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
Brain Fever (2017), 18'00
Wherever you may be in the forest of South India, the Brain Fever bird, together with the Seven Sisters, literally gets into your head. Whether it be early morning, daytime, or nighttime, amidst the stridulations of insects, its song utterly reflects Indian life: sonorous, noisy, insistent, dense, overcrowded, mobile, swarming, frantic, overheated, deprived of rest and sleep.
Brain Fever echoes sonic images caught in the Aurovillian forest, near Pondicherry, and rich fragments of improvisations made in Lyon on analog sound synthesis or feedback devices, the kind I used to do in the first GMVL studios.
Brain Fever is dedicated to Sofia Jannok, a musician and sàmi singer.
editionsmego.com/release/REGRM-024
|
2020 |
€19.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| |
August 53rd |
LP |
The Fossil Aerosol Mining Project continues their post-industrial dialectics through their "songs of enhanced decay and faked resurrection." This cryptic ensemble from the American Midwest has been quietly producing such works since the '80s, with a deep catalogue highlighting a uniform brilliance in the exquisite reconstruction of exhumed cassette tapes and moldering 35mm film stock.
On August 53rd, Fossil Aerosol has collaged their reclamations of found sounds into an inquisitive, dynamic cinema of the ear. The tape loops and recombinant samples create elliptical orbits and vertiginous spirals. Down-pitched, disquieting rumbles form the foundations for much of Fossil Aerosol’s compositions, which mutate the fractured, crumbled, and mildewed artifacts into patterned yet shifting phrases. The result seems like hybrid, time-compressed mimicry of the evolution of our media-driven language.
The official statement from the ensemble reads as such:
"This album, arranged specifically for Helen Scarsdale, might be considered a prequel to The Day 1982 Contaminated 1971, featuring the damaged remains of certain pop culture pleasantries in a less decomposed state than found on the previous vinyl release. August 53rd, a month extended to accommodate a changing climate, predates the day 1982 contaminated 1971."
Such inquiries characterize the many non/fictions that contextualize the work of Fossil Aerosol. Through the process of decoding lost melodies and dialog of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, Fossil Aerosol intentionally or unintentionally deflates the vanity of consumerism while at the same time providing an archaeological view of contemporary culture.
These conceptual frameworks would be meaningless if Fossil Aerosol did not deliver on the aesthetics. And deliver the Project most certainly does. August 53rd harbors the rich enigmas of distressed sound collages found in the work of likeminded artists such as Philip Jeck, Felicia Atkinson, and of course Fossil Aerosol’s occasional collaborators :zoviet*france:.
Noted photographer Michael Eastman (Vanishing America, Havana) contributed the artwork used for the cover of the album, specifically selecting imagery from decaying landscapes of the American Midwest.
"One of The Helen Scarsdale Agency’s most prized units, Fossil Aerosol Mining Project vent a cryptically elusive, hauntological suite of mid-fi compositions working on the cusp of ambient noise and avant-garde electronics in a way that should resonate with fans of the recent Pendant album on West Mineral Ltd, the romance of William Basinski’s knackered loops, or the shoegazing tinder of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. We warmly recommend shutting your eyes and wrapping yourself up this one for a properly gauzy and deeply synaesthetically heightened trip." [Boomkat]
"Amazing what can be done with old tapes going back decades and found sounds and spoken voice recordings from the recent past – on this album, these materials have been assembled into a series of collages, either set in the present and proposing how society in the future will evolve, or rather devolve into a post-industrial world cannibalising its own history and reworking it into myth, the foundations of which will be purposely obscured (so that the masses won’t ever discover the reality); or set in the future and detailing that gradual decline into a ghost culture. Snippets of melody from unidentifiable sources, lost voices, unexpected and unknown rhythms, all heard through a misty invisible plasma patina that blunts the edges of sounds and renders them slightly blurred or warm in tone, perhaps in a state of mildewy decay, pass through briefly, never to be heard again.
The soundscapes revealed in each and every track are often beautiful and gorgeous in their rich tone and in what they might suggest to each individual listener: they might suggest an alternative America that didn’t squander its wealth on fighting useless wars around the globe just for the sake of being No 1, but used it to create a happy and secure if not super-rich society for all its people; they might also suggest an endless 1970s-era of beach parties and kids riding in open-top Cadillacs on highways across prairie and desert landscapes without end. In each track, a new aspect of this world opens up matter-of-factly but also unobtrusively; there is no deliberate in-yer-face provocation from the Fossil Mining Project folks here. Listeners take whatever message they find in this album, be it a positive one or a discomforting one.
With such evocative pieces, I hesitate to nominate favourite tracks since these will depend on what listeners bring to their listening experience. “Aestas Anatis” is quite an intimate piece with seductive voices and the track that follows, “Retail Retrospect”, is eerie and dark in a way that recalls early David Lynch films. All seven tracks on the album show much care and thought in their composition.
If ever you find yourself in a shack on top of a hill, looking down on a city and seeing, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, that city’s lights slowly turn down and cut off, its noises and traffic gradually wind down, its utilities finally cut off, and the citizens flee, leaving the streets and buildings completely derelict, this recording would be an ideal accompanying soundtrack." [Sound Projector]
|
2018 |
€23.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| FRANCK, YANNICK |
Hierophany | Иерофания |
CD |
"In such conservative genre like ambient there is not easy to find something to discover, but the music of Yannick Franck can change this widespread prejudice. Infuenced by recent trip to Russia and the orthodox culture, he composed the continuous suite of three movements, showing his personal vision of the ancient rite. Release date is 29th December 2012. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
"Oily drones be found on Hierophany, an album released on the Russian imprint Monochrome Vision, inspired by the ancient rites of Russian orthodoxy, and produced by a Belgian on a working holiday whilst touring to the east of his homeland. Over the years, Franck has worked with Pietro Piparbelli (aka K11) with the two of them collaborating on a project based on recordings from Aleister Crowley's Abbey of Thelema (yes, K11 has released at least three other albums drawn from Thelemic residues). Theological differences aside (which are obviously massive), Franck's interest in both Crowley and the Russian Orthodox church seems to find common ground in the gnostic mysticism of meditation rituals and their capacity to introduce the process of transcendence. The massively thrumming drones that Franck presents on Hierophany seem to be based on field recordings made within a cathedral during a service, with the bell tones and chants reflecting into a gray wall of steely reverb and delay. Elements of human speech sporadically bounce within his system of acoustic and processed sound, creating something of a feedback loop of particular sonorous frequencies, reinforced and thickened by Franck's sonic sensibilities. The album quickly hits a uniform plateau of saturated environmental and electronic din, slipping rather subtly from one complementary movement to another. Well executed work that conceptually and aesthetically may have more than a few similarities to Current 93's early tape collage days." [Aquarius Rec.]
"More field recordings, but perhaps a bit differently when it reaches the point of release, is the new release by Belgium's Yannick Franck. He's been releasing on various labels before, such as Silken Tofu, Young Girls Records and Silentes, and has worked with K11, Craig Hilton, Alan Trench and Esther Venrooy. Here however he is solo and he uses instruments and 'non musical objects', voice, radio signals and field recordings. Perhaps so far not much difference, but it's the way Franck executes his music. Instead of using the collage form, Franck sets wheels in motion, and when they are all in motion, then he subtly moves them about. Perhaps the word 'drone' music could apply to his music? Derived from various sources, his music is played altogether at the same time, adding and subtracting on microscopic level, all along using minimal changes in the use of sound effects. Quite a dense sound he arrives at here and like with the other release, the three pieces flow nicely into eachother. In the final part, 'Dying Down', you realize you are in a church, with whispering voices, and a far away choir practice. And then it seems like the other two pieces shared that same sort of big hall/cathedral reverb. That makes it perhaps all a bit too religious for my taste, but throughout I thought this was a very refined disc of challenging drone music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| FREIBAND |
Untitled Drone Work |
mCD-R |
"That lovely twenty minute piece that was previously released by Twenty Hertz in their 'Drone Works' series, but since it's discontinued, I thought it would be a good idea to do a 'repress', this time on a 3" CDR, with a somewhat different cover (from the same series of photographs actually)." [label website info]
"The atmosphere is equally austere as that on 'Ice Field', but instead of the sketch-like approach Freiband presents one 20-minute track again, a format that seems most appropriate to his drone aesthetic. He works with flickering, high-pitched sounds here, which are accompanied by a dark drone underneath. The compositional structure might seem to be devoid of any internal development, but concentrated listening reveals rich microstructural variations, as the various layers move out of sync and new sounds subtly surface in the mix. It's nice that this material is available again now, and the lovely cover photography should of course get an extra cheer" [Magnus Schäfer]
www.kormplastics.nl/moll
|
2007 |
€6.00 |
|
|
Replicas |
CD |
"Wenn ich das recht verstehe, dann entstand FREIBAND, eines der Soloprojekte des umtriebigen Frans de Waard, aus einem per Scrollrad erzeugten Geräusch, das ihn an Asmus Tietchens‘ Daseinsverfehlung (Stille Andacht, 1993) erinnerte. Der Hamburger hatte dieses Album aus den kratzenden Klängen fabriziert, die entstehen, wenn man eine Tonbandspule über den Tonkopf zieht, und die 13 Tracks allesamt ‚Freiband‘ getauft. De Waard wollte als einmaliges Projekt etwas Ähnliches probieren, woraus dann Microbes (Ritornell, 2001) entstand. Wie das bei FdW so ist, wurde daraus ein Fass ohne Boden, in das nun nach dem Gesetz der Unvermeidlichkeit auch Replicas (Monochrome Vision, mv19) eintaucht, das tatsächlich den Ausgangspunkt, nämlich Tietchens‘ Freiband-Tracks, als 13-faches ‚Re‘ remixt. Selbst das Cover ist eine Revision des Originals, jenem Haus mit Fenstern wie zwei aufgerissenene Augen und ein großes Maul. Inzwischen ist es eine Ruine mit eingeworfenen Fensterscheiben, herbstlich gesäumt von Ahorn. Wenn hier etwas einschlägig ist, dann A.C. Dantos Begriff ‚Aboutness‘ - Kunst ist immer ein Über-Etwas - , gesteigert, aber gleichzeitig auch implodiert, zu: Kunst ist Über-Kunst. But what is it all about? Schleifende, knisternde, pulsierende, blasende, kristallin funklende Geräusche, dazu - mit etwas Phantasie - aber auch paranormal, d.h. verhuscht und verzerrt ‚singende‘ oder ‚sprechende‘. Das leerstehende Haus wird da zum Geisterhaus, auch wenn de Waards nüchterne und spröde Akribie diesen hauntologischen Schluss selbst nicht nahelegt." [Bad Alchemy]
"Highly conceptual project that combines features of remix, recycling and plagiarism - the re-interpretation of classic album by Asmus Tietchens “Daseinsverfehlung”. All what can be heard on this CD, as always in case of Frans de Waard framework, is made from music that already existed: every sound, word in titles and even the cover picture - all is just processing and manipulation techniques. Freiband is one of solo projects by Frans de Waard. Besides Kapotte Muziek, Frans currently also plays in Beequeen duo with Freek Kinkelaar, runs Plinkity Plonk and other small labels, writes tons of reviews for the Vital Weekly newsletter. When just get some free time, he becomes active with various side-projects like Goem (minimal techno), Quest (ambient), Shifts (post-rock), Captain Black (remixes) etc." [label notes ]
"... Without getting too trippy or spacey, I would like to propose that this is the kind of music that alters your state of mind and being. Not the kind of album that you'll play in the background, 'cause it wants your full attention. It freezes your body and at same time makes you experience it from head to toe. In this way it has the same effect as most of Francisco Lopez' work has on me: it grabs you by the ears and sucks you right in." [SdT, Vital Weekly]
label-website:
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Stainless Steel |
LP |
"ini.itu is releasing a new vinyl only LP, the 8th of its catalogue, composed by Freiband
• Freiband is one of the long lasting projects of Frans de Waard, who is making music since more than 25 years under many aliases and in different line-ups, the most well-known being Kapotte Muziek ( with Roel Meelkop and Peter
Duimelinks ), Goem ( same team, different tools ), THU20 ( same, augmented by Jac van Bussel and Jos Smolders ), Beequeen ( w/ Freek Kinkelaar ), and more recently Wieman ( formerly known as Zèbra ) ( w/ Roel Meelkop ),
Ezdanitoff ( w/ Wouter Jaspers ) and Tobacconists ( w/ Scott Foust from Idea Fire Company ). Solo he has been active under his own name, Shifts and of course Freiband. His other activities include : editor and writer for Vital Weekly, programmer at Geluidswerkplaats in Nijmegen, organizer of the residencies Brombrom and director of the
labels Korm Plastics, Moll and Plinkety Plonk.
• the name Freiband itself is picked from Asmus Tietchens' album Daseinsverfehlung, on which he explored sounds created by rubbing tape freely on magnetic heads. Frans de Waard transferred the concept to the digital field and now mostly uses that name for his computer-based pieces.
What Freiband proposes here is 2 sides of radically reworked gamelan :
• Side A seems to progress through an acid bath and take the magnifying glass to enhance the digital decays, evoking various stages of textural corrosions. Through these aggressive and irreverent treatments, the naturally metallic harmonics are by twist and turns abruptly dismantled and fractured into crunchy, dense and fuzzy fireworks. Despite the stop & go transitions this hard-edged and raw piece still holds a nice unity across the digital errs and disturbances.
• on side B, through some arcane wirings, some machines end up spitting out shifting binary patterns with a somewhat alienating feeling. Proof that electronic music can be minimal and eschew the 4/4 dance floor pattern, in favour of
some dry and uncompromising “Unerforschtes Gebiet” between minimal beats and Steve Reich’ early tape compositions.
this LP further expands the horizon of ini.itu, successfully interrogating the link between south-east asian instruments and electronic contemporary music. Maybe something to file along Hecker, Pita, Mika Vaino, Fennesz or Alva Noto's Xerrox LPs.
p.s. Frans de Waard will also simultaneously release a companion 3” on his Moll imprint, with a totally different track from the
same sessions that couldn’t be included on the LP. That track is a spectral exploration of the higher frequencies, followed by a pile-up of gamelan sounds." [label info]
www.iniitu.net
"The LP thus both presents the quality of the gamelan style in its pure origin and 21st electronic avantgarde by one of Holland's finest sound artists. A superb ode to the importance of the gamelan music for the modern sound experimentations of the Western world." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
| FRIEDL, HERIBERT |
BACK_FORWARD |
CD |
"This cd is solely based on recordings of the hackbrett (cymbalon). It is a research of playing and digital processing of the instrument itself. The tracks should show the changes of concrete sounds into abstraction, without losing the soul of the sound itself. On BACK_FORWARD musical movement happens in a clearly defined space. Even though the initial point and the endpoint are never the same, the path between is always equal.' Limited edition of 300." [label info]
www.nonvisualobjects.com
|
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
| FRITH, FRED |
The Happy End Problem |
CD |
"The Happy End Problem beinhaltet zwei Tanztheaterkompositionen, die Fred Frith im neuen Jahrtausend für Amanda Miller und ihre Pretty Ugly Dance Company komponiert hat. Uraufgeführt wurden die Stücke im Stadttheater Freiburg, im May 2003 ("The Happy End Problem") bzw. im April 2004 ("Imitation" - die Tracks 1-9). Recht akustisch wirkt „Imitation“, welches von Streichinstrumenten, Gitarre, Piano und etwas Perkussion bestimmt wird. Dazu kommen sehr verhaltene elektronische Sounds und Klangspielereien von Patrice Scanlon. Für Frithsche Verhältnisse ist "Imitation" erstaunlich melodisch und zahm ausgefallen. Fast elegisch und sentimental, sehr klassisch-kammermusikikalisch und entspannt kommen hier die Klänge aus den Boxen. Einzig die Pianolinen entwickeln ab und zu eine gewisse betriebsame Hektik. Ansonsten schreitet die Musik getragen, sehr schlicht, fast karg dahin. Recht prominent in der Musik steht Carla Kihlstedts Violine, die häufig die Melodieführung übernimmt.
Das lange Titelstück ist dagegen etwas anders gestrickt. Deutliche elektronischer in der Ausrichtung, angereichert mit einigen Tonbandeinspielungen verschiedener Naturgeräusche, wirkt die Komposition fremdartiger und komplexer, wie ein großformatiges Klanggemälde, welches im zweiten Teil kurzzeitig zu einem recht wirren, schrägen und minimalistischen Elektro-RIO-
Kammerrockdurcheinander gerät. Trotzdem ist die Nummer vielleicht das elektronischste Stück, welches ich von Frith kenne. "The Happy End Problem" ist ein weiteres Beispiel für die Vielseitigkeit des ehemaligen Gitarristen von Henry Cow. Wer die Musik von Frith schätzt, wird mit diesem Album sicher keinen Fehlkauf tun!" [Achim Breiling / Babyblaue Seiten]
"A new recording, and instantly a Fred classic. Two, related, small-ensemble works for 6 and 7 musicians respectively - mostly strings of one sort or another, with percussion, flute and clarinet occasionally, and electronics. Fred, violinist Carla Kilsteht and percussionist Willie Wynant play throughout, providing continuity across the pieces as the music constantly unfolds into new textures and dialects. Melody, harmony and rhythm are omnipresent, though not always obviously colluding, and the music moves with constant assurance, never hesitating and never marking time. There are some affinities with Nicola Kodjbashias luminous Solitary Walker (which it predates) in its use of minimal instrumentation to maximum effect, popular materials, exquisite articulation and a kind of modest transcendence. The necessity and simplicity of these pieces conceals a catalogue of experimental techniques and novel ideas; there are those whod have squeezed a score of albums from this material. A gem. Buy it. Carla Kilsteht shines throughout." [label description]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Technology of Tears |
CD |
"FRED FRITH erfand The Technology of Tears (ReRFRO011) 1986/87 für eine Choreographie von Rosalind Newman. Er konnte dabei auf Henry
Kaisers neuem Synklavier im Maximum an Samplingtechnologie jener Zeit schwelgen. Der Duktus ist hämmernd und zuckend, das Klangbild gesättigt mit synthetisierten Gitarren- und Geigensounds. Dazu schrillt im ersten Drittel ‚Sadness, its bones bleached behind us‘ John Zorns Altosax und Tenko skandiert kläffend ihre Kampfkunstschreie. Mensch und Automat, heiß und kalt, reiben sich im ostinat hackenden Chop-chop-chop des Maschinenbeats. Die beiden folgenden Teile behalten die Motorik bei, ein
tänzerisches Hmtata, aber zunehmend auch ein kniebrecherisches Zickzack, gespickt mit Tenkos Ha!s und Ho!s, mit repetitiver Gitarrenarbeit
und Geigenstrichen in Frith-typischer ‚Imaginary Folk‘-Manier, d. h. eingetaucht
in urbane Dynamik und auf sarkastische Weise futuristisch statt idyllisch und nostalgisch. Der Beat ist dabei so ‚imaginär‘ und dominant
wie bei Skeleton Crew. Christian Marclay stiftet Phantomklänge per Turntable, die den ‚Palace of Laughter‘ mit plunderphonischem Trubel rocken. Für ‚Jigsaw‘, ebenfalls eine Tanzmusik für Newman, die mit ähnlicher
rhythmischer Hartnäckigkeit motorische und dynamische Anstöße gibt, machte Frith das Meiste selbst, sogar die Schreie und skelettierten Gesänge. Vielspurig häuft er Gitarren-, Geigen-, Bass- und Drumloops und
diesmal stößt Jim Staley mit der Posaune dazu. Das Ganze hat einen Schwung, der immer und immer wieder angriffslustig gegen die Fassade
von Trägheit und Unlust rammt. Doch bis heute gilt: Man muss sich Sisyphos als glücklichen Menschen vorstellen." [Bad Alchemy]
"With an all-star line-up that features Tenko, John Zorn and Christian Marclay (with guest Jim Staley on trombone), Technology of Tears started life in New York in 1986 as a dance commission by Rosalind Newman. Fred took this opportunity to experiment with Henry Kaiser's brand new synclavier (the absolute state-of-the-art sampling and processing technology of the time - Henry had to take out a second mortgage on his house to buy it). It was the sophisticated sampling that fascinated Fred, and the piece is characterised by technological "comparisons" between real and virtual voices which constantly merge into one another. Tenko and Zorn tear through it all with breathless intensity. Parts two and three, which follow, couldn't be more different, for them Fred adopts a completely different methodology, playing everything himself mostly on low-grade instruments, then inviting turntablist Marclay to add plundered parts. Here is a completely different approach to "sampling": exploring dense layers of quotation intercut with melodies formed using random editing processes (with subsequent transcription and re-performance). Lastly there is Jigsaw, a later work, also made for Rosalind Newman, reflecting the frustrations experienced making Technology... where, every time Fred would complete a stable version, Rosalind would ask for changes (incidentally, sending the recording way over budget). This time Fred decided to make a modular piece that could be re-assembled in any way requested - and having no pre-determined structure at all. The original composition consisted of dozens of musical cells, each recorded separately in increments of between 3 and 12 measures; all at the same tempo, and in the same key. The idea was to play the elements separately and then ask Rosalind how she would like them constructed. Ironically, the test assembly, made as demonstration of what was possible, won instant approval, and no reconstruction was ever necessary." [label notes] |
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Impur II |
CD |
"Essentially a pretty great concert by a large 19 strong ensemble with Fred conducting as well as playing. Lots of rhythm, harmony, rock noise, exotic instrumentation, power, complexity and melodic writing, with stretches of chaos, eccentricity and theatre. Totally different, then, from Impur part 1 (ReR FRFC1) which was a deconstructed, spatialised simultaneity of musical events heard through open windows or by wandering through rooms; Impur 2 was an unannounced performance upon which audience members had to stumble (and then collect their friends - or not). The recording here was in fact made a little later, by the same people in a different artspace and has been edited and re-mastered by Fred for this release. It fits well in the aesthetic of earlier group records from Fred: Gravity, Skeleton Crew, Keep the Dog." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| FROG |
Frog 2 |
LP |
"The music developped by Frog is a work on percussions of all sorts : electronic, metallic, or else.. bathing in atmospheres made of « humid » tessituras. The music is simple, and unlike Brume, accessible !
Except for the arrangement of rhythms, 75% of work is concentrated on textures, mainly electronic : analog and digital.
Electroacoustic is rarer here, most of the sounds being filtered by « vintage » analog synths using the whole usual range : VCO, VCF, VCA, envelope modulators etc.
Frog is at the same time background music and real music. You can listen to it making your spaghettis or with an active ear from your favorite armchair, if possible in the dark with a good glass of wine in your hand.
Voilà ! A multi-use simple music." [label info]
www.rotorelief.com
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| FROZEN FACES |
Broken Sounds of a Dying Culture |
CD |
Re-issue of self-released first LP from 1997, plus tracks from the 7" "Religion of Hate". Project of Lina / DEUTSCH NEPAL. large cardboard cover.
"The year is 1996 I was surfing on cold waves through the very heart of Linkopia, night after night it was all the same. Sleeping in the Karmanik basement seduced by delerium echoing between white concretwalls. I could hear the equiptment slowly disintegrating as I put out the light, broken sounds of a dying culture. This might be the erosion of history eternally scraping on the crown of mankind...or was it just the decline of my personal belongings after years of abuse... and was there any difference between the two theories? I streched out my limb and pressed the record-button." - Lina Baby Doll.
Originally released by Entartete Musikk in 1996 as a limited edition LP. Now available in cd format with totally remastered sound, new artwork and bonus tracks from the Religion of Hate 7" in original extended versions. A must for all the fans of Lina's works who somehow missed the vinyl version! Fomat: CD, A5 folding cover" [label info]
www.wrotyczrecords.prv.pl
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| FUCHS, LIMPE & VIZ MICHAEL KREMIETZ |
Kugel Haus Musik |
CD |
Limpe Fuchs & Viz Michael Kremietz - Live CD „KUGELHAUSMUSIK“
A Audionautic Newspaper between Experimntal Zenflute, Pendelbronze, Neue Musik, Dadanoise, Crying Silence & the Film in your Ears !
Limpe Fuchs, (pendulum bronze, violin part, timpani, lithophone). Born in Munich in 1941, is a German composer and sound artist.
Viz Michael Kremietz. (Shakuhachi, didgeridoo, gongs, stones, neutrinos). He has been doing sound research in the areas of ambience, experimental world music, theater and performance music for 20 years.
Also available: ENDORPHONIC. Joint CD with Hans Joachim Irmler from FAUST:
Limpe Fuchs, (Pendelbronze, Violine Stimme, Pauken, Lithophon). 1941 in München geboren, ist eine deutsche Komponistin und Klangkünstlerin.
Viz Michael Kremietz . (Shakuhachi, Didgeridoo, Gongs, Steine, Neutrinos). Seit 20 Jahren betreibt er Klangforschung in den Bereichen Ambiente, Experimentelle Weltmusik, Theater- und Performancemusik.
Auch erhältlich: ENDORPHONIC. Gemeinsame CD mit Hans Joachim Irmler von FAUST:
Title: Kugel Haus Musik
Artist: Limpe Fuchs
Featuring: Viz Michael Kremietz
Recording & mastering: Sascha Stadelmeier
Date of release on play loud: September 2019
Limpe Fuchs: viola, vocals, wooden horn (holzhorn), balls (kugeln), percussion, lithophon; Viz Michael Kremietz: shakuhachi, yitaki; sound installation, gong
Concert recording from April 2012, Waldorfschule Wangen
https://www.playloud.org/limpefuchs.html
|
2019 |
€10.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| FUNERARY CALL |
The Mirror reversed |
CD |
"It is with great honor that we welcome Canada's unique and by now legendary Black Ambient act Funerary Call to our family. For this new opus Harlow Macfarlane found inspiration from personal interpretations of the Tree of Death and what is considered to represent the reverse or occult side of the Tree of Life, a diagram of the negative forces or Qliphoth (Hebrew, Shells) assigned to each Sephiroth. They represent the counter-forces of the ten divine emanations as described by the ancient Qabalists and the paths or tunnels that connect to these infernal realms and the various demonic forces that inhabit them. The constant shifting of sounds and tones are a metaphoric reflection of these various "shells" and chaotic entities. Built as one continuous piece with various chapters, this new album serves as a vehicule for delving deeply into the shadow side. Artwork by Dehn Sora." [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
"The eerie and strangely evanescent theme opening the record draws the listener into a world of shifting shades and intermingled shapes that create a tableau of intense magical realism. The music evolves from the beginning, from minimal electronics designed like an abstract painting: they fade away into vaporous dispersion just when you think the frequencies are about to take a definite shape. They grow like the roots of a tree inside one’s head, asphyxiating common optical nerves and provoking a sort of dizziness of the internal organs; thus, the atmosphere here created becomes absorbent and eventually starts to grow inside you, but from above to the bottom. If we keep in mind the arborescent developed image, this glimpsing tree begins to take roots from the head and then seems to progressively take hold of your entire body by its trunk and branches.
It is the image of the tree of life and death which in some mythological and esoteric interpretations appears reversed in correspondence with the ontological aspects of individuation: one’s persona is shaped starting with cognition. As with most of hermeneutics this same aspect is based on ambivalence, so that this same root of self-development is the source of its degradation. Seemingly such ideas are musically suggested by traces of heavy-gripping tonalities or ironic, damping off percussive poundings. One who intends detachment from the illusion of progress searches to cut off from the root the body correspondent tree.
The ambiance constructed here traces allegorically the roaming of the intellect through the corners of its own metaphoric world. The music continuously acts as a vehicle for the listener: a meditative support which has the power to provoke the emergence of different mental states, all the more confusing and irritating as the mind has to confront ever-shifting frequencies.
Whether the intention of the artist has been to depict the kabalistic aspects of the Sephirothic tree, namely the malefic mirrored Qliphotic tree, is a matter of sheer interpretation. The record’s title would infer such a parallelism, but the evocative power of the music can gather esoteric hints that are generally valid.
“The Mirror Reversed” reflects the descent of the soul in its own created abyss. In part 1 of this one-track album, the Canadian artist acting under Funerary Call has offered us a multifaceted musical depiction of such a demanding journey. And even if a reversed descent is naturally an ascension, we will further wait for the soul’s ascending in part 2." [Iaha Crax / Santa Sangre]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| GABER, HARLEY |
Indra's Net |
CD |
"Sovereign of the Center" (1972-1974) and "The Realm of Indra‘s Net" (1974)
Cover Design: Ott + Stein, Berlin; Scan: Christine Berkenhoff
Titel:
- Sovereign of the Center (1972-1974)
- The Realm of Indra‘s Net (1974)
Spielzeit: ca. 60 Minuten
"Die Werke auf dieser CD könnte man als Buchstützen für ein anderes Stück von mir bezeichnen, nämlich für The Winds Rise in the North.
Das erste der beiden, Sovereign of the Centre, war mein frühester Versuch, ein neuartiges Musikdenken in Ensembleform zu bringen, im Gegensatz zum Solostück. Das zweite, The Realm of Indra's Net, baut auf meinen musikalischen "Entdeckungen" im Zuge der Überarbeitung von The Winds Rise in the North auf. Als "akustisches Tonbandstück" (nicht musique concrète) ist es ein hybrides Werk: Vier Spuren Solovioline wurden in unterschiedlichen Kombinationen abgemischt. (Auf dieser CD ist eine Mono-Fassung des Stücks zu hören.)
Beide Werke reflektieren einen grundlegenden Wandel in meinem Musikdenken, der 1968 mit Chimyaku (japanisch „kaum in Bewegung“) für Altflöte solo eintrat. Mit diesem Stück komponierte ich erstmals "verlangsamte Musik", Zeitlupensequenzen im Film vergleichbar, im Gegensatz zu lediglich langsamer Musik wie der von Feldman." [Harley Gaber]
www.edition-rz.de
|
2010 |
€15.50 |
|
| GABURO, KENNETH |
Lingua II: Maledetto / Antiphony VIII |
CD |
"The work and thought of the American composer Kenneth Gaburo (1926-1993) exhibited many striking changes during his lifetime. In fact, while the world of commercial endeavor still insists that artists develop a recognizable personal "style," Gaburo's life-work can be seen as one of continual change and exploration, rather than one of codification and promotion. Some of these changes are beautifully illustrated by the two works on this CD, Maledetto, for seven speaking voices, from 1967-68, and Antiphony VIII (Revolution), for percussionist and electronic tape, from 1982-3. Both are intricate and powerful works, both take their inspiration from "non-musical" materials, and both require virtuosity of a most uncommon order. However, beyond that, the two works could not be more different.
Maledetto is a wild choral piece, a great complex cry, a work that, while reveling in a surface texture of innuendo, word play, and pseudo- and real- history, spoken/shouted/sung by 7 amazing speakers, contains within itself a deep and profound celebration of the body, the physical, the sexual. It is one of the earliest of Gaburo's works where his concern for holistic thinking and art-making comes to the fore. This sort of thinking was in the air, of course ¬ many works were written at this time that were multi-layered in their meaning and intent, but Maledetto seems unique. It's combination of profundity and what might be called adolescent sniggering, and almost every emotional state in between, seems unprecedented. The subject of the piece is the word screw, in all its connotations, from the sexual to the mechanical, from the mildly obscene to the boisterous, with diversions along the way into topics such as perfume manufacture, printing, classical design, and structural linguistics, all of which connect with the small ridged, groovy object of attention.
Speaking voices also figure in Antiphony VIII, but here they are the voices of people giving their heartfelt reactions to the notion that nuclear war has made their lives expendable. This work was created at least 15 years after Maledetto, and the boisterous energy of the Sexual Revolution, one of the earliest counter-cultural movements of the mid-1960s, has given place to the grim organizational determination of the various Anti-Nuclear movements of the 1980s. Gaburo's attitude has also changed. If Maledetto is a celebration, Antiphony VIII is a wake, and a wake-up call. Not content merely to protest, or to document people's reactions, the percussion, electronics, concrete sounds, and voices in this piece each embody within them Gaburo's analysis of the most common attitudes people have to the problem of governments treating them as expendable - helplessness, indifference, anger, uncertainty, and presents them all to us as a summary, and a questioning of our own attitudes to the problem. Gaburo the deep analyst of phenomena is still here, but now his analytical mind is dissecting not just a problem, but the wide variety of people's responses to that problem ¬ both as a structural resource, and as a means perhaps of intuiting the way forward."
[Warren Burt (from the liner notes)]
"Gaburo (1926-1993) is one of those many pioneering US-composers like Cowell, Cage, Nancarrow, Partch, etc. But he is one of lesser known ones. With this cd Pogus makes two works by him available. The first one 'Lingua II: Maledetto' (composition for 7 Virtuoso Speakers), composed in 1967-68, was first released on CRI in 1974. The liner notes Gaburo wrote for this release are reprinted here. The recording of this composition however is another one then released by CRI, but dating from the same period. June 10th, 1973 to be exact. The track opens with high pitched non-verbal throat sounds. After a few minutes the narrator starts reading a text about the all the connotations and meanings of the word 'screw'. Then two other voices join, reciting also texts concerning this word, etc., etc. Later on to be followed by a quartet. Sometimes the voices speak simultaneously, sometimes one after another. Sometimes several voices speak the same text. At other times not. Sometimes there is a out of phase reading of the same text by several speakers. It sounds very theatrical. No wonder as Gaburo composed this work as a part of a massive 6-hour theater work Called LINGUA. In 'Maladetto' Gaburo experiments with language and meaning, trying to create a dramatic and theatrical situation. I'm not completely sure but I think this is a live recording, using no overdubs and editing. The second composition 'Antiphony VIII' is written for tape and percussion in 1982-83. The percussion is played by Steven Schick. The recording dates from 1984. Alas the voices on the tape sound very muffled, and one cannot always hear what they say. The percussion playing becomes more and more intense during the piece, becoming increasingly involved in what the voice speaks about (nuclear war). So also in this piece theatrical aspects are present. Because of this quality it may be that both works on this cd still sound very much alive." [DM /Vital Weekly]
www.pogus.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| GAL |
Defragmentation / blue |
CD |
"Hinter GAL steckt der österreichische Komponist Bernhard Gal, der für 'Defragmentation/Blue' mit dem japanischen Architekten Yumo Kori zusammengearbeitet hat. Ihr Ziel ist die Erforschung der Interaktionen zwischen zeitlichen und räumlichen Bedingungen und ihre Begegnung mit menschlicher Wahrnehmung und Vorstellung. Diese Arbeit wurde zuerst im September 1999 in einer New Yorker Galerie (Studio Five Beekman) präsentiert, und ist GAL's zweite CD nach 'Bestimmung New York' (Durian, 1999). Wir hören hier: einnehmende, langgezogene & klare Wellen von sich überlagernden Tönen, denen man sich schwerlich entziehen kann, sowas wie Atem, Glockensounds dazwischen, seltsame Interferenzen von Frequenzen, die Zeit scheint stehen zu bleiben... hoch suggestible Musik, absolut hypnotisch & großartig!" [Drone Rec. info 2000]
"The Austrian sound artist and composer Bernhard Gal developed the concept for defragmentation-blue over the past two years in collaboration with the Japanese architect Yumi Kori. Their aim is to explore the interactions between temporal and spatial conditions and their impact on human perception and imagination. defragmentation-blue -- an audio-architectural exploration of time -- was exhibited for the first time in September 1999 at Studio Five Beekman, a music gallery in New York which is specifically committed to the presentation of multimedia-sound installation art.This is Gal's second CD-release. His first CD-release Bestimmung New York -- very different in concept and sound compared to his recent CD -- has been released on Austria's Durian label in 1999. defragmentation-blue is a minimalistic, yet haunting listening experience. Gal's use of psycho-acoustic phenomena creates a highly intense and entrancing atmosphere where time seems to stand still." [label info]
|
2000 |
€13.00 |
|
| GAPIK, CEZARY |
Contrast I |
LP |
"The White Box label presents a release by Polish electronic experimental/harsh ambient drone musician Cezary Gapik. Gapik's deeply unsettling soundscapes go beyond the primal "power electronics" assaults (which the label adores and thrives on), of early Whitehouse and Sutcliffe Jugend. They go far beyond the capabilities of many of the supposed "dark ambient" artists releasing music today. Primitive forms have been discarded in favor of an articulate attention to detail, all for the benefit of the discerning listener. Fans of diverse, forward-thinking sound artists such as Philip Jeck, Kevin Drumm, Tim Hecker, Carlos Giffoni, Phill Niblock, Peter Rehberg, Fennesz and other SERIOUS people should take note. Gapik's sonic assaults and tonally perverse audio structures house such progressive depth, that upon discovering this music, White Box concluded there was simply too much good material to contain in a single release. Presented here is part one of a triptych; "Contrast I" comprises two pieces, and perhaps not surprisingly given its title, features two very different compositional approaches from the same artist. From the opening moments of side A's monolithic "#0473 [Tremor]," Gapik's music asserts an unflinching, confrontational prowess all its own; an articulate slab of cold, metallic sound, unrelenting, aurally oppressive and executed with total precision. If we're talking power electronics here (and as far as side A goes, we are), it doesn't get much more forward-thinking than this. Side B track "#0458 [Drowsiness]," offers an altogether different approach to its side A counterpart, its peculiar, clustered tones slowly creeping in and out of phase, seemingly designed to throw off the listener, traversing dark psychedelic territories. White Box will be releasing "Contrast" Parts II and III further into 2011. Limited edition vinyl release of 400 copies only. Features gorgeous sleeve art from Berlin-based painter Suse Kipp." [label info]
www.whiteboxrecordings.co.uk
|
2011 |
€20.00 |
|
| GARLAND, PETER |
Three strange Angels |
CD |
"This historic release presents the first recordings of the early music of Peter Garland, one of the most personal voices in the second generation of West Coast minimalists. Drawing inspiration from Native American and Mexican ritual music, Peter creates beautiful and lyrical sonic portraits. This long out-of-print masterpiece, considered by many to be Peter's greatest recording, was originally released in 1989 on WhatNext? as Border Music and is supplemented here by rare live recordings from the same period. Featuring new expanded notes by the composer and rare photos from the period, this is the definitive document of an American experimental classic." [label info]
www.tzadik.com
"An excellent compilation of small compositions which are evoking peace and attention in the listeners mind. Sometimes very similar to the later Musci/Venosta: "A Noise A Sound", ReR, 1992 but with much more native american influences. The collection works also as a concept album. Memorizing are the minimal flute melodies, the drumming and the recordings of buzzing wood pieces. Ritual music for untroubled thoughts. The perfect soundtrack for Antonin Artauds "Tarahumaras" or Carlos Castanedas "Teachings of Don Juan". Thanks for this." [TestPieYoming]
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| GEINS'T NAIT |
L'Or'n Cat |
CD |
Geins't Naït was founded in Nancy, France, in 1986 by Thierry Merigout and Vincent Hachet, both students at the Architecture School of Nancy. A year later Laurent Petitgrand joined the band. Their sound is often described as an equivalent of bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Coil or Test Dept., but Geins't Naït is not pure classic Industrial. While Geins't Naït offers rough pieces of music as an extension of its punk attitude, Petitgand refines them to create some musicality within the post-industrial collages, adding guitars, piano, and classical instruments. Geins't Naït and Laurent Petitgand sharpen sounds, giving them a kind of balance and density and ensuring that the musical language evokes a deep experience. Their music is raw and fascinating, and largely influenced by Surrealists and Situationists. Their early albums were released by French label Permis De Construire, with L'Or'n Cat being the second, released in 1987. It features ten tracks which have been carefully remastered for this first ever CD re-issue by Martin Bowes. Full tracklist: 1. Canari Et Compagnie 2. Splendeur Mécanique 3. Attention Deux 4. Toutatoc 5. Comme Un Lou 6. Radio Nino 7. Attention Un 8. Dormir 9. Paolino 10. Aldo.
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg387
"The mood is quite heavy and dark throughout, more so than so it seems on their debut album. Rhythms mechanically hammer away, along with grinding guitars. Interestingly some of the beats remind me of hip hop music but are played with the same ferocity as metal music. Geins t Naït is a band with many faces and many influences, which shows in the music. You could think that with all the variation and influences going on, the album would be too diverse, but thats not the case. Instead, it is all very much together, maybe even more so than on their debut album. It is pretty grim music, but please note the word pretty. This sort of heaviness is well spent on me." (Vital Weekly, April 2022)
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| GEINS'T NAIT & L. PETITGAND |
Like This Maybe or This |
LP |
Five years after the release of "Je vous dis" in 2018, Geins't Naït and L.Petitgand's second album from the "Mind Travel" and "Make Dogs Sing" collection on the German label "Offen", the duo are now writing a new chapter in their story with this fascinating poetic tale. The same mysterious and heady atmosphere which characterises the two musicians is present in this new work but clearly they have never ceased refining and polishing their sounds to give their compositions even more power and depth. Geins't Naït and L.Petitgand here offer twelve new tracks with names as enigmatic as the title "Like this maybe or This" itself and the record's whole universe. In reality, these mysterious names lead us to let ourselves be taken to the deep meaning of their creation. The subject matter is certainly difficult to grasp and invites us on an inner journey while leading us to doubt and question ourselves incessantly. There is a perfect alchemy between these two artists though this was far from self-evident as they come from two very different schools. Thierry Merigout, who is now the only representative left from the late 80's experimental project Geins't Naït in Nancy, comes from the post-industrial scene. As for Laurent Petitgand, he is a pure melodist who is best known for his work as a composer of music for films and live shows and has collaborated with Wim Wenders and Paul Auster in particular.
https://mindtravels.bandcamp.com/album/like-this-maybe-or-this
|
2021 |
€18.00 |
|
| GENESIS P-ORRIDGE & DAVE BALL |
Imagining October (Dir. Derek Jarman) O.S.T. |
LP |
The first ever release of the soundtrack to the rarely-seen DEREK JARMAN 1984 short film "Imagining October", with music recorded by Derek's friend and collaborator Genesis P-Orridge (PSYCHIC TV / THROBBING GRISTLE), and Dave Ball (SOFT CELL / THE GRID). Recorded at DJM recording studios in Theobalds Road, London.
Limited Edition 12" vinyl featuring a beautiful etched B-Side. Features liner notes by James Mackay (Jarman's producer, collaborator and archivist).
Derek Jarman put together a programme of films for the London Film Festival, reflecting the cutting edge of the London avant-garde of the time. Recorded at the same time as "The Angelic Conversation", "Imagining October" was filmed in the Eisenstein Museum in Moscow, Vladimir Mayakovsky's grave at Novodevichy Cemetery, the GUM department store facing red square, and the fire temples of Baku in Azerbaijan. The painting sequences with a group of soldiers (Angus Cook, Stephen Thrower (COIL), Peter Doig and Keir Wahid) was filmed in London. Jarman considered it one of the best, if not the best, of his shorter works. It was intended as an agit-prop work and the combination of music and imagery remains powerful to this day.
"The heroism of revolution through the queered lens... It was not just the Soviet Union censoring books, Jarman points out here, but Thatcher’s government and its homophobia was no greater friend to gays than the regime on the other side of the Iron Curtain. A moral hysteria surrounding AIDs was sweeping Britain, the miner’s strike was in full swing (an action supported by gay activists, as it was brutally broken up by police): back home, society seemed on a knife edge." (ArtReview).
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/imagining-october-dir-derek-jarman-o-s-t-csr300lp |
2022 |
€26.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| GOBEIL, GILLES |
Les Iointains |
CD |
" 'Les lointains noirs et rouges' (2008-09), 'Castalie' (2008), 'Bol-Hydre' (2011), 'Sibylle' (2010), 'Golem' (2013), 'Des temps oubliés' (2012). Gilles Gobeil has completed a master's degree in composition at Université de Montréal, after studying writing techniques. He has been focusing his work on acousmatic and mixed music since 1985. His works fall close to what is called Ôcinema for the ear.' Many of his pieces have been inspired by literary works and attempt to let us Ôsee' through sound. Gilles Gobeil has won over 20 national and international awards including the Ars Electronica (Austria, 1995, 2005), Black & White (Portugal, 2009), Bourges (France, 1988, '89, '99, 2009), British Design & Art Direction (UK, 2002), Brock University (Canada, 1985), Canadian Music Council (1985), Ciber@rt (Spain, 1999), CICEM (Monaco, 2014), CIMESP (Brazil, 1997, '99, 2001), Destellos (Argentina, 2011, '12), Luigi Russolo (Italy, 1987, '88, '89), Métamorphoses (Belgium, 2000, '02), Newcomp (USA, 1987), SDE Canada (1984), SOCAN (Canada, 1993), and Stockholm Electronic Arts Award (Sweden, 1994, '97) competitions. His DVD-Audio Trilogie d'ondes has won the Conseil québécois de la musique (CQM)'s Prix Opus for Best Album in 2004-05; his CD Le contrat was nominated in the same category in 2003-04. Gobeil has received commissions from Codes d'accès (Montréal), DAAD (Berlin, Germany), empreintes DIGITALes (Montréal), Groupe de musique expérimentale de Bourges (GMEB, France), Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM, France), Musiques & Recherches (Belgium), Réseaux des arts médiatiques (Montréal), Société Radio-Canada, Totem contemporain (Montréal), Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM, Germany), from Folkmar Hein, Uli Aumüller, Camille Mutel, and Oscar Wiggli, and from performers Suzanne Binet-Audet, René Lussier, Arturo Parra, and Rick Sacks. He has been composer-in-residence in Banff (Canada, 1993, '95), Bourges (France, 1991), EMS (Sweden, 2013), GRM (France, 1993, 2012), Franz Liszt Academy (Weimar, Germany, 2010), Miso Music Portugal (2012), Musiques & Recherches (Belgium, 2012), PANaroma (Brazil, 2014), and ZKM (Germany, 2005, '06, '07, '09, '10, '12, '13), and guest composer at DAAD (Germany, 2008). Gilles Gobeil is a member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC), and co-founder of Réseaux, an organization devoted to producing media arts events." [label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2015 |
€13.50 |
|
| GODFLESH |
Decline & Fall |
CD-EP |
"J.K. Broadrick's most-recognized band, the influential and innovative GODFLESH, who formed in 1998 with bassist Ben Green, disbanded in 2002 and reformed in 2010, present 'Decline & Fall' 4 tracks on a 23 minute mini album." [label info]
www.avalancheinc.co.uk
"Listening to “Ringer”, the first track on Godflesh’s new Decline And Fall ep, it would be easy to imagine that this wasn’t in fact the duo’s first new record since 2001, the sound, as we were assured by folks who heard it before us, was very much like old Godflesh, and now that we -have- heard it, we most definitely concur. Sure there are some subtle differences, the production for one, less raw and abrasive, a bit warmer, as well as some strange sonic filigree that sounds like it could have been lifted off of a Jesu or Pale Sketcher record, and more dynamics too, with some cool psychedelic passages, and more minimal soundscapey bits, but at it’s core, and for the bulk of the ep, the new Godflesh hews pretty close to the old. The guitars gristly and crunchy and abrasive, the bass thick and buzzing and corrosive, the drum machine locked into churning, unwavering, industrial rhythms, Broadrick’s vocals the same sort of pre-Jesu bellow, the songs strangely catchy, with the occasional soaring melody draped over that instantly recognizable industrial machine metal, laced with shards of feedback, and arc of grinding down tuned crush. The whole thing tranced out and hypnotically headbangable, and a serious return to form, one that has us hankering for a proper full length." [Aquarius Records]
https://godflesh1.bandcamp.com/album/decline-and-fall-ep
|
2014 |
€11.00 |
|
| GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPOROR! [GYBE] |
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 |
|
| GOEM |
Robbed |
CD |
"In the hectic year 2001, Goem played around the world: at Mutek, in Japan, England, Austria, the UK, Spain, France and in between they worked on their 'Abri' CD, which was released later in 2001. Also they organised the 'Gast' CD, with various people (Matmos, Taylor Deupree, Richard Chartier etc.) at the controls of Goem equipment. For the constant changing minds of Goem these activities were also marking the end of an era. The working methods of Goem had been well explored and nothing needed to be added. In the year 2002 they produced a three minute sound piece for an installation and after that: silence. With Peter Duimelinks and Roel Meelkop in Rotterdam and Frans de Waard in Nijmegen it was not very easy to meet up, also due to their personal busy schedules. Still, in early 2004 Roel Meelkop and Frans de Waard recorded a remix of Esplendor Geometrico and Peter Duimelinks and Frans de Waard a 10" record for Auf Abwegen. Frans de Waard also recorded eleven new tracks as Goem for the Japanese Atak label. Expanding on the known concept, he now incorporated breaks in the music and some tracks do not rely on samples but on pure synthesizer tones. This record breaks away from the old Goem and walks new paths. Now it's Roel Meelkop who recorded 10 new Goem tracks, shedding light on his view of the way to go for Goem. All tracks are entirely based on stolen samples (the source should remain a mystery, but they can all be traced back to one CD...). With these samples Meelkop shows that Goem could walk other paths as well. Sometimes really minimal, sometimes almost poppy, all of the tracks share the same Goem style. Yet more possibilities for this Dutch trio... Goem as a trio will continue to exist and might record new material in the future." [label info]
"... The overall sound is of remarkable digital warmth and fullness, and far away from the standard vocabulary of clicks cum sine waves. Cleverly switching between up- and down-tempo passages, Roel Meelkop achieves a nice balance between various moods. Some of the tracks evoke a relaxed, at times even dub-like feeling, while others include odd contrasting elements, which give them an insistent, driving character. Goem's music is well structured and demands repeated listening to discover the complex micro-variations within the rhythmic patterns; but what makes 'Robbed' truly likeable is that it succeeds in blending these characteristics with a swinging, thoroughly pleasant overall atmosphere." [MSS / Vital Weekly]
www.smallvoices.it
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Audio.NL |
CD |
"Following the succes of the Komet – Audio.NL CD, the second release to re-issue old records from the by the now legendary Audio.NL label involves the two 12” records by Goem, as well as the only 7” on that label by Goem and Jos Smolders.
Goem started out late 1995 as yet another solo project by Frans de Waard who cobbled together a demo using an ancient device called the student stimulator (a basic pulse machine) and some sound effects. Intended to be just a few tracks/one-off project, it attracted attention of his fellow band member in Kapotte Muziek, Roel Meelkop. Together they reworked the demo and the resulting recordings were released as ‘Stud Stim’, the first foreign act released on Raster-Noton. Peter Duimelinks joined shortly after that, just before Goem’s debut concert in Barcelona in June 1996. From then onwards Goem released records on Mego, Staalplaat, 12K and Noise Museum and played concerts at Sonar, Mutek, Stop Stop, Ultrahang festival but also galleries, small clubs, squats and even a camping. In 1998 they started the Audio.NL, who released up to the early 2000’s some 30 different 12” records. After 2002 Goem ended, and Frans de Waard and Roel Meelkop each released a solo record as Goem after that.
Goem’s trademark sound was a minimal, pulsating sound at first generated by the student stimulator, but later also expanded to other sampled sources, including disco records, which was fed through analogue synthesizers (Korg and Roland) and a bunch of sound effects. A highly hypnotic blend of moving, pulsating electronics, often mistaken for minimal techno, but reaching much more for the minimalist tradition of Steve Reich meeting Kraftwerk.
This CD contains their two 12”s on Audio.NL, the ‘Motormix’ by Goem, a goem remix by Jos Smolders (both from the 7”, Audio.NL 003) and two previously unreleased tracks. All remastered from the original master recordings by Jos Smolders @ Earlabs." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
"On the last day before the gateway to year 2000, I went to a dark and small apartment in Mariensstrasse in Berlin to interview a band who had just given a full crowd quite some experience by transmitting obscure sound and subtle pulsating noises into the almost completely darkened room. The project was the Dutch trio called Goem. Behind the sonic equipments of Goem you found legendary Frans de Waard and two fellow compatriots and sound explorers Peter Duimelinks and Roel Meelkop. After a few years of silence, it is now the time to (re)experience the strangeness of Goem with this album titled “Audio. NL” released on the Korm Plastics-label and effectively a collection of tracks from 12's from their own Audio.NL from a decade back. Goem is the side project of the same trio, who had collaborated in the concrete sound/noise-project Kapotte Muziek. Where Kapotte Muziek was more extrovert and upfront harsh expressions, the magic behind Goem is the subtle expressions sneaking into the
ears of the listeners – like a swarm of digital pulses penetrating you and scrubbing your skin on the inside. The album opens with the uptempo track "Motormix", reminiscent of early Panasonic. After this opener the album moves into an almost beatless universe of subtle soundscapes of glitches and noises. What an excellent trip back to one of Holland’s finest moments of sound art." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| GOLOWIN, SERGIUS |
Lord Krishna von Goloka |
LP |
"In 1973, Rolf Ulrich Kaiser's visionary powers acted as a catalyst for an authentic combination of acid, music and spirituality: the mystical LSD-fueled musical project Lord Krishna Von Goloka. For this adventure into Indian and Oriental mythologies and legends, Kaiser asked esoteric Swiss artist (he was a friend of Giger's), poet, specialist on Alpine folklore, and friend of Timothy Leary, Sergius Golowin, to join a group of musicians including Klaus Schulze and members of Wallenstein and Witthüser + Westrupp. It was perhaps mere coincidence that Golowin's classic treatise on witches, herbs, and magic mushrooms was published that same year (Magie Der Verbotenen Märchen); the book was fast becoming a cult item -- iit was secretly xeroxed in what was then-Communist East Germany, and later distributed in the hippie-underground there. Sergius Golowin's intellectual and spiritual world of occultism, popular legends, and shamanism were the foundation for the project. He was responsible for the lyrics, which consisted of incantatory recitations in German over the multi-textural compositions." [label info]
www.zyx.de
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| GRAPPE, LAURENT |
La Luxe de la Reflexion! |
CD |
"For his first CD, Laurent Grappe has created a fascinating electro-acoustic tale. Le Luxe de la Réflexion! (The Luxury of Reflection!) blurs distinctions between field recording and acousmatics, urban and rural, French and Arab. At the center of the work is Isabelle Bassil, a Lebanese woman splitting her time between France and Lebanon. Her life experience, bridging two cultures, provides the main thread. Her interventions are spoken in Arab and other protagonists speak French, but comprehension of any or both languages is not a requisite to appreciate the listening experience - the same way understanding Spanish did not constitute an obstacle in Kristoff K. Roll's South American sonic travel diary, Corazon Road. Grappe plays with the sound of speech, the emotions it conveys on a musical level transcending linguistic signification. His sound constructions at times evoke Fred Frith's soundtrack to the film Middle of the Moment: atmospheric nomadic journeys into another culture. In other places, the music is resolutely musique concrete. The three "Interludes" feature vocal performances similar to Shelley Hirsch or Joane Hetu. Although a reduction of "life," Le Luxe de la Réflexion! feels surprisingly non-abstract. Of course, the unsuspecting listener will be destabilized, but most sound elements are traceable to their sources and many bits of music are left untouched. It makes a rewarding listening experience, even for seasoned sound art fans - a very impressive debut." [François Couture - All Music Guide]
|
2001 |
€10.00 |
|
| GRIM |
Message |
LP |
Grim is the one-man project of Jun Konagaya - formed from the ashes of White Hospital, his legendary early 1980s noise duo with Tomosada Kuwahara - which, accepting a long hiatus in the middle, has bridged the worlds of industrial music, power electronics, and noise for nearly three decades. Belonging roughly to the first wave of Japanese noise, Konagaya is particularly noteworthy among his peers for casting an eye further afield, drawing influences from bands like Whitehouse and SPK, rather than members of his own scene, as well varied reference points as far afield as the traditional folk music of Tibet. That understood, nothing was likely to prepare the context of Japanese noise for what was delivered by his 1987 EP “Message”.
It belongs to a body of three releases created by Grim during the 1980s, including the full length, “Folk Music”, issued by Eskimo Records in 1986, and the EP, “Amaterasu”, released by G.A. Propaganda in 1985. While its two predecessors are brilliant and more or less what you might expect from a seminal artist of Japanese noise, “Message” follows a markedly different path, delving toward the realm of pop and folk via a series of six songs that emit a stronger connection to Daniel Johnson, Syd Barrett, Sebadoh, and Tenniscoats than anything the noise scene has ever produced; it feels like walking through an ancient fairy tale forest, all hazy, magical and slightly eerie.
Dreamy and meandering, drawing on '60s psychedelia, DIY aesthetics, and folky undercurrents, Grim’s “Message” is a masterstroke in underground Japanese pop, pushing radically forward, while challenging the boundaries of the scene to which the project predominately belongs. Following the album’s original release in 1987, Jun Konagaya followed different paths beyond the world of sound, before unexpectedly relaunching an incredibly prolific career, returning to more explicit territories of noise. As such, “Message” remained a coveted, rare artefact of a road less traveled and a window into the diverse talents and temperaments that rest below all of his output.
One of the most distinct and unexpected artifacts of the Japanese scene during the period, rather than the full throttle fury for which it has been widely known, here we encounter the one-man project of Jun Konagaya weaving stunningly beautiful passages within the realm of pop and folk, incorporating elements of '60s psychedelia and Lo-Fi DIY, with Yukio Nagoshi, founding member of the Vasilisk unit, on guitar and percussion and A. Takahashi on vocals, with collaboration and technical support from Tomosada Kuwahara, partner and co-founder with Jun Konagaya of the legendary group White Hospital. First ever reissue of the album furthers these insights, extending the original EP with an entirely new body of noise-oriented reworks by Grim of the original six tracks, effectively doubling in length to a full-length release.
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/message
"Hätten die subkulturellen Phänomene, die irgendwann von Juristen und Journalisten als Wreckers of Civilization oder England’s Hidden Reverse bezeichnet worden sind, ein Pendant in Japan gehabt, dann wäre Jun Konagaya alias Grim wahrscheinlich das zentrale Flaggschiff dieser Bewegung gewesen, denn sein Interesse am Abseitigen hatte – in Ansätzen bereits bei seiner Band White Hospital – Züge des okkult-autistischen Dandyismus, die man häufig bei den englischen Kollegen beobachtete.
Nachdem Konagaya bereits einige Erfahrungen mit lärmenden Soundcollagen gesammelt hatte, entdeckte er Mitte der 80er seine Leidenschaft für das Songformat und für eine Art folkigen Pop, der Schrägheit mit gut dosiertem Kitsch verbindet, und so erschien 1986 das heute als heimlicher Klassiker geltende Album “Folk Music” auf Grims eigenem Label Eskimo Records. Zu dessen Nachwehen gehört auch die im Jahr darauf erschienene EP “Message” (ebenfalls Eskimo), die mit einer Handvoll an Gästen eingespielt wurde und jüngst von Urashima Records neu aufgelegt wurde.
Während Grims Wurzeln in der Geräuschmusik in “Folk Music” noch deutlicher zu hören waren, könnte man diese in “Message” eher subtil in einer unterschwelligen Unbehaglichkeit aufspüren, denn rein stilistisch bewegen sich die sechs Stücke fast komplett im Bereich poppig angehauchter Folk-Lullabies, in denen sanfte Gitarrenakkorde und dazu passender Gesang, bei dem nicht immer ganz klar ist, ob man gerade eine Sängerin oder einen Sänger hört, das Bild prägen. Der Opener “Heritage” startet gleich mit Picking und lieblichem Gesang, und schon in diesem Stück fällt in der gefühlvollen Mollastigkeit eine galoppierende Euphorie auf, deren verhuschte Exzentrik durch die launige Trompete gegen Ende noch einmal extra unterstrichen wird.
Jedes der Stücke hat seine eigenen Marotten: Bei “Deep in Meditation” ist es das Zusammenspiel von Walzertakt und etwas, dass wie eine Melodika klingt, bei “Parable & Cole” das Paradox einer lieblich-pastoralen Monotonie als Kulisse intimer Flüsterstimmen. Bei “Mooncalf’s Walz” der leicht verzerrte Moment zu Beginn, der aber recht schnell einer noch fiepsigeren Lieblichkeit die Tür öffnet. Diese erreicht bei “Klara’s Song” den Höhepunkt an Kindlichkeit, und trotz psychedelischer Twangs schwebt über all dem eine 80er Jahre-Stimmung, die sich neben der rauen und sicher gewollt einfachen Klanggestaltung einem Esprit verdankt, den man nicht künstlich erzeugen kann. Man sollte als weitere Klammer aber auch das leicht unbehagliche Element einmal mehr betonen – eine seltsame Weltfremdheit, die sich in den allzuschönen Arrangements bei genauerem Hinhören offenbart und den Eindruck entstehen lässt, dass dieses Idyll nicht nur von Feen und Folksternchen bevölkert ist, sondern ebenso sehr von dämonischem Gesindel.
Heute werden gerne renommierte Sängerinnen und Sänger aus Folk und Psychedelic der Jahre um 1970 genannt, wenn man sich auf Grims hier durchgezogenen Stil einen Reim machen will. Wer allerdings zu Konagayas eigener Generation gehört und mit undergroundigen Songs der 80er und 90er sozialisiert worden ist, hat vielleicht spezifischere Assoziationen, und die können von Strawberry Switchblade über frühe Psychic TV und die Legendary Pink Dots bis zu den ersten folkigen Versuchen von Current 93 oder Death in June reichen – ein merkwürdiges Kuriosum, bei dem ich nie ganz über den Gedanken hinweg komme, wie nah das alles an einem potentiellen Pop-Hype vorbeigeschlittert ist. Interessant und hervorhebenswert ist dabei, das Grim eine solche Musik bereits perfektionierte, als diese auch in Europa erst im Entstehen begriffen war.
Der Wiederveröffentlichung, die diese Songs erneut auf Vinyl präsentiert, sind einige Remixe als Bonustracks hinzugefügt – ultranoisige Versionen, die die Spuren späterer Entwicklungen Konagayas tragen, die aber die süßlich säuselnden Stimmen immer noch geisterhaft im von Lärm erfüllten Raum schweben lassen." [U.S./ African Paper]
"Returning off the back of an incredible run of deep dives into numerous historical contexts of noise, Urashima brings us the first ever vinyl reissue of Grim's legendary 1987 EP, “Message”, now expanded to a full album's length.
One of the most distinct and unexpected artifacts of the Japanese scene during the period, rather than the full throttle fury for which it has been widely known, here we encounter the one-man project of Jun Konagaya weaving stunningly beautiful passages within the realm of pop and folk, incorporating elements of '60s psychedelia and Lo-Fi DIY.
This highly sought-after holy grail of the 1980s underground is issued by Urashima in a limited edition of 199 copies, and won't sit around for long.
Grim
"Message"(LP)
Since its founding during the late 2000s, the Italian imprint, Urashima, has become a definitive voice in the landscape of noise, sculpting a singular vision of one of the most vibrant and revolutionary bodies of experimental sound to have graced the globe. Already in 2022, they’ve delivered beautiful, ambitious limited edition releases like Controlled Death’s “Death Synth Box”, Merzbow’s “Collection 001-010” and “Hybrid Noisebloom”, as well as Masonna’s “Masonna Vs. Bananamara” and Hijokaidan’s “Zouroku No Kibyou”.
Beginning the label’s final push toward the end of the year is the first ever vinyl reissue of Grim’s legendary, highly sought after 1987 EP, “Message”, now expanded with new material to a full LP in length. An inexplicable hybrid of folk, indie pop, electronic music, and experimentalism, there’s almost nothing like it within the territory and context of sound within in which it rests. A true holy grail of the 1980s Japanese underground, with original pressings commanding crazy money on the collector’s market, this very limited edition of 199 copies is going to be gone in a flash. Don’t sleep!
Grim is the one-man project of Jun Konagaya - formed from the ashes of White Hospital, his legendary early 1980s noise duo with Tomasada Kuwahara - which, accepting a long hiatus in the middle, has bridged the worlds of industrial music, power electronics, and noise for nearly three decades. Belonging roughly to the first wave of Japanese noise, Konagaya is particularly noteworthy among his peers for casting an eye further afield, drawing influences from bands like Whitehouse and SPK, rather than members of his own scene, as well varied reference points as far afield as the traditional folk music of Tibet. That understood, nothing was likely to prepare the context of Japanese noise for what was delivered by his 1987 EP “Message”.
“Message” belongs to a body of three releases created by Grim during the 1980s, including the full length, “Folk Music”, issued by Eskimo Records in 1986, and the EP, “Amaterasu”, released by G.A. Propaganda in 1985. While its two predecessors are brilliant and more or less what you might expect from a seminal artist of Japanese noise, “Message” follows a markedly different path, delving toward the realm of pop and folk via a series of six songs that emit a stronger connection to Daniel Johnson, Syd Barrett, Sebadoh, and Tenniscoats than anything the noise scene has ever produced.
Dreamy and meandering, drawing on '60s psychedelia, DIY aesthetics, and folky undercurrents, Grim’s “Message” is a masterstroke in underground Japanese pop, pushing radically forward, while challenging the boundaries of the scene to which the project predominately belongs. Following the album’s original release in 1987, Jun Konagaya followed different paths beyond the world of sound, before unexpectedly relaunching an incredibly prolific career, returning to more explicit territories of noise. As such, “Message” remained a coveted, rare artefact of a road less traveled and a window into the diverse talents and temperaments that rest below all of his output. Urashima’s first ever reissue of the album furthers these insights, extending the original EP with an entirely new body of noise-oriented reworks by Grim of the original six tracks, effectively doubling in length to a full-length release.
Visionary, wild, and weird, this beautifully produced LP is issued in a very limited edition of 199 copies, and is an absolute must for any fan of Grim, Japanese noise, and '80s DIY psychedelic pop." [Soundohm] |
2022 |
€29.00 |
|
| GRKZGL |
Esque |
mCD |
Very complex digital experimental music from a new act from Montreal on this fine Canadian label, not easy to categorize, strange sounds & kind of rhythms everywhere…… recommended for explorers of the digital sphere….
“ 'Esque' is the first 3" mini-cd ep release on Angle Records. To create the music Grkzgl uses laptop, synths and bass, plus there is metal percussion on the last 6th track, which is the most noisy of all. Otherwise, the sound is in the atmospheric glitchy areas, loosely improvised but with a clear direction of where it's going, sometimes even a rhythmic patterns appear. Grkzgl is obviously inspired and influenced by the post-industrial ambience, not being too minimal or too harsh, but still merging all those styles into one whole piece, divided in 6 tracks which are mixed into each other. Very nice ep for this artist and hopefully more releases in the same format to come on the label.” [BR / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
| GRUBBS, DAVID & TAKU UNAMI |
Comet Meta |
LP |
David Grubbs and Taku Unami fully in third-mind territory as they start the conversation anew after their touted 2018 debut, Failed Celestial Creatures (Empty Editions). Comet Meta grew out of concerts in Seoul, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, with ground broken for this recording on a plane 35,000 feet above the East China Sea and in a tiny Risograph studio in Tokyo where they had to be extremely quiet. Those familiar with Grubbs's and Unami's extensive discographies know them as folks who like to think and to make on their feet and on the run, with situation and surroundings profoundly generative. The sound world of Comet Meta ranges from pindrop twin-guitar focus ("Comet Meta" and "Nothing Left to Hear but the Night") and Grubbs's piano maneuvering in Unami's electroacoustic forcefields ("Mirror Auction at Echo Decor" and the horror homage "Walking Corpse in an Old House") to unclassifiable throbs, ceiling fans, and the distant exultation of the crowd at the New York City marathon. You would be forgiven for thinking on occasion of gossamer Gastr-isms. Comet Meta casts a hell of a previously unpronounced spell.
https://grubbsunami.bandcamp.com/album/comet-meta
|
2020 |
€25.00 |
|
| GRUNT |
Europe after Storm |
CD |
2012 Industrial Recollections/Force Majeure version of this CD originally released by Force Majeure. Now jewelbox packaging. but will all same artworks as the original fold-out poster cover! Late 90's Grunt with studio and live materials.
https://forcemajeure.bandcamp.com/album/europe-after-storm
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| GRUNTSPLATTER |
The Passions of a Cripple |
LP |
Endlich der zweite Teil in der Vinyl-Serie von FORCE OF NATURE. GRUNTSPLATTER stehen für radikalen noise-ambient den sie hier noch verschärfen, verdeckte entmenschlichte Stimmen & Schreie kämpfen sich durch einen extrem verrauschten KlangSumpf, der quält und akustisch foltert.... kommt auf blau-schwarz marmoriertem Vinyl.
“Gruntsplatter continues to delve into the dark ambient and death industrial realm, this time combining his journey with harsh vocals buried deep within.” [press release]
“Gruntsplatter was started by American Scott Candey from the USA in 1994. He has been involved in numerous other projects, labels and magazines in the underground industrial scene, but Gruntsplatter is probably his main vehicle. I have heard only a small part of his extensive output, but the Gruntsplatter music I heard was usually dark and atmospheric, somewhere between noise and ambient.
The new limited vinyl record, which came out in the same month as a cd on Eibon Records, surprised me a little in its harshness. The six tracks appear to be denser and noisier than I'm used of Gruntsplatter. An important cause is probably the significant role of aggressive vocals on some tracks in a power electronics style. The mood is grim and menacing, a feeling which is conveyed in a consistent manner.
Some tracks are quite aggressive, like opener 'The Defoliant'. Others are more dirty obscure soundscapes with lots of sonic waves, rumbling machineries of death and distorted electronics, like 'Fire Behind Locked Doors' and 'Fracturing The Phantom Limb', where rays of light are not allowed to enter. My favourite piece is probably the loud and powerful 'Through A Hewn Throat', with a nasty in-your-face sound. A solid record with 26 minutes filled with a gritty sound and a torturous atmosphere.” [Funprox]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| GUIONNET, JEAN-LUC & MIGUEL A. GARCIA |
Siticidelhous |
CD |
listen: https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/siticidelhous
Jean-Luc Guionnet & Miguel A. Garcia return to Moving Furniture Records with their second album Siticidelhous. Recorded during the same sessions at the conservatory Jesus Guridi in Vitoria Gasteiz in 2016 as their album Parkustomnie they further explore the possibilities of improvised church organ and electronic sounds.
Just like the previous release this album has two different sides. Due to the characteristics of the music and recordings when you play it at different volume levels you get totally different experiences. On a low level the music sounds as if the players really held back and the listening experience is very subtle, grabbing the listener’s attention completely. While when playing on loud volume all these new sounds appear creating an overwhelming experience that at moments just blows you away. Much hidden sounds between the notes.
An adventurous album which asks fullest concentration, but when given also delivers.
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| GUS COMA |
Color him coma |
do-CD |
"The first CD in this set is a reissue of an obscure cassette release from 1983 that was originally released in a small edition on the London based, It’s War Boys label. This C60 consisted of 2 distinct halves. Side 1 was formed around several mixes of an experimental track, constructed from a room-sized 24 track loop. A version of this track first appeared on the LP Flagellation by The Just Measurers (who were C. D. Greyt, Yakkö Banovic and Narki Brillans).
Side 2 is a collage of mostly unused (and some remixed), excerpts from what became the title track of the Milk From Cheltenham LP, Triptych of Poisoners. This LP track consisted of a tape collage of the live mixdown of 17 cassette recordings of locked record grooves, simultaneously, with stray radio and an infernal matchbox. The full Milk LP is now available on CD via Alga Marghen. Both these LPs were also originally It’s War Boys projects.
As with other releases by these guys nobody worked under the same name twice, but if you are familiar with their soundworld then there will be no mystery, only astonishment. Nearly all the session material here was engineered by Chris Grey, best known for his work with The Homosexuals.
No production master was ever found for CD1, so one of the actual cassette edition had to be used in its place. However, whilst looking through the archive for the master tape, an alternative version of the tape was found, which although it followed a similar blueprint to CD1 it also contained some very different music, some primitive disco drum programming, and a somewhat more sophisticated sound quality. It was difficult to choose which version to release, so both versions appear here, but at the generous price of a single CD.
Each CD also contains an additional much longer bonus track at the end that was originally intended as working material for the unfinished Milk From Cheltenham LP 2.
The guest musicians on this CD set are many and varied, but it’s all put together by Gus Coma, Lepke B’s dwarfish cousin, who renounced show-biz to work as a Heavy Goods Vehicle driver. All in, the material here is the strangest and most experimental music to come from the It’s War Boys scene. Expect gigantic tape loop symphonies, sundry plunderphonics, lo- fi Sparks and the voice of JFK, a William Burroughs interview (on one track), and a worn out teach yourself English tape. Color Him Coma!" [label info]
www.stalk.net/paradigm
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| H.H.T.P. & PORTABLEPALACE |
[Cavitation} |
CD |
Gemeinsames Improvisations-Projekt von DMITRY GELFAND (New York) und ANDREY SAVITSKY aka h.h.t.p. (Minsk), und KIRILL DOMNICH, drei lange Stücke seltsamste Computer-Musik mit „prepared piano“-Einsatz, es rauscht & flirrt fragmenthaft, einzelne Klangereignisse bahnen sich ihren Weg, gedämpft ruhig & spannend arrangiert, voller interessanter Klangeffekte....
“The interaction between computer science technology and freeform musical creative process becomes a central point in this international collaboration of three artists from Belarus and USA. The abstract soundscapes are obscured by intricate structures, acoustic phenomena and electronic effects, it's going to infinity and never repeat itself. The finest harmony of soundfield is credited to the principles of intuitive simulation, realised through the system of computer-aided instruments. Release date is 10 December 2005. Limited edition of 500” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| HAARVÖL + XOAN-XIL LOPEZ |
Unwritten Rules of a Ceaseless Journey |
CD |
Haarvöl’s three permanent members — Fernando José Pereira, João Faria, and Rui Manuel Vieira — collaborate with Xoán-Xil López, a Galician sound artistic working on field recording and experimental music.
Haarvöl develops cinematic soundscapes, with analogue or digital sound sources weaved in complex and detailed compositions. They have been active since 2012 and have thus far released albums at PAD and Moving Furniture Records, presenting now their first release in Crónica, "Unwritten Rules for a Ceaseless Journey".
This album documents three pieces composed for dance, commissioned by Ballet Teatro for the play "Revoluções" (Revolutions) by choreographer Né Barros. The work is divided in three parts, embodying formal idealisations of the three decisive layers of time — past, present, and future.
First moment: Something’s Missing (Utopian)
Theodor Adorno and Ernst Bloch discussed the problem of utopia as a possibility in a heated debate they produced in 1964 and later published in the book The Utopian Function of Art and Literature. It is in this context that Bloch launches the notion of “something's missing”, to seek to configure the utopian possibility. It is also from this notion of Bloch that the possibility of thinking and forming forms the whole utopian revolutionary essence that presides over emancipatory developments. This "before" is decisive for the understanding of the idea of revolution. It is here that the necessary possibilities are produced and, above all, the utopian aspirations of fracture and change. The Blochian “something’s missing” leads to the emancipatory idea from that place without place that is utopia. Or, putting it another way, it powers the immensity of thought without limitations. The revolutionary effervescence of the before is, perhaps, the most essential condition in the approach to the idea of revolution. Exactly because it does not come across any limit, because it is located in this place without place. But it is from this realisation that we can deal with the power of free thought, with the immense intentionality of this missing something which, being above all a naturally porous and cloudy thing, offers itself to the immense beauty of total openness. It will be there, in the dematerialised embodiment of free thought, that the whole process develops and is also in the possibility of art as a place of freedom (another place with no place that exists only between the artist and his work in a utopian dimension) it has its approximate representation.
Second moment: Pulsating Waves (Reality)
Pulse tone waves are frequencies embodied in a pulsar that is at the same time decisive for all humans and, metaphorically, for the revolution. Feeling the pulse of events, of agitation, of breaking, is essential for the revolutionary moment. It is this kind of continuous auscultation that determines success or, rather, the inversion of the whole emancipatory movement in the process of pragmatic transfiguration which, by obvious ineffectiveness, becomes implosive. The pulsations of events thus assert themselves as a decisive engine, and yet, in the face of the weakening of the utopian drive in its inevitable collision with reality, everything changes. The passage from one moment to the other brings with it the presence of the now and the consequent structural modifications that the utopian impossibility needs to maintain itself as an emancipatory impulse. It will then be in the programmatic transfiguration of the revolutionary event that its pulsation is played, more or less strong, but never absent. The decisive clash also affirms the reality, stripped of all the romantic drive that forms the revolutionary utopia. The fracture induces realism, and this is never the dreamed face of emancipation. We are told in the last book of the Invisible Committee that “All the reasons for making a revolution are there. There is none missing. The wreck of politics, the arrogance of the powerful, the reign of the false, the vulgarity of the rich, the cataclysms of industry, rampant misery, naked exploitation, the ecological apocalypse ... do not deprive us of anything, not even being informed of this. ‘Climate: 2016 beats record of heat’ says Le Monde in its main title, now already like almost every year. All the reasons are met, but not the reasons that make revolutions; are the bodies. And the bodies are in front of the screens.” Right.
Third moment: Don’t Look Back, Run (Trauma)
Says Hal Foster in his seminal book The Return of the Real: “An event is only recorded through another that recodes it; we become what we are only as deferred action (Nachträglichkeit). This is the analogy that I want to emphasize for the modernist studies of this end of the century: historical and neo-vanguard vanguards are similarly constituted as a continuous process of protension and retention, a complex retransmission of anticipated and reconstructed futures-that is, in a deferred action that abandons any simplified scheme of a before and after, cause and effect, origin and repetition.” The same scheme of thought can be used to analyse the revolutionary event in its complex structuring and temporality. An emancipatory event can only be constituted if it recodes traumatically past past events which will obviously mean a learning that will bring you the possibility of introducing the necessary changes to be made. That is to say, still according to Foster, that the emancipatory events are, therefore, less new and more deferred. Suppressed in part, they will return and continue to return, and yet they will return from the future, such is the paradoxical temporality of utopia.
Note: At a certain point in Giorgio Agamben's book The State of Exception, he refers to a determinant question: the point of view that, in this context, is determined by a legal order that requires recognition by another that opposes it. Quoting Italian jurist Santi Romano, he says: "... after having recognized the anti-legal nature of the revolutionary forces, he adds that this only works in this way in relation to the positive law of the State against which it is directed, but this does not it means that, from a very different point of view, from which they define themselves, it is not a movement ordered and regulated by its own right. This also means that it is an order that must be classified in the category of originating legal systems, in the sense that is attributed to this expression. In this sense and within the limits that have been indicated one can therefore speak of a right of revolution." That is to say, still in Agamben's view, that the idea of state legal ordering is the only one, by effectively opposing what is usually called chaos, is first and foremost reductive and fallacious. One thing, however, is correct: all the mental structuring concerning the duality exclusion vs. inclusion simply depends on the point of view. And this is perhaps the most important point to make clear the relationship that is intrinsic and impossible to conceal, first of all, because it is also the source of the essentiality of the politician, that is, the necessary verification of antagonism. It is, therefore, the place where we want to be.
https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/unwritten-rules-of-a-ceaseless-journey |
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| HAIL |
Hello Debris |
CD |
Nach über 10 Jahren Pause ein neues Album des Projekts von SUSANNE LEWIS und BOB DRAKE, die durch CORPSES AS BEDMATES, 5UUs und THINKING PLAGUE bekannt wurden.. das ist zeitgemässer "intelligenter Progressive-Pop" mit vielen schrägen Einfällen, überraschenden Wendungen, einer ganz eigenen Harmonie...
"After a break of almost 15 years Susanne Lewis and Bob Drake have reconvened their classic partnership. In the meantime rock and post rock has mainly moved away from the song and its classic shapes, leaving commercial pop to straighten them out and endlessly repeat the same tropes and tricks. Hail is rare amongst bands in its adherence to the notion that what makes a song interesting is the application of imagination and skill to its arrangement, performance and recording. The plan is not to drag songs away into other domains by grafting on bits of jazz, classical or electronic vocabulary, but to make them more what they are; to concentrate and distill them. Susanne Lewis's voice is extremely personal, never generic, Bob Drake's signature rhythm section work always exemplary. The songs are real rather than clever, and the production constantly invents contrapuntal detail and colour. This is a virtuosic album that never shows off. For those who wish there were more good songs on the experimental side of transfigured pop." [press release]
"....Hello Debris' consists of 18 short tracks of twisted, oddly-charming prog-like rock music with a punkish edge. Songs often start off in one direction and soon mutate into something completely different. "Celestial Heartbreak" opens with majestic keyboards yet soon features some baroque harpsichord-like keyboard. The booklet includes the strange lyrics of many of the tracks, yet the vocals are often buried deep in the mix or are not even there at times. What's interesting is that some of these tunes are sewn together from disparate parts, but they somehow fit together like an intricate psychedelic jigsaw puzzle. I wonder how a more mainstream rock listener would view these quirky pieces... intrigued, mystified or perhaps even confused? I find these short ditties to be buried treasures waiting to be discovered those with curious tastes." [Downtown Music Gallery]
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| HALO MANASH |
Se Its En |
CD |
"Se Its En is the first official release of Halo Manash and was originally released in an edition of 100 copies by Finnish underground record label Blue Sector in 2003. After a long period of unavailability the album is now re-released through our Stellar Mansion series.
The quintessential tunes for the tracks were received from in seven specific dreams and captured on tape during the following morning under the guidance of awakened subconscious forces. The album as a whole, however, should not be considered only as a self-centered work or a mere outcome of lucid dreaming sessions of the personnel involved; Se Its En serves as a continually living and assisting metaphysical implement that guides and enlightens travel in The Great Elemental Current. The seven surrealistic tracks were composed by using manipulated bowed string instruments, percussions, analogue synthesizer, human and inhuman vocalisations & other surreal recordings. Se Its En is the key to the gate leading to Sacral Meeting with Halo Manash.
The album is enclosed in a customised and silk-screen printed Stellar Mansion cardboard covers including an 8-panel black on black printed booklet and a silk-screen printed insert card. The regular edition is limited to 468 copies." [label info]
www.auralhypnox.com
"Finland strikes back again! New project on a new label, which brings us haunting and secretful post-industrial drone-spheres with various subliminal effects... dark and beautiful." [Drone Rec. info 2003]
“ Halo Manash 'Se Its En' follows the same direction as I.corax (being a solo-project of the other member), but whereas I.corax is more like a continuous flow of sound, Halo Manash is more structured and minimal. Also the general soundscape isn't based that much on field recordings etc, but is mostly created by a guitar through a wild bunch of effect processors. There are even some kind of strange melodies that are spiced up with occasional lyrics of spoken word and simple, ritualistic percussions. There are two versions of 'Se Its En' available; a normal slimcase with pro-printed covers and an insert, and a version that comes in a cool hand-made black cloth bag (insert and covers included, naturally).” [orignal label description 2003]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| HAMPSON, ROBERT |
Vectors |
CD |
"Robert Hampson (geb. 1965 in UK) ist Gründungsmitglied der Bands "Loop" (1985-90) und "Main" (1990 -96). Nach dem Ende der Band "Loop", konzentrierte siche Hampson im Rahmen der neuen Band "Main" darauf, den charakteristischen Sound der Gitarre für sich neu zu interpretieren und umzuformen in dem er sich im Detail mit dem Stil des Instrumentes beschäfitgte. Er kreierte so neue und abstrakte Sounds. Je mehr sich die Band "Main" entwicktelte, desto mehr lösten sie sich von dem eigentlichen Sound der Gitarre und kamen ihrem eigenen revolutionären Stil nahe. Mittlerweile komponiert und spielt Hampson unter seinen eigenen Namen. Er widmete sich nun mehr und mehr der Akusmatik, einer Weiterentwicklung von natürlichen Klängen, aufgehend in einer Kombination dieser mit synthetischen Klängen. In einer gleichberechtigen Zusammensetzung dieser, gelang es ihm völlig neue Sounds und Ideen umzusetzen.Umbra :Das Phänomen der "Umbra" - des Kernschattens, ist es was die Arbeit an diesem Stück inspirieren sollte: Geräusche die in den Schatten anderer eingefangen zu sein scheinen, die immer mehr Form annehmen, sich entfalten und materialisieren bis sie selbst einen Schatten werfen.Ahead -Only The Stars (2007) beauftragt vom Label "Vibrö" für eine Performance im Planetarium de Poitiers in 7.1. Surround Ratio.Inspiriert von dem ,Austronauts of the NASA Mercury Missions" Programm und dem wohl größten Piloten aller Zeiten: Chuck Yeager. Ihm ist dieses Stück auch gewidmet.Nach einer Einführung der überwältigenden und beeindruckenden Jets-Sounds, ist das Stück durchsetzt mit Radio-Transmissionen, die den künstlerischen Rahmen dieses Werkes bilden.Dans le Lointain (2008) - Geräusche kurzwelliger Funktöne, aufgenommen von Hampson in den frühen 80er Jahren und neulich auf einer Kassette wiederentdeckt, wurden neu auf klassische Art und Weise bearbeitet und digital neu interpretiert. Der Titel des Werkes bezieht sich auf die Distanzen, die Radiowellen fähig sind zu meistern, so aber auch soll es die Zeitspanne darstellen, beginnend mit der Aufnahme auf Kassetten Anfang der 80er bis in die jetzige Neuzeit der High Technologies."
[label info / Cargo]
www.myspace.com/roberthampson
"A long time I met Robert Hampson and talked with him about the movie '24 Hour Party People'. What I didn't knew is that Hampson and his band Loop toured with the Happy Mondays, so he shed some extra light on those scenes involving the Mondays. I was thinking of the curious career of Hampson when listening to 'Vectors'. The rock days of Loop merging into the ambience of Main to the electro acoustic of Hampson, who no longer uses the name Main anymore. I liked Loop, I truly loved Main and sometimes I found myself thinking 'what is Robert Hampson doing these days?'. Its been some years since his last Main release, but apparently his into France these days. All three pieces here were recorded for things in France, festivals, commissions of INA GRM. Indeed a curious career. Robert Hampson - serious composer. Who would have guessed? One could see it coming I guess, as the last Main releases forecasted the music on 'Vectors': computer manipulated electro-acoustic music, brought to you in the form of an audio collage. If you need to compare it with something, then the whole microsound posse comes to mind, but Roel Meelkop in particular. Hampson shares the same sensibility of creating intense audio compositions, with slow curves, occasional rapid change and a keen ear for atmospherics. Crackling, ambient, computer treatments of acoustic objects. Well crafted compositions, that never seem to leap into the doodling that some of the 'real' (what is real anyway?) acousmatic composers in this scene seem to be doing. Challenging music of the highest order. Its only a pity that there is not so much of that from Hampson. Let's hope the next one is not three years away." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"... On Vectors, Hampson teases with repetitions of astronaut bleeps, electrical warblings, digitally vaporous static, and wisps of sound design that could build into something off of Hydra-Calm or Motion Pool, but
don't. Many folks (including some here) have been frustrated by Hampson's work after Motion Pool, and that sentiment probably won't be changed with Vectors. The three lengthy pieces on Vectors are all commissions with lofty goals of avant electronics; and two of the commissions came by way of the legendary GRM studio in France. In this context as opposed to the Loop / Main axis, Vectors turns out to be a smoldering musique concrete album with acousmatic allusions to the work of Michel Chion and Luc Ferrari." [Aquarius Records review]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| HARTH, ALFRED 23 & WOLFGANG SEIDEL |
Five Eyes |
CD |
"Credits:
reeds, trombone, key, misc: Alfred 23 Harth
drums, percussion, misc: Wolfgang Seidel
vocals: Nicole van den Plas, Bill Shute (04),
Boris Stout (06), A23H (08)
compositions:
Alfred 23 Harth, Wolfgang Seidel-Meissner
recorded in Berlin and Seoul
produced & mastered by A23H at LaubhuetteStudio Moonsun, Korea, 2014
cover drawing: Wolf Pehlke
cover: Robert Schalinski
Thanks to Bill Shute from Kendra Steiner Editions for triggering this album.
Five Eyes Long Distance Call
Seoul und Berlin – das ist weit voneinander entfernt. Bei heutiger Musikproduktion sind geografische Entfernungen kein Hindernis. Und die beiden Komponisten von Five Eyes sind sich zugleich nah und fern, gibt es doch in unseren Biografien trotz unterschiedlicher Wege und Orte immer wieder Punkte, wo wir aus unterschiedlichen Richtungen kommend zu gleichen künstlerischen Fragestellungen gelangt sind. Alfred Harth ist in der Nähe von Frankfurt/Main geboren, wo man in der Philosophie und Kunst nach Westen, nach Frankreich und über den Atlantik blickte. Ich bin im selben Jahr in West-Berlin geboren, das damals eine mit viel Subventionen künstlich am Leben erhaltene Geisterstadt, der Hinterhof der westlichen Welt war. Für Alfred war Jazz die klangliche Verheißung, dass es etwas anderes geben muss, als das verdruckste Nachkriegsdeutschland. Für mich als Hinterhofgöre und in einer Stadt, die keine nennenswerte Jazz-Szene hatte, erfüllte Rock n’ Roll die gleiche Funktion. Für Alfred führte der Weg in die freie Improvisation, seine Gruppe Just Music verkündete Ende der 60er in einem Flyer als Konzept ein „Modell für annähernd herrschaftsfreie Kommunikation und Interaktion“ sein zu wollen. Zur selben Zeit passierte eine ähnliche Entwicklung bei denen, die von der Rockmusik her kamen. In der experimentierfreudigen Phase des Psychedelic Rock lösten sich vorgegebene Strukturen auf. Das brachte uns das erste Mal am gleichen Ort zusammen, in Conrad Schnitzlers Zodiak Free Arts Lab, wo sich für ein knappes Jahr Free Jazz, Happening und das, was später mal Krautrock genannt werden sollte, mischte. Die Sessions mit Conrad Schnitzler, die in eine langjährige Zusammenarbeit mündeten, waren meine erste Begegnung – wie es ein Flyer verkündete – mit „Total freie[r] Musik“. Schnitzler, ein Beuys-Schüler, bezeichnete sich als Intermedia-Künstler, um bewusst alle Kategorisierung und alle Begrenzung auf ein Medium zu vermeiden. Auch wenn Alfred diesen Begriff nie verwendete, würde er auf ihn passen als jemandem, der gleichermaßen in der Musik, Literatur und den visuellen Künsten unterwegs ist. Für beide war Fluxus und die Begegnung mit Künstlern wie Nam June Paik eine Weichenstellung.
Den nächsten Schritt vollzogen Alfred und ich von unterschiedlichen Ausgangspositionen in dieselbe Richtung – hin zum gesprochenen oder gesungenen Wort. Ich schloss mich einer Lehrlingstheatergruppe an, aus der dann die Band Ton Steine Scherben hervorging, die Rockmusik und radikale, auf Deutsch gesungene Texte zusammenbrachte und auf deren erster Platte auch ein Stück von Hanns Eisler zu hören ist. Mit dessen Musik und der Verbindung von Musik und Poesie jenseits des Jazz und Lyrik-Klischees beschäftigte sich auch Alfred zusammen mit Heiner Goebbels. Während die Scherben das Straßentheater bald zugunsten der Rock-Bühne hinter sich ließen, gehörten die beiden zu den Mitbegründern des Sogenannten linksradikalen Blasorchesters, das die Musik auf die Straße brachte. Der nächste Schub kam durch Punk und vor allem durch die in dessen Windschatten blühenden Experimente, die Stilmittel der musikalischen Avantgarde, Collage- und Montagetechniken mit der Energie von Rock zusammenbrachte. Für Alfred war das dann unter anderem die Band Cassiber zusammen mit Chris Cutler, Christoph Anders und Heiner Goebbels. Für mich war das in Berlin die Gruppe Populäre Mechanik, die noch als reine Gitarrenband in der Rocktradition begann und sich mehr und mehr Elektronik, als auch durch die Erweiterung mit Bläsern Jazzeinflüssen hin öffnete. Diesmal bewegte sich Alfreds und mein musikalischer Weg so weit aufeinander zu, dass es tatsächlich 1983 zu einem gemeinsamen Konzert kam.
Ein Ausschnitt aus diesem Konzert fand dann seinen Weg auf Alfreds Platte Sweet Paris, einer 1990 erschienenen Text- und Musikcollage – ein multimediales Tagebuch, in dem Alfred seinen Briefwechsel mit dem damals in Paris lebenden Maler Wolf Pehlke – er machte die 5E-Coverzeichnung - umsetzte und in das Solos, Fieldrecordings und Ausschnitte aus zahlreichen musikalischen Begegnungen einflossen. Zu Cut-up mit seiner Eröffnung neuer Zusammenhänge und zu Collage, mit der man Realität in die Komposition holen konnte, hatte Alfred vor allem auch über Literatur, über Brinkmann und Burroughs, und seine Arbeit als visueller Künstler gefunden. Die Entwicklung des Samplers machten die vorher ans Studio gebundenen, geduldigen Techniken der Musique Concrète musikalisch handhabbarer und zu einem Ausweg aus einem linearen Zeitbegriff, der sich mit seinem Versprechen einer höheren Ordnung in der Musik immer weniger durchhalten ließ.
Für mich führte der Weg von der noch von diesem Heilsversprechen angetriebenen Musik der Scherben, über die Auflösung der Zeit in psychedelischen Krautrock-Erfahrungen in die Fluxus-inspirierte Zusammenarbeit mit Conrad Schnitzler, der Ende der 1970er mehr als ein Dutzend Kassettenrecorder stapelte, mit denen er eigenes und gefundenes Material bei Konzerten mischte.
Mit Five Eyes, für die wir monatelang Tracks her- und hinschickten, auseinandernahmen und neu zusammensetzten, konnten wir den Faden wieder aufnehmen – denn nach der Session, die auf Sweet Paris dokumentiert ist, trennten sich die Wege erst einmal wieder. Für mich gab es Ende der 80er mit dem Untergang des alten Westberlins auch persönlich eine Umbruchzeit, die dazu führte, dass die Musik erst einmal weitgehend Pause machte. Als ich dann wieder anfing, aktiv zu werden, sah man sich als Musiker einer veränderten Situation gegenüber. Eine Musik, die sich mehr oder weniger gradlinig auf ein Ziel bewegt, war endgültig obsolet geworden. Die Durchsetzung von There-Is-No-Alternative als herrschender Ideologie brauchte ebenfalls eine musikalische Antwort. Dazu kommt die durch die Digitalisierung gigantisch beschleunigte Bilderflut, in deren Geflicker alle Konflikte dieser Welt gleich aussehen. Die Frage nach Gut und Böse reduziert sich da auf die Frage, welche Seite die emotionaleren Bilder liefern kann, die dann am effektivsten wirken, wenn sie an vorhandenes Ressentiment andocken können. Als dann beim Anschlag auf das World Trade Center etliche Antiimperialisten im Anblick der Katastrophe applaudierten, wurde klar, dass man noch einmal neu nachdenken muss.
Alfred zog es nach Südkorea, das in den letzen 100 Jahren von der Geschichte nicht gut behandelt wurde. Japanische Besetzung, Unterdrückung und Ausbeutung, dann der Koreakrieg, in dem das Land nur Figur auf dem Schachbrett des Konfliktes zwischen Ost und West war. Jetzt ist das Land eingezwängt zwischen dem autoritären Nordkorea und dem wirtschaftlich dominierenden Japan, das nie eine Debatte über seine gewalttätige Vergangenheit geführt hat. Ich dagegen brauchte keinen Ortswechsel vorzunehmen. In Berlin wechselte sich der Ort in rasantem Tempo selber aus – zumal aus der Sicht des Westberliners. Aus der verschlafenen Nische wurde eine Wir-sind-wieder-wer-Hauptstadt eines Landes, das ziemlich schnell an seine alten Hegemonialansprüche anzuknüpfen begann. Nach außen wie innen wurde dies zunehmend aggressiv durchgesetzt, begleitet und gefeiert von einem Kulturbetrieb, der mehr und mehr nationales Pathos produziert.
Vor ein paar Jahren kam über den inzwischen verstorbenen Conrad Schnitzler der Kontakt zwischen Alfred und mir wieder zustande. Dabei stellten wir fest, dass wir von den beiden Enden der Welt, an denen wir inzwischen gelandet waren, zu ähnlichen Überlegungen gekommen waren. Zumal die Enden der Welt sich immer ähnlicher werden. War in den 60ern ein Lied, dass man gerne sang, Break on through to the other side, ist man heute damit konfrontiert, dass es auf der anderen Seite genauso oder schlimmer aussieht. Die Propaganda für das Bestehende funktioniert heute nicht mehr durch Lügen. Man gibt alle Kritik zu, um dann darauf zu verweisen, dass alles andere schlimmer ist, was durch den tatsächlich stattfindenden Angriff der Barbarei auf das Bisschen erreichten Fortschritts eine fatale Komplizenschaft erzeugt. Wie positioniert man sich als Musiker in einer Welt, die sich gleichzeitig in zwei nur scheinbar entgegengesetzten Richtungen entwickelt? Auf der einen Seite eine fast unendliche individuelle Freiheit, die keine Emanzipation von gesellschaftlichen Zwängen ist, sondern bloßes Selbstunternehmertum in einem Dog-eats-dog-Kapitalismus. Parallel dazu entwickelt sich der Staat, den die neoliberalen Apologeten angeblich mindestens verschlanken, am liebsten aber abschaffen wollen, zu einer immer perfekteren Kontroll- und Repressionsmaschine.
Mittlerweile ist eine Generation herangewachsen, die gar keine persönliche Erinnerung mehr daran hat, dass irgendwann einmal etwas Anderes war. Dabei war das Andere nicht automatisch besser, aber allein durch seine Existenz machte es klar, dass die Beschaffenheit der Gesellschaft, in der wir leben, verhandelbar ist. „Herrschaftsfreie Musik“ ist nach wie vor eine mögliche Antwort. Wobei das nicht nur heißt, frei von einer vorgegebenen Komposition oder einer Führungsfigur zu sein. Herrschaft maskiert sich heute vor allem als Sachzwang. Dagegen steht eine Musik, in der die Musiker stets die freie Entscheidung über die Musik und ihre Weiterentwicklung haben, als eine ständige, für den Hörer nachvollziehbare Verhandlung. Die andere Antwort ist das Hereinnehmen und Rekontextualisieren von ausgewählten Klangsplittern als Spuren von Realität, Zitate, Field-Recordings, um das abstrakte Medium Musik mal assoziativ, mal verwirrend und zum Neudenken auffordernd an die umgebende Wirklichkeit anzubinden. Beides kann zu einer Entdeckungsreise werden.
Wolfgang Seidel, 23.10.2014" [credits & liner notes] |
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Malcha |
CD |
Harth/Seidel/Spera/Van Den Plas: Malcha
Format: CD
Country: Korea, Italy & Germany
Released: 01.10.2016
Tracklist
01 Gate 2 Not
02 Ceremony Behind Buddha’s Garden
03 Begum Of Oudh
04 Resilient Cup Of Crushed Diamonds
05 Send A Revolver The Night Before The
00 Interview
06 Delhi Green Mousse
Musicians
Alfred 23 Harth – ts, ss, dojirak, voice
Wolfgang Seidel – buchla music easel, prepared guitar, perc, vibes
Fabrizio Spera – dr, perc
Nicole van den Plas – voice, piano, zither, balalaika, kalimba, whistling
Credits
Compositions by Alfred Harth, Wolfgang Seidel-Meissner, Fabrizio Spera
Recorded by Wolfgang Seidel at Exrotaprint Studio, Berlin, 2015.11.13
Production, arrangement, mix & premastering by A23H at LaubhuetteStudio Moonsun, Korea
Mastering by Wolfgang Seidel at Exrotaprint Studio, Berlin, 2016
MALCHA
Berlin, November 2015. In einem Café in Mitte, in der Auguststrasse, sitzen Alfred Harth (seit 15 Jahren auch in Seoul), Fabrizio Spera (Rom), Elliott Sharp (New York) und ich – Wolfgang Seidel (Berlin). Am Abend vorher hatten Alfred, Fabrizio und Elliott ganz in der Nähe gespielt, zusammen mit Kazuhisa Uchihashi (Tokio) und Clayton Thomas (Sydney), die nun schon unterwegs waren zu ihren nächsten Konzerten. Mit beiden wäre die Runde noch globaler gewesen, was in der Improvisierten Musik allerdings nichts besonderes ist. Das grosse „I“ bei Improvisierter Musik ist Absicht. Improvisierte Musik als eigenes musikalisches Genre – so wie die Neue Musik. Improvisierte Musik als Genre, dass sich von lokalen Traditionen emanzipiert hat und in der Musiker aus aller Welt miteinander spielen. Wäre der Vorsatz „post“ nicht so inflationär an alles mögliche geklebt, würde ich diese Musik postnational nennen. Im alten West-Berlin hatte ich einen Bogen gemacht um die Jazz-Szene. Die war mir zu bürgerlich und von einem altbackenden Handwerker-Ethos mit strikten Regeln, was man denn geübt haben müsse, ehe man es sich erlauben dürfe zu improvisieren. Da passte ich mit meiner Psychedelic Rock-Sozialisation nicht hinein. Anfang der 80er, im Windschatten von Punk, wurden Genregrenzen für einige Zeit durchlässig. In diese Zeit fällt dann auch das bisher einzige gemeinsame Konzert mit Alfred und meiner damaligen Band Populäre Mechanik. Dann war erst mal wieder Pause, die erst zu Ende ging, als sich ab der Jahrtausendwende die Szene Improvisierter Musik entwickelte, die in Berlin unter dem Label Echtzeitmusik agiert.
Als einzigem "Eingeborenen" fiel mir der Part zu, zu erzählen, wie sich die Gegend in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten verändert hat. Eingeborener stimmt auch nur halb - als Westberliner habe ich diesen im Zentrum der „Hauptstadt der DDR“ gelegenen Teil der Stadt erst 1989 kennengelernt. Da war das Scheunenviertel genannte Areal hinter dem Hackeschen Markt grau und düster von verwahrlosten Häusern mit abbröckelndem Putz und leeren Wohnungen. Mich erinnerten die Straßen an das Westberlin meiner Kindheit, als die Spuren des Krieges noch überall sichtbar und die vorherrschende Farbe grau war. Das urbane Vakuum im Scheunenviertel füllte sich nach 1989 ganz schnell mit neuem Leben. In den leeren Läden entstanden Clubs und Galerien, bis die Gentrifizierung dem fröhlichen Experimentieren ein Ende setzte. Die Fassaden sind renoviert, die Läden elegant und teuer und die Galerien bieten Dekoratives für die obere Einkommensklasse.
Ein paar tausend Kilometer weiter östlich in Korea, ist die Welt noch geteilt. Im Schatten der euphemistisch DMZ – Demilitarized Zone – benannten Grenze zwischen Nord- und Südkorea, befindet sich Alfreds LaubhuetteStudio. Es klingt idyllisch, wenn er schreibt, dass Rehe dort herumstreunen und auf Fotos von seinen Exkursionen sieht er aus wie ein Botaniker auf der Jagd nach seltenen Schmetterlingen. Irgendwie erinnert mich das auch an die trägen Sommertage im ehemaligen Westberlin, wo man im Schatten der Mauer sein Bier trank. Solche dem Verwertungsdruck entzogenen Areale scheinen auf geheimnisvolle Weise der Kreativität besonders zuträglich sein.
Nach dem Frühstücksmeeting gingen wir drei – Alfred, Fabrizio und ich – dahin, wo die Stadt nur arm und kein bisschen sexy ist – in den Stadtteil Wedding. Dessen Wandlung vom Arbeiterbezirk zum deindustrialisierten Arbeitslosenbezirk hat viel leerstehenden Gewerberaum hinterlassen. In einer dieser ehemaligen Fabriken war ich mit meinem Studio eingezogen. Zwei Stunden später konnte ich zufrieden auf den Aus-Knopf der Aufnahmeapparatur drücken. Wohin diese musikalischen „Gespräche“ ohne jede Vorgabe oder Planung letztlich führen, ist immer wieder eine Überraschung. Begonnen hatte es vor fast fünfzig Jahren mit „herrschaftsfreier Musik“ – so das Konzept von Alfreds Gruppe Just Music. Ich spielte zur selben Zeit mit dem Beuys-Schüler Conrad Schnitzler "Total freie Musik". So stand es auf einem Poster. Über Conrad Schnitzler, der leider 2012 verstarb, hatten Alfred und ich uns näher kennengelernt.
Auf dem „Total freie Musik“-Plakat stand außerdem: jeder kann mitmachen. Bei anderer Gelegenheit war das Publikum aufgefordert, Transistorradios mitzubringen und während der Performance eifrig am Sendersuchlauf zu drehen. Die Verwendung von aussermusikalischen Geräuschen und die Technik der Collage sind für Alfred und mich früh zur Arbeitsweise geworden. Unsere CD Five Eyes ist so entstanden, als Collage aus Tracks, die wir uns um den halben Erdball schickten. Und nach Beendigung unserer Trio-Session im Wedding, war das noch nicht das fertige Werk. Zurück in Korea, ergänzte Alfred noch Passagen mit seinem Sopransaxophon aus dem 70er Archiv. Hinzu kamen gefakte Field-Recordings aus Indien. Nicole van den Plas schickte Gesangs- und Instrumentalaufnahmen (Voice & Bells, 40° Celsius und If Any, drei ihrer jüngsten CDRs) die sich wunderbar in das Gewebe von Klängen, das Alfred in seiner Laubhütte schuf, einfügten. Dieses Gewebe ist so dicht, dass ich erst nach mehrmaligem Anhören entdeckte, dass auch ein Track Eingang gefunden hatte, den ich ihm schon vor längerer Zeit geschickt hatte, in dem, als Erinnerung an unsere erste Westberliner Begegnung, die Sendekennung des RIAS (Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor) zu hören ist. Genau das ist es, was den Spass an diesen Aufnahmen ausmacht. Man macht immer wieder noch Entdeckungen im Dickicht der Klänge.
Am Schluss wartet eine Aufgabe, um die ich mich gerne drücke. Eine Veröffentlichung muss einen Namen haben, die Tracks darauf auch. Bei Songs ist das ja einfach. Aber wir haben keine weitere Geschichte, die wir zur Musik erzählen. Bei uns ist die Musik die Geschichte. Wir machen abstrakte Musik und keine Programm- oder Illustrationsmusik. Wir denken beim Spielen an nichts ausser an die Klänge, die wir produzieren und wie diese sich mit den Sounds der Mitspieler verflechten. Conrad Schnitzler löste für sich das Problem, indem er irgendwann seine Kompositionen nur noch nummerierte. Er kam damit bis 830. Alfred löste das Problem, in dem er zunächst an unsere Café-Frühstücksrunde anknüpfte. Latte Macchiato? Nein „Malcha“. Er berichtete, dass das koreanische Getränk, mit dem man sich munter macht, Malcha heißt – ein grüner Tee, zu Pulver zerstampft und mit Bambusbesen wie Cappuchino aufgeschäumt. Da koreanische Restaurants gerade die neue Gründerwelle in Berlin sind, ist es nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis Malcha zum neuen Hipster-Getränk wird.
Damit war ein Titel für die CD gefunden. Es fehlten noch die Titel für die einzelnen Stücke. Ueber Indien war Alfred auf eine andere Bedeutung von Malcha gestossen: Malcha Mahal – ein 600 Jahre alter, verfallender Palast in Delhi. In ihm leben zwei Geschwister, ein Prinz und eine Prinzessin, isoliert von der Umwelt. Prinz Ali Raza und Prinzessin Sakina sind die letzten Nachfahren einer aus Persien stammenden Dynastie, die bis Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts über das Königreich Oudh herrschte. Nach vergeblichem Aufstand gegen die britische Kolonialmacht wurde Oudh besetzt und die Herrscherfamilie befand sich auf der Flucht, da sie sich weder den Briten noch dem unabhängig gewordenen Indien unterwerfen wollte. Die letzte Begum von Oudh fand mit ihren Kindern schliesslich Zuflucht im Malcha Mahal, wo sie 1983 auf wahrhaft fürstliche Art Selbstmord beging. Sie trank ein Pulver aus den Splittern ihres Diamantringes. Ihre Kinder leben seitdem von der Aussenwelt isoliert im Dickicht des Malcha Mahal Parks. Das klingt nach exotischem Liebesromanstoff, in dem sich die britische Begeisterung für Spukgeschichten mit der mindestens ebenso grossen indischen Begeisterung für Geistergeschichten mischen, auf der Folie einer Reminizenz an Extremaussenseiter, die aus aristokratischem Stolz ein Leben lang in einer Gegenwelt verharren. Spätestens jetzt war unser anfänglicher Berlinausflug definitiv über andere Assoziationsebenen auf Reisen geraten.
Wolfgang Seidel, 2016.5.31
www.molokoplusrecords.de
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| HAUSER, FRITZ |
Deep Time |
do-CD |
FRITZ HAUSER ist ein Schlagzeuger und Komponist aus Basel. Seine Komposition DEEP TIME, die viele extra hergestellte „Klangsteine“ und verschiedenste Uhren-Sounds verwendet, dient hier PAULINE OLIVEROS, DAVID GAMBER, URS LEIMGRUBER und FRITZ HAUSER selbst als Vorlage, um darüber mit accordion, saxophone, percussion und „expanded instrument system electronics“ zu improvisieren (Oktober 1994 in NYC). Zwei verschiedene Versionen sind so entstanden, in denen die Performer behutsame Impro-Drone-Tonkunst produzieren: jeder Ton, jedes Geräusch hat seinen Platz & seine Berechtigung, eine Art komplexe Reduziertheit wird hier etabliert...
„Pauline Oliveros, accordion & Expanded Instrument System; David Gamper, Expanded Instrument System electronics, misc. small instruments; Urs Leimgruber, soprano & tenor saxophones; Fritz Hauser, percussion
DEEP TIME is a tape composition commissioned in 1991 by the
Pauline Oliveros Foundation for Deep Listening Band. Fritz Hauser's tape features recordings of sounding stones (manufactured by Arthur Schneiter) and various watches and clocks (thanks to the Bucher family in Switzerland for permission to record that family clock!). The performers improvise with the tape. On October 26, 1994 Pauline Oliveros, David Gamper, Urs Leimgruber and Fritz Hauser recorded 2 versions of DEEP TIME. Both of these 32 minute recordings are included here.
Fritz Hauser is a drummer and composer from Basel, Switzerland. He has developed his sound language in varied ways. From solo concerts, in diverse ensembles, through multi-media projects (theater dance film radio) and many recordings, he has contributed to the development of the drumset from a mere timekeeper to an instrument in its own right.
Known internationally as a composer, accordionist and teacher, Pauline Oliveros's work in improvisation, electronic techniques, teaching methods, myth and ritual, and meditative and physical consciousness raising has changed the course of American music. She left the University of California at San Diego in 1981, at the rank of full professor, in order to support her ideas, creative projects and collaborations. All of her work emphasizes attentional strategies, musicianship and improvisational skills. Oliveros' compositions have been performed worldwide.
Composer/performer David Gamper is especially concerned with music performance electronics. He received a BA in mathematics in 1967 from Bowdoin College, and returned there in 1969 to study composition with Elliott Schwartz and establish their electronic music studio. He then went on to the University of California at San Diego where he studied composition with Pauline Oliveros and Roger Reynolds and received his MA in music. Since moving to New York in 1989 he has been working primarily with Pauline Oliveros. He is director of development for the Expanded Instrument System (a project of the Pauline Oliveros Foundation) and performs and records around the world with Oliveros and as a member of Deep Listening Band.
Urs Leimgruber has been active for many years in the areas of contemporary improvisation, composition, jazz and new music. One of his earliest associations was as a member of the electric jazz/free music group 'Om' with Christy Doran, Fredy Study and Bobbi Burri, and he later formed the 'Reflexionen' quartet with Don Friedman and Bobby Burri in New York. His own projects have included 'Ensemble Bleu', 'Xylem', e_a.sonata 02 with the ARTE saxophone quartet, as well as a long association with Fritz Hauser: as a duo with the ongoing Music for saxophone and percussion; in the Leimgruber/Roidinger/Hauser trio; a trio with Joëlle Léandre; and a trio with Marilyn Crispell. More recently he formed 'quartet noir' with Marilyn Crispell, Joëlle Léandre and Fritz Hauser and a trio with Jacques Demierre and Barre Phillips.” [label description & liner notes]
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
| HECKER, TIM |
Norberg |
LP |
"This year Room40 celebrates 15 years of editions and events. As part of the celebrations we are re-issuing a number of editions in various formats that are out of print.
One of these editions brings together two of the pieces we’ve had the pleasure to publish by Tim Hecker. These two works were both created in conjunction with visits by Tim to Australia and were released in limited quantities.
The 7” edition of Apondalifa basically vanished upon release. It was also originally split across a 7”. On this new edition, cut by the wondrous LUPO at Calyx, the piece is available on vinyl for the first time in its extended format.
Tim remains a dear friend to us, and an inspiration! We’re glad to be revisited these astounding pieces and making them both available in this format for the first time!" [label info]
www.room40.org
"This album collects two long out of print releases that the beloved Tim Hecker produced for Room 40 quite a while ago - Norberg was a 20 minute EP from 2007, and Apondalifa was a 7" dating to 2010. These being Tim Hecker releases, we had much to say about these gauzy, blurry, buzzy expanses of muted digital glitch, disembodied melodies, sepia toned ambience, organic and electronic woven into swirling shimmering soundscapes. So here's a synopsis of the two reviews we penned a while back about about the two recordings that constitute this, yet another exquisite Tim Hecker production!
Norberg begins with an Oval like sweep of glimmering chimes and washed out whir, but quickly develops into something much more weighty, the chimes swallowed up by a warm whirring blur, a softly churning, slowly crumbling wall of blissed out guitar buzz, the buzz very gradually dissipating, leaving just the hiss and the whir, to drift like gossamer clouds in a deep blue sky. The sounds become softer and softer, muted and murky, underwater sounding, allowed to pulse and ebb and flow and sway softly back and forth, under a delicate patina of electronic crackle, an ultra distorted guitar way down in the mix unfurling ribbons of gnarled prismatic crunch, spread out over the hushed shimmer below, like the icy crust on a dying sun. Finally the hiss takes on a life of it's own, pushing all of the other sounds under the surface, the hiss made up of all manner of skipping static and layered white noise, impossible musical in its own right, the perfect climax to a surprisingly bracing expanse of buzzing blissful ambient sound.
Apondalfia is a gloriously washed out sprawl of warm fuzz and softly swirling melodic squalls, all of the edges smoothed out, but leaving plenty of grit, the guitars way more obvious than in the past, but it's hard to tell exactly what they're doing, they seem to be unfurling strange little woozy warped melodies, that seem to loop and layer and shift constantly, ringing out and bleeding into the various sounds around them, all beneath the thick sonic swells and a glacially churning shimmery sonic gauze. So beautiful and deliriously hypnotic!" [Aquarius Rec.] |
2015 |
€24.00 |
|
| |
The North Water (Original Score) |
LP |
"Tim Hecker's incredible score to "The North Water", starring Colin Farrell and Jack O'Connell is in stock and shipping now.
This is the Invada Records ltd edition mail order exclusive variant, pressed on blue marble vinyl.
The score comes housed in a deluxe spined sleeve with double sided printed insert and download card included.
“The score for The North Water was written just before and during the pandemic in 2020, mostly over arguably one of the darkest winters of some memory in Montreal,” says Hecker.
“The music was an attempt to add depth and texture to a five-hour doomed arctic journey that charts a trajectory from hardened optimism into abject futility. We worked with a primary palette of synthesizers, electronics, and treated cello, in rich live spaces as well as suffocating dead ones. This version of the score is an enhanced mix of some of the material that made its way into the project.”
Adapted from a novel of the same name – The North Water by Ian McGuire – it tells the story of a disgraced doctor who becomes a medic onboard an Arctic whaling ship."
https://timhecker.bandcamp.com/album/the-north-water-original-score |
2022 |
€29.50 |
|
| HELDEN, JOHANNES |
Sketchbook |
CD |
Höchst introspektive und verhaltene erste Veröffentlichung (?) eines Schweden: angenehm warme Soundbrisen und -wellen mit manchmal konkreteren Feldaufnahmen, ein wahrer KlangHAUCH entsteht hier.
“..Based on field recordings Johannes made while traveling from Sweden to Russia via Norway, Sketchbook is a quiet, moody work of great atmosphere and devoid of all pretention. In an essay I wrote for the Digital Narcis label’s new website you will find the following statement: ‘’In my earlier days as an artist, I believed that there had to be something called ‘Kunstwille’ in German (i.e., the will to
create art) and a specific gesture (I called ‘the art gesture’ in my own terminology) to turn a given material into a work
of art. This can indeed bring about excellent results, but there is also an inherent danger in this when the will to create and the ‘art gesture’ become the masters, and artistic sensibility is lost. Nowadays I have come to distrust the ‘artness’ in art, and feel that I should do without the ‘will to create’ and the ‘art gesture’ to create art just the same way one eats, sleeps and breathes. I’m thinking of the descriptions of Kendo practice Mishima Yukio has put in some of his works: the real master has to forget the sword, the enemy, the will to kill the enemy, and the wish to be a master.’’ [press release]
|
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
| HELVACIOGLU, ERDEM |
Altered Realities |
CD |
"Meine erste Post aus Istanbul macht mich bekannt mit einem mehrfach preisgekrönten Elektroakustiker mit weltweiten Performance- und Installationserfahrungen, mit einem breiten Fächer an Sounddesigns für Film, Theater, Tanz, an Produktions- und Sessionjobs, an Auftrags-kompositionen, Kollaborationen (etwa mit Kazuya Ishigami von Neus-318) und Kompilationbeiträgen. Bei seinem Beitrag Kicking Memories zum Projekt Audio Elf beim ScoreCologne-Festival zur letzten Fußball-WM zeigte er polyglotte Fußballerinnerungen als global gemeinsamen Nenner. In seiner Performance Living in Istanbul zur Ausstellung BLUT & HONIG - Zukunft ist am Balkan (2003) operierte er u.a. mit Soundtracks populärer türkischer B-Movies und, ähnlich wie bei seinem CDDebut A Walk Through The Bazaar 2003, mit Straßenmusik und dem Alltagslärm von Istanbul, den er zusätzlich elektronisch abwandelt. Trash und Mischmasch ist das einzig ‚Folkloristische’ und ‚Balkan-spezifische’ dabei. Abwandeln, to alter, scheint Helvacioglus Leitmotiv zu sein - wo Blut [türkisch kan] war, soll Honig [türkisch bal] werden. Seinen neuen Arbeiten gab er Namen wie ‘bridge to horizon’, ‘sliding on a glacier’, ‘dreaming on a blind saddle’ oder ‘pearl border’. Sie entsprechen vollkommen dem impressionistischen, träumerischen,
eskapistischen Charakter der Klänge, die er mit einer akustischen Ovation Custom Legend 1869-Gitarre erzeugte und gleichzeitig liveelektronisch mit Multieffektprozessor, Midi foot controller und Audiomulch-Software so modulierte, dass Wohlklang betont schwerelos und frei veränderlich sich entfaltet. Der folkloristische, mehr kosmo-politische als rein orientalische Aspekt des Saitenspiels wird transferiert durch ein Hightechmorphing, das ungeniert Wohlfühlsignale ausstrahlt, Entspannung jenseits so erdenschwerer Trivialitäten wie EU-Beitrittsverhandlungen, unbewältigtem ‚Armenierproblem’ und ‚Beleidigung des Türkentums’. Ohne Scheu vor Kitschverdacht lässt Helvacioglu seine Gitarre harmonieverliebt und zart blinken und all seine virtuosen elektronischen Manipulationen scheinen das Ziel zu haben, zuckersüßen Tee zur Entspannung zu servieren und spielerisch Veränderlichkeit zu realisieren. Einfacher sagte es Ishigami: "Ich fliehe in den Klang, es ist die Flucht aus einer kleinen Welt in eine große." " [Bad Alchemy]
"Altered Realities is an album of solo acoustic guitar and live electronics. All of the compositions were recorded in real-time, directly to DAT (Digital Audio Tape) without any overdubs, mixing, editing, post-processing, or the use of previously recorded material. All of the textures were created based only on the acoustic guitar signal with no other sound source used during the recording. Within these textures, there are long sustaining single notes, beautiful shimmering chords and rhythmic clusters.
During the making of this album, Ovation Custom Legend 1869 acoustic guitar, TC Electronic Fireworx multi effects processor, Behringer FCB1010 midi foot controller and the software Audiomulch were used.
With no post-processing, no editing and no use of previously recorded material, the moment that is recorded is the moment that we hear on the cd." [label info]
www.newalbion.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| HEMATIC SUNSETS |
Aroma Club Adieu 5 |
LP + 12inch |
"Final release by Asmus Tietchens’ death lounge project Hematic Sunsets
Farewell greetings by Michael Rother, Felix Kubin, Heinz Funk, Okko Bekker and more
The Hematic Sunsets shut down the Aroma Club with a final release. The album “Aroma Club Adieu” features 12 exquisite pieces of death lounge electronic pop performed on electronic organs and entertainment devices of various kinds. Under the moniker Hematic Sunsets, legendary avantgarde composer Asmus Tietchens has explored his love of the Darth Vader organ sound – a cheesy, spooky, deranged but still catchy form of electronic pop. The body of work of Hematic Sunsets stands out as unique, displaced and in a sexy way out of fashion. As a bonus to the final album of the project artist friends of Asmus Tietchens have composed short hommages and farewell greetings that are included here in the form of a single sided 12” on white vinyl. Among those saluting are such illustrious musicians as Heinz Funk, Felix Kubin and Michael Rother." [label info]
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/aroma-club-adieu
"And so it ends for the Aroma Club, adieu, so long and farewell. The fifth album by Hematic Sunsets, with such illustrious members as Hans Tim Cessteu, Assistent Meuch, Titus Mascheens, Suse Mittach sen and Asmus Tietchens. Or if you are clever, just Asmus Tietchens since all the other names are anagrams. Hematic Sunsets, check the anagram, is Tietchens' love for cheesy electronic music, which resulted in five LPs and two Christmas songs. The organ plays an important and I would think one of those organs that people had in the '70s. Well, my cousin had one, complete with a ton of ditto cheesy rhythms and chords and a big speaker below; the easy two-finger method of play. I seem to remember my cousin was pretty apt at it. I'd love to have one. Tietchens loves the sound of such organs as well as other machines that produce similar cheesy stuff. In the early days of his record
releasing career, Tietchens did four albums for Sky Records, which had a more poppy electronic streak, and later he decided he enjoyed doing that stuff resulting in the fictitious Aroma Club, which, no doubt, in Tietchens mind was a place where you could drink coffee and smoke your cigarette. In the corner there would be such an organ and someone playing his take on lounge music, But, this is Tietchens, a man with quotes of Cioran on most of his record (replaced by Klopstock on Hematic Sunsets releases), so this Aroma Club is not necessarily full of colour and on second thought the lounge music is not so cheesy and lounge-like at all. It comes with a strange hook, a dark undercurrent, and on this fifth album it all seems a bit darker than before, maybe the dark times we experience and with all clubs closed (well, here in The Netherlands at least). This is, however, still great dark lounge music, with those minimal rhythms, and melodies, ranging from lightweight to almost industrial, showing the veracity of the music. Excellent album, once again.
As a bonus, there is a one-sided LP which gives space to friends of Tietchens to say goodbye and bow their heads to the Aroma Club. There is Okko Bekker (owner of the studio in which Tietchens works), Felix Kubin, Michael Rother (early Kraftwerk member, and of Neu and Harmonia), Jetzmann, Heinz Funk, Ebinger, Chestnut Ameis, Maik Willing & Der Botox Lucas Chor and Unknown Singing Objects, who all have their take on Hematic Sunsets; spacious guitars, obviously, for Rother and Kubin with some fun pop song madness, or the super slick jazzy flutes of Ebinger. Maik Willing & Der Botox Lucas Chor tops it all with a schlager (look that up for yourself) going out of control. This is all a fitting tribute to the fun side of Tietchens. It could very well that you think it's stupid, but I think it is great fun." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"Auch wenn fast jede Veröffentlichung Asmus Tietchens von einem Cioran-Zitat begleitet und geziert wird, so hat sich schon immer auch Humor im Werk des Hamburgers gezeigt, was sich u.a. teilweise in der Titelgebung seiner Tracks widerspiegelte, jedoch war dieser Humor nie so dominant wie auf seinem „death lounge project “ Hematic Sunsets (auf dem seine anagrammatischen Mitspieler Achim Stutessen, Assistent Meusch, Hans Tim Cessteu, Mischa Suttense und Tussi Schemante heißen), auf dem Tietchens seiner Liebe zum – wie es in der Pressemitteilung heißt – „Darth Vader organ sound“ frönt; Attribute wie „cheesy, spooky, deranged but still catchy“ zeigen das Spannungsfeld, in dem sich diese Musik situieren lässt. Das erste Album erschien 1998, diese finale Veröffentlichung, auf der jetzt „Adieu“ gesagt wird, besteht aus einer LP mit neuen Kompositionen und einem weiteren, einseitig bespielten Album, auf dem Weggefährten „Tschüss“ sagen, da es sich „Ausgeduftet“ hat, wie es bei Jetztmann heißt.
Die Hematic Sunsets-LP ist voller kurioser und zum Teil natürlich durchaus „catchy“ Tracks: Da gibt es die skurril-zerhäckselte Stimme auf „Zum Geleit“, das in TOPY-Diktion betitelte „Thee Church Ov Aroma“ mit seltsamen Stimmen und unheinlichen Flächen, das fast schon zu düster für dieses Album ist. Auf „Ungesungene Tanzrückstände“ hört man monotone hochrfrequente Loops. Es gibt das großartig betitelte „Stuhlwasser“ mit Billigorgel oder die seltsamen Kirmesstimmen bei „Der im Keller“. „Liebelei“ mit cheesy Streichern und Gesang hätte den einen oder anderen Partykeller in den 70ern beschallen können. Auf „Schrittbinder“ hört man kuriose Schellen, „Fiasko“ wäre in einem Paralleluniversum vielleicht ein Soundtrack zu einer Krimiserie gewesen, zu einer Zeit, als es nur zwei Fernsehprogramme gab. Interessanterweise hätte man ein Stück wie „Dem Morgen graut“ durchaus auch auf einer reinen Tietchens-Veröffentlichung der letzten Jahre finden können. Das lapidar betitelte „Das war’s dann“ schließt die erste LP ab.
Chestnut Ameis eröffnet das zweite Album mit der seltsamen Kirmesmusik von „Speckpumpe“. Otto Bekkers lässt den Hörenden bei „Peyote-Melodie“ zu Bontempiorgel schunkeln, Unknown Singing Objects, die bisher ein paar Singles veröffentlicht haben, steuern eine seltsame Ballade voll “Blut” und “Knochenmark” bei. Auf “Phantomschmerz” ist Felix Kubin mit Retroscifi Lounge zu hören. Sehr schön ist “Martellato” des 2013 verstorbenen Heinz Funk. Jetztmann „endet lo-fi mit dementen Vocals.
Im beiliegenden Blatt wird die Geschichte des Aroma Clubs augenzwinkernd dargelegt. Höhepunke waren etwa „Mikadotanz-Abende“, „Kriechkeller-Parties“ und „Hodenbaden unter der fachkundigen Observanz von Dr. Kurt Euler“ – ob die Liedertafel Margot Honecker dabei Lieder schmetterte, bleibt unerwähnt." [MG / African Paper]
|
2020 |
€32.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| HENNIX, CATHERINE CHRISTER |
Solo for Tamburium |
do-LP |
The fourth release in Blank Forms Editions’s initiative to chart the ever-expanding musical practice of Catherine Christer Hennix, Solo for Tamburium captures the composer’s most recent major work. Hennix plays an instrument of her own creation, a keyboard interface controlling a suite of eighty-eight recordings of precision-tuned tambura, creating a sweeping and continuous flow of rich harmonic interplay. This piece, documented in Berlin at MaerzMusik 2017, carefully draws upon the fundamental perceptual effects of sound, forming an exacting and cathartic electronic drone. Densely-layered timbral textures and continuous overtone collisions create a maze-like sonic landscape, thrusting the listener into what Hennix calls divine equilibrium or a distinctionless state of being.
Since the late 1960s, Hennix has created a massive and innovative body of work spanning minimal music, computer programming, poetry, sculpture, and light art—pushing the technical and conceptual boundaries of these media toward singular ends. She was part of the downtown music school in New York and has worked extensively with some of its key figures, including Henry Flynt and La Monte Young. In the ’70s, Hennix studied the nature and use of harmonic sound as a disciple of Pandit Pran Nath, a master of the Kirana tradition of classical Hindustani music. The exceptionally designed tamburas of Pran Nath were central to her intensive investigations, as was the devotional practice of carefully tuning and sounding the instruments in a continuous and even flow—both have guided her work with sound ever since.
In 1976, at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, Hennix presented a pair of groundbreaking works that came to define her ensuing practice. With the Deontic Miracle—a group composed of Hennix, her brother Peter, and the Swedish percussionist Hans Isgren—she performed a series of modal compositions for Renaissance oboes, sheng, and harmonic feedback distortion. On this same occasion she premiered an equally significant body of solo work for keyboard, including the only public presentation of The Electric Harpsichord (1976), a piece that marks the beginning of Hennix’s characteristic style of playing, where dense sonic textures gradually emerge from the multilayered interplay of harmonic construction and dissolution.
Solo for Tamburium represents a pointed revisitation of her endeavor to map the non-gravitational harmonics of modal musics—among them raga, maqam, and the blues—onto a tuned keyboard. Since the debut of this piece in 2017 she has continued to develop the work, reshaping and presenting it in a variety of contexts, including at Blank Forms in New York and the Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection in Paris in 2022. For Hennix, to approach modality as a dynamic process is ultimately a contemplative practice. Through it, embodied attunement to harmonic vibration gives rise to epistemically transformative states, opening new ways of knowing and being.
https://blankformseditions.bandcamp.com/album/solo-for-tamburium
https://blankformseditions.bandcamp.com/album/solo-for-tamburium
|
2023 |
€38.50 |
|
| |
Solo for Tamburium |
CD |
The fourth release in Blank Forms Editions’s initiative to chart the ever-expanding musical practice of Catherine Christer Hennix, Solo for Tamburium captures the composer’s most recent major work. Hennix plays an instrument of her own creation, a keyboard interface controlling a suite of eighty-eight recordings of precision-tuned tambura, creating a sweeping and continuous flow of rich harmonic interplay. This piece, documented in Berlin at MaerzMusik 2017, carefully draws upon the fundamental perceptual effects of sound, forming an exacting and cathartic electronic drone. Densely-layered timbral textures and continuous overtone collisions create a maze-like sonic landscape, thrusting the listener into what Hennix calls divine equilibrium or a distinctionless state of being.
Since the late 1960s, Hennix has created a massive and innovative body of work spanning minimal music, computer programming, poetry, sculpture, and light art—pushing the technical and conceptual boundaries of these media toward singular ends. She was part of the downtown music school in New York and has worked extensively with some of its key figures, including Henry Flynt and La Monte Young. In the ’70s, Hennix studied the nature and use of harmonic sound as a disciple of Pandit Pran Nath, a master of the Kirana tradition of classical Hindustani music. The exceptionally designed tamburas of Pran Nath were central to her intensive investigations, as was the devotional practice of carefully tuning and sounding the instruments in a continuous and even flow—both have guided her work with sound ever since.
In 1976, at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, Hennix presented a pair of groundbreaking works that came to define her ensuing practice. With the Deontic Miracle—a group composed of Hennix, her brother Peter, and the Swedish percussionist Hans Isgren—she performed a series of modal compositions for Renaissance oboes, sheng, and harmonic feedback distortion. On this same occasion she premiered an equally significant body of solo work for keyboard, including the only public presentation of The Electric Harpsichord (1976), a piece that marks the beginning of Hennix’s characteristic style of playing, where dense sonic textures gradually emerge from the multilayered interplay of harmonic construction and dissolution.
Solo for Tamburium represents a pointed revisitation of her endeavor to map the non-gravitational harmonics of modal musics—among them raga, maqam, and the blues—onto a tuned keyboard. Since the debut of this piece in 2017 she has continued to develop the work, reshaping and presenting it in a variety of contexts, including at Blank Forms in New York and the Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection in Paris in 2022. For Hennix, to approach modality as a dynamic process is ultimately a contemplative practice. Through it, embodied attunement to harmonic vibration gives rise to epistemically transformative states, opening new ways of knowing and being.
https://blankformseditions.bandcamp.com/album/solo-for-tamburium
|
2023 |
€16.50 |
|
| HENNIX, CATHERINE CRISTER (THE DEONTIC MIRACLE) |
Central Palace Music (from 100 Model Subjects for Hegikan Roku) |
CD |
"Central Palace Music, performed by Catherine Christer Hennix's just-intonation ensemble The Deontic Miracle, is the first in a series of archival Hennix releases to be issued via IMPREC. This previously unheard piece was taken from an eight day festival organized in the Spring of 1976 at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm. The group features Catherine Christer Hennix on Renaissance oboe and custom sinewave generators, Peter Hennix on Renaissance oboe and Hans Isgren on sheng.
Central Palace Music is packaged in a deluxe letterpressed package and is being released at the same time as a recent recording of Hennix's new ensemble live at Issue Project Room.
"...Hennix has created a sound that reliably taps into our subconscious and frees us from linear time..." The Quietus
Catherine Christer Hennix (1948, Stockholm) is an artist, poet, composer and philosopher with a strong interest in logic and formal music theory. She was among the pioneers in Sweden experimenting with main-frame computer generated composite sound wave forms in the late 1960's and in the 1970's she was a key protagonist in the Downtown School along with La Monte Young and Henry Flynt, with whom she has collaborated with on numerous occasions. She pursued studies with raga master Pandit Pran Nath and led the just intonation live-electronic ensembles Hilbert Hotel and The Deontic Miracle, the recordings of the latter are presently being released by Important Records. She was a professor of mathematics and computer science and assistant to and coauthor with A.S. Esenin-Volpin for which she was given the Centenary Prize Fellow Award by the Clay Mathematics Insitute in 2000. Hennix's interest in drone music and the meditative, trance-like state it induces is apparent in her exploration of similar music in many other cultures and traditions, drawing inspiration from the Japanese Gagaku music and the early, vocal, thirteenth-century music of Perotinus and Leoninus, for example.
In 2003 she returned to computer generated composite sound wave forms now called Soliton(e)s of which Soliton(e) Star was the first result. Subsequently she formed the just intonation ensemble The Choras(s)an Time-Court Mirage which performs Blues Dhikir al- Salam (Live at the Grimmuseum, vol. 1, Berlin, 2011, Important Records 2012). In 2012 Henry Flynt asked Hennix for a new, expanded realization of ISE for an installation at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, to be featured in his retrospective/ prospective show Henry Flynt Activities 1959 – at ZKM. In response Hennix realized a 4-channel composition, Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis, her first 4-channel computer assisted composition since 1969." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2016 |
€19.50 |
|
| HENRY, PIERRE |
Malefices |
LP |
"Often evading the composer ’s official discography lists Cacophonic present this outstanding, commonly undetected Pierre Henry film score providing fans of early electronics, femme vocal manipulation and horror soundtracks with an indespensable “dream record” that ticks every box and crosses out every line in the rule book. Widely recognised as one of the original sonic architects of the movement known as musique concrete, having joined Pierre Schaeffer’s forward-thinking initiative as early as 1949, Pierre Henry was arguably the first musician to entertain the notion of this defiant musical revolution coexisting with traditional and poplular music. Initially using the mediums of modern dance and spoken word as a platform to contextualise his tape-music mutations (notably in unison with Maurice Bejart) Henry’s foresight to fuse accademic with thematic ideas lead to the birth of electronic sound design for film and theatre, expemplified most prevalently in the macabre.
The missing link between his earliest avant garde recordings and his later celebrated pop experiments with Michel Colombier and Spooky Tooth and rivaling the likes of Daphne Oram’s uncreditted SFX work for The Innocents this rare score to the 1962 Juliette Gréco vehicle Maléfices (aka The Hex or Where The Truth Lies) hears Henry at what is perhaps his most melodic, fragile and enchanting (especially for this unforgiving sheen-free formative era). Layering vocal tape loops and gossamer feminine voice treatments with plucked strings, white noise wind and brooding industrial treated piano textures Henry provides a series of conceptual poison peons to magnify this films intoxicated halluciogenic narrative. This concise set of complete set themes is presented here fully remastered for the first time alongide rare excerpts from two of the composer’s very earliest and least obtainable forays into theatrical sound design with instrumental parts of Henry’s first stereo reconstruction of Bejart’s Orphee from 1961 and his seldom heard concrete interludes from Darius Milhaud and Max Gérard’s Mariage De La Feuille Et Du Cliché from 1958, both of which command rapidly increasing ransom fees amongst serious electronic music collectors." [label info]
www.finderskeepersrecords.com
|
2013 |
€22.00 |
|
| HEROIN IN TAHITI |
Casilina Tapes 2010 - 2017 |
LP |
"Hailing from Rome, cult duo Heroin in Tahiti fuse analogue synths, garage-y guitars and skittering drum machines to gloriously lo-fi effect. This collection of previously unreleased tracks covers material recorded in their studio from a 7-year period. Their unique psychedelic vision touches on everything from beat poetry, house music and Ennio Morricone soundtracks." [Norman Records]
"Heroin In Tahiti is a duo from Rome, Italy hailing from the Roma Est scene, a sort of local community based in the crumbling and deteriorated neighborhoods which were already eternalized by Pasolini and Neorealist Cinema (think of Pasolini, De Sica, Visconti, etc.) The duo plays a variety of cheap guitars, analog synths, drum machines, and pedals, achieving a dirtiness which is tragically lo-fi and out-of-time at the same time: a "Spaghetti Wasteland", as they call it. In 2012 they released on Boring Machines their debut album Death Surf, a title which spoke for the music played on the record. The label said of the album: "Think of drinking a frozen daiquiri on a solitary beach while watching a poorly tuned TV broadcasting loops of If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (1968), while Mururoa tests are happening at the horizon." When mentioning Italian occult psychedelia, Heroin In Tahiti seems the best choice to sum up the sound and the references that stay at the core of this all-Italian scene. With albums like the mammoth double LP Sun And Violence (2015), the minimalist Canicola (2014) and the monolithic Remoria (GRA 001LP, 2017), Heroin In Tahiti became a cult band for their particular signature. Casilina Tapes 2010-2017 is the latest (and probably last) output from the cult Italian duo. It's a collection of unreleased tracks recorded in their basement studio in Rome in the last seven years while building up their thematic albums. The label listened to the single tracks at once and they found out there's a coherence between them even if they have been created in different periods. Actually, they show a coherence that only Heroin In Tahiti, with their kaleidoscopic vision of how Italy secretly sounds, can properly conjure up. Boring Machines calls it "total music". You may find elements which reminds of long lost Morriconian soundtracks for cheap westerns or giallos, library music to accompany documentaries on Superstudio radical architecture, urban tribalism, beat poetry festivals on the seashore, and house music. Recorded in Rome, 2010-2017. Artwork by Francesco de Figueiredo. Screen printed covers by Legno, Milano." [label info]
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| HET ZWEET |
2XLIVE88 |
CD |
"Strictly from a personal perspective, it is great to see renewed interest in Het Zweet. I think that interest started when Staalplaat released an expanded version of Het Zweet's only LP (see Vital Weekly 1343), which Klanggalerie released on CD. A label from Greece, Modal Analysis, released a double LP with archival work, judging the content pieces from compilations and some previously unreleased work, plus a 1984 live recording. I haven't heard this one, but today, there is a CD with two live recordings from 1988. That is interesting as this is also the year that Het Zweet started to wind down his activities because of shifting musical interests. In 1988, Het Zweet supported Bourbonese Qualk in The Netherlands, and I am sure I saw them on a different evening, but I have no recollection. Therefore, I also have no idea if Het Zweet was also opening up that night. I believe this CD has the complete concert of that April 1, 1988 show in Club Utopia in Elsloo (I had to look that up), and it offers an exciting variation of the music Het Zweet plays. Mostly known for his more rhythmic music, that side still plays a significant role in the music here, ominous industrial drumming, tribal-like metal percussion (Neubauten, Z'EV), but a song like 'We Hear Your Soul' is more... an actual song, with Van Oers, Het Zweet's operator, singing, with a keyboard present, and some loops. Loops of instrumental bits return in other pieces, and by using delay, those also have a more tribal feeling. I was pretty surprised by this approach because I didn't know much about Het Zweet in the later stages of his career. It's an exciting variation here, with Van Oers going for what, I think, is a more song-based approach, next to the loops, tapes (slowed down voices; very 1980s) and metallic percussion. With some production value, this music could easily have found its way into the early catalogue of the Cold Meat Industry.
The other concert on this CD was recorded five days later, at Radio Militia in Belgium, and is about half the length, approximately twenty minutes. This is along similar lines, but interestingly enough, not a repeat of the same material, and a song like 'The Last Straw' sounds completely different, and so does 'Ein Kreuz Part 1'. In the surroundings of the radio station, it all sounds a bit more controlled than on stage. Both have their charm, and this latter-day Het Zweet opens for me a perspective I didn't know. It's a great historical document, prompting me to please once more for a Het Zweet box set with (almost all) his work." [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| HETERO SKELETON |
En la sombra del pajaro velludo |
CD |
"Die Band selbst beschreibt ihren Sound als "Perez Prado am Tor zur Hölle" und darüber lässt sich gar nicht streiten. HETERO SKELETON aus Finnland liefern mit "En La Sombra Del Parajo Velludo" den Saxophon-lastigen Soundtrack zum Abstieg in die Unterwelt. Für Fans von Jazzpunk, wie ihn die FLYING LUTTENBACHERS spielen und für die, denen FAT WORM OF ERROR ein Begriff ist. //
Five unholy speaker cone movers from Finland (Helsinki and Tampere) choke up a hairball of churning sax driven maelstrom. In between the notes, crinkle-cut sound sax spuzz links rude-itude of the highest order. Fans of Finnish campfire/industrial act AVARUS take note, as the same disconnected fuckery pulses through this disc with enough extra forward thrust to kick start your fart.
This disc comes recommended for fans of jazz punk like the FLYING LUTTENBACHERS as well as stumble royalty like FAT WORM OF ERROR. Not just blind free jizz blowjobbery, but roid raged thuggery - click here for an unbelievable taste sensations!
Other discs on Jelle Crama's new label have cemented their songs in the waiting room of forever. The band describes their sound as "Perez Prado at the gates of Hell", and who am I to argue?" [label info]
www.loadrecords.com
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| HODGKINSON, TIM & MILO FINE |
Teshuvah |
CD |
"TWO BLOKES FINDING SOUND IN THE MIDST OF
A Sort of Macrocosm
Insufferable and absurd. But, what else to expect? Because we are (imagine ourselves to be?) sentient, or rather, due to the manner in which western "civilization", an infectious disease which has managed to inculcate almost every indigenous culture on the planet, has manifested this sentience, we are an utterly disingenuous species. Our actions, in one way or another, are, for the most part (exclusively?) unintentional manifestations of what lurks beneath; unacknowledged, suppressed, repressed, willfully unknown. Our behavioral watchwords? Rationalization and justification. Why? Well, fear of course, Knowing we will cease to exist, or, perhaps more accurately, lacking the ability to fathom the eternal (or what we imagine it to be), we turn to so-called power, material wealth, fame and the like as pathetically meagre compensation. Now, there are those who would, in the current lexicon, argue that "it's all good", which is nothing but a rephrasing of essential tenets found in any number of belief systems/philosophies. And while there is no doubt that truly existing in the eternity of every moment, to treat what we generally separate into "good" or "bad"/ "positive" or "negative", as nothing but unified energy of which we are simply a part -- to, in other words, maintain a sense of calm and "being" regardless of life's circumstances -- would likely be ideal, or close to it. But, given the essence of humanity's overall conditioning and wiring, this state is, sadly, more or less impossible to attain, never mind sustain. Not to say that it isn't worth considering and attempting. But, in the meantime, let's drop the pretense; the state of the world -- inner and outer -- makes it clear that it is not all good, and to excuse our behavior is to propagate the missteps that personify humanity.
Certainly A Microcosm
Social gatherings are all, to one degree or another, insufferable and absurd. Fraught with rampant hidden agendas and their manifestations -- positioning (hierarchal maneuvering) and networking (careerism) -- and underscored by insecurity and thinly veiled desperation (a bit thicker for those with truly sociopathic tendencies), how could they be otherwise? And, having such a gathering in the name of "art" only compounds the unbearableness, because the meaningful realization of the creative impulse should have at least something to do with transcendence. Not "transcendence" as a marketing tool or an image mongering label, but transcendence. So, when a local academy hosted yet another insular affair -- in this case, a "festival of electronic music and arts" -- wherein the invitees ranged from graduate students to out-of-town guests (underwritten by their own academies to come and display their wares; that is to say, add yet another line to their curriculum vitaes), the resultant lack of transcendence can hardly come as a surprise. And, indeed, just on the surface, there's abundant evidence as to how brilliantly this event works at cross purposes. First, it's centered around technology, which, these days, as one knows, means lap top gimmickry (and slow downloads). Second, there's a preponderance of hackneyed and merciless expropriation of indigenous musics, a clear sign of wrong-headed political correctness. Third, as part of ever elusive "audience development", there is much pandering to rock/pop influences. Fourth, the programming style is all pastiche -- a little of this, a little of that -- catering to short attention spans. (And, do I need to mention how the curator and others high in the food chain, get to present their work in the better, more prestigious venues? I thought not.) In all, it's fascinating how an event so concerned with creativity is, for the most part, so utterly bereft of same.
Tim and I first met when he came to town with Konk Pack (a trio which also includes Roger Turner and Thomas Lehn) in the fall of 2007. In addition to playing a duo set with Roger that evening, I had served as a middle man of sorts in setting up the gig, which, due to the curator dropping the ball vis a vis communications, almost didn't happen. (And, even when it did, the evening itself was filled with an assortment of additional miscues, which Tim -- the group's de facto "tour manger " -- and I handled well, and, perhaps more importantly, with good humor.) Tim and I didn't talk a lot that evening or at brunch the next day, but, as evidenced by our on-the-spot problem solving and the exchanges we did have, there was an obvious overlapping of sensibilities and interests. Evidently, Tim thought so too. I was, however, surprised and amused when Tim let me know he was returning to participate in this, as we say in the states, "dog and pony" show (i.e., an empty showcase). (That he was a member of an ensemble not playing his music -- a hired hand, so to speak -- mitigated my surprise.) In his e-mail he expressed an interest in finding some time to hang out amongst the rehearsals and performances. I countered by suggesting we get together to play. So, we elected to attempt both, but, naturally, given logistical concerns (schedules and transportation) the path to something simple was replete with small stumbling blocks. Enter filmmaker/videographer Mike Yaeger. Part of my unexpected and last minute middle man duties on Tim's previous visit was to find accommodations for Konk Pack. For several reasons, three people would have been a bit much at my place. Particularly in the light of Roger having opened his home to me for several days in 2003 while I was in England, his staying with me was a foregone conclusion. Fortunately, in an inspired moment, I remembered Mike had a long standing admiration for Tim's work. So, I contacted him about the possibility of Tim and Thomas spending the night at his house. Having met and had quite a long conversation with Tim the preceding year, Mike was delighted. This time around (late winter 2008), Tim had already alerted Mike to his return, but Mike was unaware that I had suggested our getting together to play. This prospect was especially exciting for him, because, in addition to his abiding respect for Tim's music, Mike has expressed a deep appreciation for my work as evidenced by his recurring bursts of support. (That a virodha bhakti -- devotion by defiance -- undercurrent informs our relationship is not surprising, as it is a recurring theme in my interpersonal dynamics.) He was, therefore, very keen on videotaping our session. And, because the audio on his camera is of mediocre quality, he suggested, no, almost insisted that I record it with my DAT equipment (consisting of a recorder, mixer and four microphones). I, on the other hand, just wanted to keep things simple and make some music. But, Mike, in his unbridled enthusiasm, can be extremely persuasive, and so we compromised. I'd record it, but with a basic stereo mike set-up.
Looking at the festival schedule, I noted the first day I was available to hear Tim, and made tentative arrangements to meet and go out with him and Mike. But that, of course, entailed the concerted effort of entering a domain that, despite my efforts to place occurrences in a broader context, nonetheless so irritates my nerve endings. Thus, with as much of an accepting attitude as I could muster, and keeping open the option that there just might, might be something of interest to hear (which, as it turns out there was, but just barely), I entered the venue where Tim would be playing and, once inside the performing space proper, immediately detected the pervasive stench of heightened self-importance and the politics of music as, first and foremost, a career path. A sort of existential nausea washed over me. With a demeanor of subtle defiance, I found a place to sit as some vacant post-modern design-form morphed on the stage's screen. Within moments, I spotted an enthralled Mike, who, for all his perspicacious opinions concerning artistic endeavor, can, in certain circumstances, be quite a, shall we say, forgiving listener; and Viv Corringham, one of my regular collaborators, whom I mercilessly (and, if I may be so bold, justifiably) tease for regularly showing up at these sorts of affairs. (However, as she actually participated in this event the previous year, her presence was de rigueur. Moreover, given that Viv has a genuine arts degree, one readily recognizes the force of habit extending from a good indoctrination, er, education.) During breaks between pieces, and almost trembling with displeasure, I asked Mike when we could get out of there, phrasing it along the lines of, "When the fuck can we get out of here and get something to eat?". He seemed perplexed and annoyed, to the point where, a bit later, and subsequent to Tim and I having warmly reestablished contact, Mike indicated he wouldn't be able to give Tim a ride to the session on Saturday, because he didn't want to miss any of the concerts (and, additionally, would have his young daughter, Alice, in tow). With no other viable options, I said I'd fetch Tim and get him back afterwards. Slight tensions aside, the four of us decided to get together for a meal prior to to Tim's next appearance that evening. The dinner at a small Indian restaurant was lovely; the usual push-pull banter amongst new and old comrades (Viv having known Tim for quite some time). Naturally, a fair portion of the conversation centered around the event at hand. And while Mike would have loved to find an ally in Tim concerning positive aspects of the festival, Tim was having none of it, and even went so far as to regale us with some wonderful and revealing behind-the-scenes stories. As the evening went on, Mike, in particular, was concerned about getting to the next venue in time to get a seat. I was, of course, in no great hurry, never imagining, in the light of the afternoon event's modest audience, that the place would be filled to capacity. Much to my chagrin, however, that was indeed the case, perhaps in part because it was a smaller venue. (Despite his being a performer in the evening's second half, even Tim wasn't allowed entrance.) Thankfully, my companions forgave me for filibustering at the restaurant. And, as we were in good spirits, and the ushers a good audience for our persiflage, we enjoyed our time in the lobby. Expectedly, some people left during the interval, so there were more seats to be had. I stayed to hear Tim, and then beat a hasty retreat.
Encounter
Saturday. Mike bringing Tim after all. Cart the smaller drum kit upstairs. Set it up. Open the piano. Assemble the clarinet. Set up the recording equipment. And, naturally, wait. Chronicling via cell phone: delayed rehearsals, concerts predictably running late, the convolutions surrounding their finding a place for a quick meal before arriving, and Mike's ongoing "negotiations" with Alice. Having a sense as to when Tim had to be back "on the job", I started thinking we'd have no time to play at all. Another call, they're almost here. Arrival. Mike and Tim set up their equipment, and, given the time constraints, we eschew a sound check. Then, without a word, the music starts. Now, if I may back up a moment. Previous to his hearing me play clarinets with Roger the year before, Tim knew fuck-all about my music. And my exposure to his work was limited; the early progressive/art rock, the raucous, improvised environs of Konk Pack (which didn't involve much woodwind playing), and the frugal bursts characterizing his contributions to the festival. So my expectations (like assumptions, a tricky business) were of a spare, lyrically-tinged aesthetic, perhaps informed by some "noisy" eruptions. But, when Tim put his horn to his mouth, it was all technically sharp, inventive fire. And I was delighted, as much for the music that was there, that moment, and to come, as for the fact that my expectations had been wonderfully circumvented. Improvisation. My lifework.
Acknowledgments
Mike, thanks very much for all your help, and, particularly for suggesting, er, insisting that I record the session.
(And, thank you to Kevin Cosgrove, whose serendipitous mentioning the word "renunciant" in a conversation just after my having essentially finished these notes, brought the track titles into focus.)
-- © milo fine (july 2008) " [label info / credits]
www.rossbin.com
" 'Teshuvah' reflects a first meeting between of two experienced veteran improvisors: Tim Hodgkinson (Henry Cow, Konk Pack, etc.) and Milo Fine. The career of Fine goes back to 1969 when he started The Milo Fine Free Jazz Ensemble. Throughout his career he was dedicated to free improvised music. I guess both gentlemen are more or less of the same age. Also Hodgkinson has a longlasting relation with free improvisation, as it was already part of the Henry Cow. They combined rock and free improvisation. In the last few years Hodgkinson tours regularly with his trio Konk Pack (Roger Turner, Thomas Lehn). During a concert in Minnesota he met Fine and the idea for a duo-session came up. It was realized in Fine's home, on a day in march 2008. Two long extended and one short improvisation made it to the CD that has Fine playing piano, drums, b flat clarinet and voice and Hodgkinson on b flat clarinet. While listening one feels the joy they had in their fabulous interactions. Never a dull moment during these sparkling, catch-me-while-you-can improvisations" [DM / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| HOEDH |
Universum |
CD |
"Last studio-album and musical testament of T.H. Thiel ( ORDO CATHARSIS TEMPLI ), who died in April 2003, only few days after putting the final touches to this impressive album. Like only few ambient artists, HOEDH succeed to awake a feeling of longing and melancholy within every listener and at the same time HOEDH create a feeling of inner silence: a spiritual drowning into your soul. ( HOEDH hymnus 1996) UNIVERSUM was released as official - In Memoriam Album - in collaboration with Ordo Catharsis Templi, who s founder T.H.Thiel was." [label info]
"HOEDh was thee projekt ov thee German artist Thorn Hoedh who passed away on thee night ov May 15th-16th 2003.. he was involved in thee projekts: Delysid , DLS, Helix 12, Moksha, and Ordo Catharis Templi!! thee two albums shared here are some ov thee most beauteous dark ambient releases which one could hope to encounter!! Hymnvs was released in 1993 on thee Atmosphere sublabel ov Dark Vinyl which was dedicated to generally more rhythmic ambient music.. and Universum was released post-humously on thee Dark Vinyl Records label on thee first ov April 2004.. again here are presented more releases from thee astounding 23 Temple!!"
[vitaignescorpuslignum.blogspot.com]
|
2004 |
€8.00 |
|
| HOHMANN, MARTIJN |
Donkere Kamer |
CDr + ART |
Field recordings made in Rotterdam, Breda, and Antwerp early 2022 and Groot Ammers summer 2021
Additional processing, editing, (soft)synths and mixing may-august 2022.
Little over a month after I was asked by Frans to do a piece for his new NDWICM label I got news that photographer Mark Rietveld had passed on by choice. The piece, which by then was more than halfway finished, already contained recordings from underneath de Schelde river in Antwerp made a few months earlier, on the very night I met up with Mark for the last time. The piece turned into a kind of homage.
Donkere kamer is a single sixty minute piece divided into five parts.
1. De man met de Zeiss
The Dutch equivalent of the Grim Reaper and also the man with the (Leica) camera. He who takes life and he who captures life. Death and the photographer converge.
2. De trein der traagheid
The title was taken from the wonderful book by Johan Daisne with the same name. A man wakes up in a train and finds himself, alongside two other passengers, the only ones awake. The three passengers leave the train and continue their nightly journey by foot. Slowly they come to realize they must have been in a train accident and are no longer walking the world of the living.
3. Sint-Anna onder de Schelde
Recordings made in the pedestrian tunnel that runs under the Schelde river in Antwerp. Crossing the river, a Styx Belgica.
4. Markdal
Frogs recorded in Het Markdal, a nature reserve in Breda. The Japanese word for frog is \"kaeru\", which also means \"returning home\".
5. Rietveld
Processed strings and recordings inside a reedfield in the Ammersche Boezem. The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul resides in the heart and so, upon death, the Weighing of the Heart occurred. Each human heart is weighed on a giant scale against an ostrich feather. Those souls which balance the scales are allowed to enter into A\'Aru “The Field of Reeds”, where they will exist in pleasure for all eternity.
Donkere Kamer (dutch for dark room) packaged in a deluxe photographic paper envelope style packaging that holds with five B&W photographs in a light tight bag, a 35 mm negative and inserts. Limited to 50 copies numbered and signed.
https://universaalkunst.bandcamp.com/album/donkere-kamer |
2023 |
€17.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| HOLTERBACH, MANU & JULIA ECKHARDT |
Do-Undo (in g maze) |
CD |
"Do-Undo is a project that emerged out of Q-O2 Werkplaats, a sound-art laboratory of sorts based in Brussels. Julia Eckhardt, one of the artistic directors of this workspace, has been building an archive of recordings, comprised of long-form viola pieces played exclusively in G. This archive, in turn, has been passed on to various musicians, who can use those recordings as they see fit. Enter Manu Holterbach, a French sound-artist, field recordist, and ingenious instrument builder, who had taken part in several Q-O2 residencies; and it was there that he met Eckhardt and was presented with part of the archive of those minimalist viola recordings to use as source material. Eckhardt's recordings seek the rich, if occasionally dissonant, overtones that have been central to the minimalist works of Tony Conrad, Phill Niblock, Eliane Radigue, and Ellen Fullman. And in his reconstitution of her recordings, Holterbach populates his compositions with field recordings whose turbulent textures and bristling movements sympathetically weave amidst the rasping drones from the viola. On a rather technical level, Holterbach's field recordings on his composition 'Two Stasis Made Out of Electricity' -- an arc lamp, the sounds of Parisian subways, an electric power plant -- all naturally buzz with the same G of Eckhardt's viola, without the benefit of digital pitch shifting. The resulting drones transcend any conceits of conceptualism and strategic intent, instead seeing no difference between the sounds of the environment (man-made or otherwise) and the sounds of the academy. As such, Do-Undo (In G Maze) will undoubtedly please those with an ear for the aforementioned Phill Niblock as well as the controlled impressionism of Andrew Chalk. A letter-pressed edition of a mere 300 copies." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"In Brussels we find a sound-art laboratory called Q-O2 Werkplaats which is run by, among others Julia Eckhardt, who is also a performing musician herself. Over the years she has build an archive of viola recordings played exclusively in G. People who visited the Q-O2 Werkplaats could use these recordings. One of them is Manu Holterbach, who works primarily inside field recordings. He brings to the table recordings of an arc lamp, the sounds of Parisian subways and an electric powerplant - all of which happen to be in G. too. All of this is combined in 'Do-Undo (In G Maze)' which is a lovely work of acoustic drones and field recordings. Quite an intense piece of work actually, that, despite the fact that this is all acoustic and field recordings alike, sound pretty much 'electric', rather than 'electronic'. A big buzzing, ringing enters your environment, with some excellent changes that add a further vibrancy to the material. Cut into two pieces, the first one seems to draw the attention to the acoustic side, while the second is more about the electrically charged sound. Think a refined meeting between Phill Niblock and Alvin Lucier and you get my drift. Limited to just 300 copies, so grab it while you can." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| HOLY SIMILAUN |
Radicor al flort, espert on'ill il erb, aor Raetia |
LP |
Holy Similaun and Archipel dwell once again in the complex intersection of human memory, time and its perception with "Radicor al flort, espert on'ill il erb, aor Raetia".
In just under 20', this ideal in-depth analysis of "Arcaskathel" explores the blurred boundaries between reality and illusion.
Electronic and ambient soundscapes meld with japanese instrumentation and rouge-ah's poignant harp to create a sonic tapestry that ebbs and flows between moments of serene beauty and frenzied dissonance.
From longing nostalgia to the violent confusion and disorientation that comes with the loss of memory, this tracking shot invites the listener to explore the nuances of each sound and word, amidst the juxtaposition of brutal distortion, soaring melodies and punishing walls of noise.
The bold vocals, expertly crafted by Archipel, add another layer of depth to the already rich sonic landscape, shifting from demonic whispers to lullabies in the blink of an eye.
Even in its most turbulent moments, "Radicor al flort, espert on'ill il erb, aor Raetia" remains grounded in a sense of grace and beauty. The echoes of this immersive sonic experience will stay with you long after the music has stopped.
https://kohlhaas.bandcamp.com/album/radicor-al-flort-espert-onill-il-erb-aor-raetia
"With a playing time of eleven minutes for the first side, and eight for the second, I think this is instead a 12" than an LP; also because it spins at 45 rpm. I had not heard of Holy Similaun before, whose debut album is Aphex Twin-approved (good for Holy). Similaun also worked with Carhartt, Slam Jam and Spazio Maiocchi and with Zoë McPherson - none of which I had heard of (I am sure I move in different circles. Holy Similaun is responsible for the music, while Urska Preis plays the harp, and one Archipel delivers vocals and lyrics. These are in Italian, so some got lost in translation. I would think that digital manipulation plays an important role here, but at the same time, I don't know if that is true. Everything is about deconstruction is my best guess, which on the first
side, called 'Radicor al flort, espert' (which seemed not easy to translate), has a dark ambient backing in an orchestral modus. At one point, a voice recites a text when the piece is busy on its long descent down. Everything is now apart, so the peace ends. On the other side, the likewise difficult to translate 'on'ill il erb, or Raetia' is more atmosphere, more voice, and more musique concrète deconstructing of sounds. What and why there is a need to deconstruct (and, again, if that is the case here) is something that isn't entirely clear. This site is a livelier and more dynamic one than the other side. I found it all pretty enjoyable, but also a bit too obscure in the idea, message, concept, or... anything like that. Plus, of course, why only so short?" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€18.00 |
|
| HONEYMOON KILLERS (LES TUEURS DE LA LUNE DE MIEL) |
Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel |
CD |
"Fronted by the late Yvon Vromman, The Honeymoon Killers were a provocative band with a strong pop sensibility. This album made them the darlings of the music press all around Europe (including in the UK, a rare feat for a French-singing act), and their delirious live shows gained them a strong following. Les Tueurs also included vocalist Véronique Vincent, Gerald Fenerberg, Jeanf Jones Jacob and Aksak Maboul/Crammed originators Marc Hollander & Vincent Kenis.
The album originally came out in 1982. It was first re-issued on CD in 2003, augmented with 4 previously-unreleased live tracks from 1981 (with Aksak Maboul), a track recorded for a NME tape, and the 3 tracks from the "Subtitled Remix" EP (it had been strongly suggested to the band that they could broaden their audience if they recorded English versions of their songs. The Killers chose instead to “subtitle” them, or rather to add new, English-speaking characters to the songs: The Copter-hater, who lives a parallel story to that of the heroin of “Histoire à Suivre”, Mummy and Jason who comment the actions of the quarelling couple in “J4”, and Dr Stone, Max and Colonel LaFièvre, who turn the instrumental “Ariane” into a mini-space opera entitled “A Deep Space Romance”)." [label info]
www.crammed.be
Les Tueurs by Gilles Verlant:
"The main quality and the main problem of the Honeymoon Killers is that they saw everything in duplicate. It's a recurrent drama with Belgians in general and artists in particular: they are often seriously schizophrenic. Let's start with their name. The Honeymoon Killers, like Leonard Kastle's 1970 film about a couple of serial killers ? Or Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel, with this amusing contrast between menacing (Tueurs) and comforting words (Miel) ? They can't decide, so they'll put both names on the cover and the public will have to sort it out for themselves. And then who's the leader, or at any rate, who gets photographed for the press ? Is it Yvon Vromman, who is unshaven and ugly with his big round nose, but makes you die laughing (actually he's the one who'll die, far too early), a real bundle of nerves, the kind of psychopath which blows up in your face as soon as something goes wrong ? Or is it the evanescent Véronique Vincent, an ex-model and journalist ? In 1982 the New Musical Express doesn't think twice: the girl will make the cover. You can imagine Yvon's face: after all, he's the one who started this band! In the end, this internal competition will undermine them and make them explode in mid-flight. But there was even more schizophreny in the Killers: they were clearly going in several musical directions at the same time. Raw energy stemming from punk and new wave on the one hand, and serious musical skills of some band members on the other. What united them is the desire to have laughs, to experiment, to subvert influences without giving a damn about what's in and what's out (and maybe that's why their songs haven't aged, which is a thing you can't say about that many albums recorded back in 1981 !). Hey guys, let's make provocative versions of songs by Sheila and France Gall (two French pop stars from the '60s) ! They were only slightly more respectful with Charles Trenet's classic "Route Nationale 7", which went on to become a radio hit in France, while the press went apeshit.
In reality, the Honeymoon Killers were a band from the 21st century which had unfortunately fallen into a spatio-temporal flaw. Today, all the things they were fighting for with their little fists tightly clenched (and their little tongues firmly screwed in their cheeks) have become totally obvious: being quirky and imaginative, not taking oneself too seriously, bravely mixing electro-and-pop-and-world-and-jazz etc. The Tueurs must absolutely reform. Yvon, don't act stupid, come back, all is forgiven !
[GV writes books and television programs. He is the author of the definitive Serge Gainsbourg biography.]
www.crammed.be
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| HOOR-PAAR-KRAAT |
A Doorbell of Earbows for Brefix |
LP |
Geheimtip aus den Staaten! Wer auf rauh-chaotische Collagenmusik mit hohem Objekt-Noise Anteil steht, die trotzdem stimmungsvoll atmosphärisch ist, sollte hier unbedingt mal reinhören. Die vier Stücke schwanken zwischen wirren, sehr konkreten Impro-Geräuschmusik-Passagen und eher dronigen Parts in denen auch vokales Material auftaucht, immer mit dem Hang, die wahrhaft ungewöhnlichen Klänge und Arrangements herauszuarbeiten...
"Grainy loop tracks, vocal tracks (which may or may not also be from tape), and surrealist music which isn't miles away from early Nurse With Wound. Richard Vergez (Drowning the Virgin Silence, Gray Girls, Mothersky), Duane Hosein (A Jealousy Issue, Hand Carved Gentleman, ex-Poison the Well). BRANDON SAMDAHL (Mr Entertainment and the Pookie Smackers) and ANTHONY MANGICAPRA bathe the entire thing in foggy reverb and mysterious scratching and shifting, which pulls it all together. It makes sense only as a dream transcribed onto recording equipment. The A side contains material previously released on The Huntington Chapters three-inch CDR (Small-Doses) and the B side is all previously unreleased recordings from the same sessions. Mastered by JAMES PLOTKIN." [label info]
"...The A side, previously released on Small Doses, is a tripped out burst of mysterious musical abstraction. Two tracks, clocking in
at about 18 minutes total, an abstract and spacious drift through some lost alien soundscape. The first track is all tinkling melodies, glistening high end, strange rumbling fluctuations way off in the distance, bits of creak and scrape, everything bathed in foggy reverb and warm wet swirls of tape hiss and atmospheric whir. Melodies creep in and out, as do bits of field recordings, it all feels like some cinematic bleary eyed wander through a hazy druggy flashback, a washed out world of lost memories and fragmented dreams. Here and there guitars grind and reverberate, and strange percussive sonic events drift into earshot, like an even more abstract Wolf Eyes maybe. Quite gorgeous and dreamlike. The second track starts out the same, a smear of high end
shimmer, but instead of spreading out into languid pools of blurry sound, things get decidedly more abrasive, the high end becomes
sharper, the percussion is more clattery and jarring, a disembodied voice intones some creepy monologue over the top, effects swirl and swoop, deconstructed riffs chug and churn, everything dizzying and disorienting, like the nightmare analogue to the opening track's dream.
The flipside also offers up two tracks, the first begins with a swirl of creaking metal, sizzling cymbals, clattery percussion, until suddenly the clang and crunch are transformed into a strangely rhythmic crunch, the metal sounding much deeper, more of a resonant bellow, all very chaotic and cacophonous, underpinned by deep distant rumbles. Which leads right into track number two, all birdsong and tinkling chimes, whispered voices, random sonic detritus, sharp slivers of momentary buzz, soft smears of static, very haunting and ominous and like the first side, quite cinematic. Beautifully packaged as always, pressed on thick vinyl, housed in full color sleeves with super striking artwork from HPK mainman Anthony Mangicapra. We know it's LIMITED too, just not sure to how many." [Aquarius Records review]
www.goat-eater.blogspot.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
The Eureka Tapes |
do-CD |
"The pieces that make up The Eureka Tapes (The Complete Recordings) were all created while Hoor-paar-Kraat’s Anthony Mangicapra was living in the town of Eureka, California. Indeed, the town’s name is apt as they represent a “Eurekamoment” for Hoor-paar-Kraat as a musical entity; a figurative spilling of the bath waters as Hoor-paar-Kraat found their sound. The hints of alchemical transcendence that peeped through the cracks of previous releases come brazenly into view throughout Eureka Tapes (The Complete Recordings). Music dissolves into explorations of texture, acoustic phenomena and the psyche.
Originally issued as three separate volumes in a variety of hard to find formats (A Whisper in the Sow’s Ear, a 3” CD; Graduating from Clocks to Watches C55 and Taxonomy of Divine Organisms, a CDr made to accompany, and sold only at, Mangicapra’s exhibit of paintings, “Above & Below”), The Eureka Tapes (The Complete Recordings) collects the three original volumes. In addition to the original releases, The Eureka Tapes (The Complete Recordings) also includes Hoor-paar-Kraat’s side of their split cassette with Last and a previously unreleased recording from the same sessions. Spanning styles and moods like some kind of emotional suspension bridge, Hoor-paar-Kraat’s music finds itself traveling the same surreal by-ways as Nurse With Wound, irr. app. (ext.), The Hafler Trio and Coil’s more ritualistic output. Edition of 500." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| HORIST, B. / K.K.NULL |
Interstellar Chemistry |
CD |
Unusual and undescribable wild surroundings on this collaborative effort with great guitar-sounds which reveal a deeper beauty after a while.. ! And every track is different !
“ No laptop music here! Real instruments played by real musicians. Ah, the flowers of romance. In this instance, as it turns out, Bill is Horistaculturalist to Null's garden of unearthly delights. Boom Shankar: Null plants the seed, Bill grows the seed, and we EAT the seed. What in Hell's name am I going on about? Well, it's like this: Null provided sonic source material which Horist then organised, manipulated and added on to. So what happened? Scrumptious musical confectionaries with surprise flavour centers! Much of it is like IDM with the boring removed. More deep and less bleep. The drum machinations pound out strains reminiscent of Ikue More (ala Death Praxis) or latter day Bruce Gilbert with a bit of controlled early Nurse With Wound wail thrown in as if this amalgamation were the soundtrack to an old Atari video game (see also Haruomi Hosono). And then comes the second track! Horists' guitar techniques are exciting, weird, rhythmic, Harry Partch-like ('Luminous Lullaby'), indescribable, explosive, ugly and beautiful. And just when it gets nuts, a melancholy paean to Boards Of Canada cuts through the noisy silt to round the experience out. Tietchensian insect jitters skitter throughout the tracks, no two of which can be said to be quite the same. And this is the wonder of the whole thing; Bill has crafted a cohesive statement out of all these musical explorations which, in many ways, smells of the tectonics of "OG" electro-experimental records of the early 80's and late 70's. There is both a bold adventurousness and a wonderful simplicity to the compositions that is like re-embracing that pivotal moment when noise first made sense and all the Zeppelin records went into the bin. And then you needed a pack of cigarettes and had to fish through the bin to sell the Zeppelin records. It's like that! “ [press release]
label:
www.blrrecords.com |
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| HORN, MARIA W: / MATS ERLANDSSON |
Celestial Shores |
LP |
Through ebb and flow we drift
Infinite mountains in their twisted stratas
Sinews of wounded beasts solidified
In this theater of geologic fervor we rest
A ship lost in the polar sea
The heavenly eye of the ocean has seen the origins of this landscape
Its inclined angles and vertiginous depths
A primal dance of chaos
Dry crackle from frozen wood
Suspended calm in endless torment
Time inverted
Adrift towards the diamond abyss
–––––
The music heard on this album was originally the result of a commission to score the second half of the film 'Nico/Nico Crying' made by Andy Warhol in 1966. The commission was made by Art Cinema OFFoff in collaboration with B.A.A.D.M for a screening of the film together with a live presentation of the score in September 2021 at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. The recording presented here was made in the last week of that year and mixed soon after in January 2022. These recordings are essentially live-recordings performed by the composers together in the same room and recorded in a manner reminiscent of the record making process as it was in the late 1960s. The instrumentation used to make the sounds on this album consists of modular synthesis, zither, voice, contaminated field recordings and metal percussion.
Mats Erlandsson is a composer and musician part of the vibrantly re-emerging field of drone music in Stockholm, Sweden, and is associated with practices characterized by the extensive use of sustained sound. Erlandsson presents his work both as a solo artist and in collaborations, most notably together with Yair Elazar Glotman and Maria W Horn. Recent releases include 'Gyttjans Topografi' on XKatedral, 'Minnesmärke' on Hallow Ground and the collaboration 'Emanate' made with Yair Elazar Glotman on the label 13070. In addition to his own artistic practice Erlandsson holds a position as studio technician and was temporarily, from October 2022 to September 2023, the acting studio director at Elektronmusikstudion in Stockholm.
The compositions of Maria W Horn implement synthetic sound, electroacoustic and acoustic instruments and audiovisual components, often devicing generative and algorithmic processes to control timbre, tuning and texture. She employs a varied instrumentation ranging from analog synthesizers to choir, string instruments, pipe organ and various chamber music formats. Acoustic instruments are often paired with digital synthesis techniques, in order to extend the instruments timbral capacities. Often based on minimalist structures, her music explores the inherent spectral properties of sound and their ability to transcend time and space, reality and dream.
Maria W Horn – modular synthesizer, sound treatments, percussion, textures and vocals
Mats Erlandsson – zithers, synthesis, percussion, vocals, textures and tape treatments
Written by Maria W Horn & Mats Erlandsson in response to a commission by Art Cinema OFFoff
Mixed by Mats Erlandsson / Mastered by Johannes Ahlberg at Saintpid mastering
Album design by Mathieu Serruys & Joris Verdoodt
Released in 2023 / Edition of 300 copies with download code / www.baadm.org
Thanks to Joris Verdoodt, Mathieu Serruys, Linus Hillborg and Christa Päffgen
https://baadm.bandcamp.com/album/celestial-shores
|
2023 |
€26.00 |
|
| HORTOBAGYI, LASZLO |
Transociety Relics |
do-LP |
László Hortobágyi is an electron released in the current world sound system galaxy.
His sound art is simultaneously an expanded ethnography of an invented folklore and a way to preserve his acoustic environments for future generations. They are compositions of both terrestrial and spatial sound that present a rich auditory ecology and trace the path from the past to the future. Ancient and futuristic environments interconnected by invisible historical complexities and inhabited by guardians of tradition.
Hortobágyi's music, conceptually fascinating, reveals a unique and transitory world of sound carried out in a singular work form that opens as a portal to another musical dimension.
“Transociety Relics”, his latest opus, compiles previously unreleased archive material spanning the period 1974 / 2019. Each side of this two-LP set reproduces a specific impulse in László Hortobágyi's long and influential career.
SIDE A - “Sygnus Synth Seasons 1974” collects pieces of the 1974-1978 period composed designed and played on the modular synth Sygnus, invented and constructed by Péter Radványi at the Department of Phonetics of the ELTE University.
“My friend Peter Radványi (of the Phoenetics Department of ELTE, Bp.) began the construction of his own modular instrument following the principle of more serious modular synthesizers or the portable EMS Synthi VCS3-AKS 1969-1971 (eg:Whitenoise) at the same time...
"These early electronic music were born in the world of the realized socialism. Not in the West, where thanks to the industrial revolution, by way of original and free accumulation of capital, that is, through exploitation of distant countries and continents, the exotic properties and various genres of musics have become available on the shelves of shopping centers.”
(read more in the downloable “Transociety Relics Supplement 2022”)
SIDE B – “Earthlingua-dub 2010-2016”
“The classic "psydub", however beautified, is nothing more than a modern traditional musical distillate of collective human misery. It is the music of the shattered consciousness that, due to the man-made uninhabitability of the world, wants to leave this reality with the help of music and drugs and seeks another world where it builds a collective culture.The natural evolution of dub is in sync with the misery of the
world’s societies…”
(read more in the downloable “Transociety Relics Supplement 2022”)
SIDE C – “Gandharva Sangeet 2019”
“I would like to outline with personal motivation that the 5 pcs tracks here have come together as the conclusion of my private mythology. A progenitor of this is the Gáyan Uttejak Mandali - Society (at the foot of Malábár Hill, now Mumbái) at the turn of the last century and one of its founders, a certain Visnu Náráyan Bhátkhándé, who wrote a 4-volume summary entitled Gandharva Sangeet Paddhati, (ca. "Heavenly Musicmethod"). - and this was published by krámika pustak máliká, that is, in a series of books. In this series of books…”
(read more in the downloable “Transociety Relics Supplement 2022”)
SIDE D - “Transociety-prána 2013”
“In the year of 2010 a new civilization has emerged, with relics, memorials and the wreckage of Noah’s Ark among its ruins, full of memories of the future and, among others, an incomplete ethnomusicologic collection that would be catalogued in
subsequent eras as “Transociety Relics “ Later, the "subliminal sociostasis" change of consciousness led to the Ars Guothica Nova movement, whose primary aim was to process the Relics Collection. The restored material has entered the common knowledge as an “Entransociety Live” chapter of eL-Horto’s concert repertoire.”
https://amarxe.bandcamp.com/album/transociety-relics
|
2022 |
€29.50 |
|
| HUDAK, JOHN |
Miss Dove, Mr. Dove |
CD-R |
Zu den innovativsten, aber sicherlich auch am schwierigsten zugänglichen Neutönern gehört seit längerem JOHN HUDAK, der v.a. in den 80/90er Jahren mit ober-obskuren Tapes eine kleine Anzahl von Fans glücklich machen konnte. Seine stark konzeptlastige Musik basiert oft auf einem bestimmten Objekt-Sound oder einer Idee, die neue Zugangsmöglichkeiten für das Hören an sich erschliesst. Auf dieser (wie immer im exquisiten Cover ausgestatteter) AFE-CD sind Klänge von TAUBEN & dazugehörige Aussenaufnahmen verfremdet worden, das Ergebnis ist an seltsamem Klang & eigenartiger quasi-Rhythmik kaum zu überbieten..
"John Hudak has been interested in sound and music from the age of four when he began to play a variety of instruments. At the University of Delaware (BA, English 1981) and Naropa Institute for the Arts (1979), he studied video, photography, creative writing and dance. He then began to create taped soundtracks for his solo performance-art/dance pieces that later developed into sound-only pieces. In recent years, he has concentrated solely on sound, particularly natural sounds. Hudak’s current work focuses on the rhythms and melodies that exist in our daily aural environments. These sounds usually remain hidden, as we tend to overlook their musical qualities, or their musical qualities are obscured through mixture with other sounds. In simplified terms, what he is doing could be considered "re-framing what is already there so that it can be admired." His work has been published by labels such as Alluvial Recordings, and/OAR, Korm Plastics, Aesova, Intransitive Recordings, Digital Narcis, Presto!? and many others.
"Miss Dove, Mr. Dove" was especially created by John Hudak for a release on Afe. Here's a description of the album inception in his own words: "During the late spring of 2007, my family spent some time visiting relatives in the Czech Republic, in a small village outside of Prague called Pelhřimov. One morning there, I woke to the sound of many doves. The building we stayed in was directly across from another similar building, and the space between the two created a wide echo. The birds sat on the adjacent building, making their plaintive sounds, at the crack of dawn; their sound mixing with the sounds of people talking as they left for work, and the sounds of trucks idling while making their morning deliveries." The original field-recordings were manipulated via software treatments to create a one hour long composition which is intended to be played as background sound/music." [label notes]
"Since many years I closely follow the work of John Hudak. In the early days it came on cassette and then on CD and CDR. One thing has remained a constant factor in his music and that his interest to explore one theme per project. On cassette always two actually, one per side, but these days its one piece per CD/CDR release. On 'Miss Dove, Mr. Dove' he uses field recordings made in the Czech Republic, recording doves at dawn, while traffic and people on the street increases. These sounds are treated with some kind of unnamed software and the entire piece lasts an hour. 'It is intended to be played as background sound/music', it says on the press release, and that's quite right. The music has changes, but throughout they are quite minimal, with envelopes on specific sounds being opened with great care. Music to be played while doing something - reading being my preferred kind of activity. Non-intentional music, the perfect back-drop. Like Satie intended with his music for furniture. Ambient music as Eno intended, but of a somewhat stranger kind. The bird like sounds are rhythmical, cut-up and not endlessly flowing. Very nice. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.aferecords.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| |
Hivernant |
CD |
"Michael Begg : After releasing World Fair (Omnempathy, 2014) I became a sketchbook. I had a few creases and the best way of smoothing them out was to take a swift, light touch and make marks on paper. I documented the landscape in East Lothian, and the watercolours were nothing more than the evidence of time spent looking. And that was enough. I sketched notes about silence, about space and place, music and recording. I took one step to the side and listened to the time rush by. I applied the same light touch to the studio. I sketched. It was enough. I somehow, briefly, removed ambition and purpose and found, in the winter, a moment of repose.
I now feel like some little winter animal, a hivernant, arising from sleep." [label info]
www.omnempathy.com
"A very English sounding record, this Hivernant, oozing with dramatic dronescaping and cinematically empty ambience. In previous recordings and collaborations, Michael Begg has found himself in very good company alongside the likes of David Tibet, Colin Potter, Brian Eno, and Clodagh Simonds (amongst others), all of whom share a similar sense of melancholy and portent and resignation, as if it oozed out of the British sod and into their souls. Begg himself has stated that this album is the equivalent of watercolor sketches of a particular portion of Britain (East Lothian, to be exact), capturing the mood and psychic malaise which haunts that land through his darkened, impressionist compositions. Yet, these are most definitely not ephemeral vignettes. Begg carefully crafts the somber spaces with orchestrations of organ, piano, psalter, oboe, etc. that unfurl in and out of an electronic fog that has little in the way of the shoegazing reverberation of, say, Stars Of The Lid, though the arranged formalism and nocturnal pacing could find parallel there. 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, with the rather dramatic climax to be found on "Nana" that explodes with a sparse yet booming drumcorps. Hivernant is beautiful, haunting, languid, beguiling. Begg posits this a political album, though he admits an inability to articulate any specifics of these ideas. Yet, in the construct of an album that digs at the poetics of a very British sentiment without sinking into chest-thumping nationalism, his politics speak through the act of creation and not the polemics of division." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| |
A natural History of Failure |
CD |
"Emotional distance. Scientism. Abuse. Greed. Love. Self destruction. A study of modern, alienated, forced-individualists, wired together in our hell. Initially a collection of high-volume live pieces by Unks and Graham, this work was crafted into album form with contributions from a group of like-minded friends who performed together during the tours of the same name in 2009. Weapons-grade Trogotronic electronics utilized throughout. Four-panel poster sleeve. Photograph by Olli Keklinen." [label info]
www.utechrecords.com
www.utechrecords.com
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| HYBRYDS |
The Ritual should be kept alive |
CD |
"Zoharum continues reissuing past works of one of the most interesting projects coming from the 1980s underground - Hybryds. This album is the fourth instalment in the reissue series of Hybryds classic releases. It is an expanded reissue of ”The Ritual Should Be Kept Alive (1)” EP released back in 1991. That release featured only the first part of the title composition. The Zoharum edition was extended to a 70-minute full album with the other two parts of ”The Ritual Should Be Kept Alive” included plus one more bonus song.
Contrary to the previous releases (”Mythical Music from the 21st Century” and ”Music for Rituals” - both reissued on Zoharum – with lots of short pieces), ”The Ritual Should Be Kept Alive” contains slowly-evolving, long pieces which will hypnotise the listener with their sonic magic. Four songs on this album come from the same period, so it sounds very cohesive. And because three of them were not published before, ”The Ritual Should Be Kept Alive” v.2014 might be treated as a new album.
The album has been digitally remastered from the original stereo cassette master by none else but Sandy Nys, who also provided the cover based on the previous editions. This is the ritual music at its best. Now you can enjoy it in the best digital quality. The CD is housed in a digipak sleeve and the album is strictly limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| ICHIYANAGI, TOSHI |
Computer Space |
CD |
Two sound compositions discovered at Mr. Ichiyanagi’s home in 2018 to be released for the first time! One is an unknown early work created on a computer and the other is material for an experimental short film by Toshio Matsumoto. Particularly, the former piece was revolutionary. the quirky sound he made on the computer at the time was unheard of especially because a computer could only create simple sounds then. Moreover, it also includes an unknown electronic ambient piece reminiscent of a bird tweeting as well as a reissued version of an accompanying single of a mythical self-published book, which inspired Yoji Kuri’s animation work known as Tragedy on G string!
Computer Space (1970)
There is a piece called “Music for Living Space” (1969), which recreated human spoken words. It is an electronic music piece that Ichiyanagi produced almost solely with a computer. Computer Space is created in the same era, therefore it was impossible to create a complexed sound. However, echoes and rapid pitch changes are heard in the middle of the recording (there is also voice like sounds intermixed). Since similar phrases are repeating, it is considered that he created various short phrases to edit on an analogue tape then bind them together.
Sound materials for Metastasis (1971)
It is considered as sound material for a short film by an experimental filmmaker, Toshio Matsumoto. The discovered sound material is only 30 seconds long, which contains two different electronics sounds. The (b) sound repeats more often as a part of minimalistic pattern to create a work of about 10 minutes. Using a fade-in/fade-out arrangement made me think it might have some special intention?
title and year unknown
These works archived in Sogetsu Foundation contain electronic sounds which are considered to be created by changing tones of real bird tweets. The sound repeats itself in a straightforward manner, while changing its foam somewhat. Originally, there are many pieces that last for 1 or 2 minutes. For this CD, some of them were strung together. A piece using parts of popular music that was created for Expo’70 Takara Beautilion contains similar sounds to that. Ichiyanagi also contributed another ambient music composition played on another floor of the building, however it is not included to this CD, according to the artist.
For String #2 + Stanzas (Both in 1961, Simultaneous performance)
This piece is the music used in the film however it is originally a recording of a public performance at Sogetsu Art Center and edited to a few minutes shorter. The original sound material was included in an accompanying single of a book, Yabunirami-No-Concert, which Yoji Kuri self-published in 1966 before he created an animation. This book contains 10 pages of a series of ink drawings, which is completely different from Tragedy on G string. This CD has a reissued version of the original sound material. The time could be between 1961 and 1964 when Ono was in Japan. It is considered that Kenji Kobayashi was on Violin and Ichiyanagi was on Piano in an internal rendition style were together with Yoko Ono on vocal.
1_Toshi Ichiyanagi Computer Space / 1970_3\'12\"
2_Toshi Ichiyanagi material of Metastasis (a) / 1971_0\'39\"
3_Toshi Ichiyanagi material of Metastasis (b) / 1971_0\'34\"
4_Toshi Ichiyanagi title and year unknown (a) _7\'25\"
5_Toshi Ichiyanagi title and year unknown (b) _7\'18\"
6_Toshi Ichiyanagi For String #2 + Stanzas (both 1961, simultaneous performance)_15\'55\"
|
2019 |
€21.50 |
|
| IF, BWANA |
Tripping India |
CD |
IF, BWANA ist seit langer Zeit das musikalische Betätigungsfeld von Al Margolis, der in den 80er das SOUND OF PIG – Label betrieb (eines der größten Cassettenlabel für experimentelle Sounds ever!), und jetzt hinter POGUS PROD. steckt. "Tripping India" enthält drei konzeptuell & elektro-akustisch geprägte Stücke, in welchen mit Piano-Sounds, grummelnden Geräuschen, effektierter Percussion und field recordings hantiert.
www.pogus.com
"Consisting of 3 compositions, TRIPPING INDIA is the 3rd IF, BWANA release on Pogus. On this recording If, Bwana is joined by, among others, Paul Marotta (Styrenes/Electric Eels/Mirrors) on 3 Out of 4 Ain't Bad, a conceptual work for 3 different pianists, playing 3 different pianos at 3 different times to the same tape. The final version is for 3 pianists, no tape. PR-DR is an electroacoustic work for processed/manipulated percussion. The title piece combines audio "snapshots" of a wandering through India with multiple tracks of manipulated and processed drums and percussion. The end result is an "audio travelogue for 2 (highly) manipulated percussionists." [label info]
|
1997 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| IGOR BARDO |
My Sweet Nightmare |
CD |
"Igor Bardo is a Russian musician and sound artist, best known from Bardoseneticcube, one of the leading experimental/post-industrial groups from Russia.
My Sweet Nightmare is Igor Bardo’s debut solo album, containing about one hour of first class psychedelic electronic listening music. The surrealist soundscapes will be instantly embraced by fans of Bardoseneticcube, yet the artist manages to conquer heaps of new ground at the same time, and takes us on an adventurous journey deep down into the rabbit hole. Themes such as religion, psychedelia, sleep paralysis etc. are explored with eerie atmospheres, bliss-inducing frequencies and cutting edge studio experiments." [label info]
www.someplaceelse.net
"Some Place Else is a label based in Finland. My Sweet Nightmare is the debutalbum of the Russian soundartist and musician Igor Bardo. He is member of Bardoseneticube, an experimental/post-industrial group from Russia and is formed in 1998. This band released a lot of albums all over the world and they are wellknown as a powerful audiovisual live-performance act. The band ended in 2010. Bardo describes his album "My Sweet Nightmare" as a surrealistic album. The album is well composed and most compositions have a mix of recognizable sounds of musical structures like jazzy drums, religions chants or militaristic marches. He combines lots of different elements of music and sounds. Some tracks have an ambient noise style. The mixing between highly electronic sounds and fresh field-recordings and natural sound is well chosen. Old recordings of folk songs are mixed with ongoing electronic soundwaves and he creates a new old world. ?The end of the end? is a track with the shouting voice of Adolf Hitler. He samples his terrifying voice who evokes to destroy all Jews in the great German Reich with bombastic beats and chords. The song becomes more and more abstract and personal. But for me this song has nothing to do with a sweet nightmare. The track grabs my by the throat and my stomach starts turning. Real physical music, no more, no less. Highly recommended and real surprise for experimental ears and people with a strong stomach." [JKH/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| ILIOS |
18102002 |
CD-R |
Project from Greece with intense and outstanding pure frequency ambience, static & abstract wave-sounds that move underneath, with some more concrete rumblings on the surface...at most times quite deep droning. Recommended!
"ilios for me stands as one of the most eccentric yet challenging greek experimental projects of the last decade ever since the very first day that we met in march 91 & was introduced to their work. since then they've been always surprising not only me but also
their friends/audience either via their cds which could bring in mind lotsa residents influences at times, intelligent deconstructed pop tunes or obscure ambient soundcapes other times. the same eccentric and bizarre their performances have been, one could turn more 'electronica', the other (such as their amazing early 90's theatre performance 'agamemnon') could turn an obscure ambient piece evenwith kraut rock hints uniquely incorporated into it. the last couple of years the project seems to turn back to its early origins of obscure ambience & bizarre experimentation. the recent 'ba' 3"cd on their antifrost can be an example of this crossover. but even this release couldn't predetermine the night of the 18th of october 2002 at small music theatre. melting sounds of a laptop & utilizing as an extra source as well a glass 'played' w/ a dentist's wheel ilios blasted one of the most flabbergasting live sets ever experienced so
far of a greek experimental project. starting with a frequency that someone might expected to listen to a cool yet standard minimal or
lowercase live set, evolved & outbreaked an ambience whose intensity not only did it amplify the whole space around us but also the audience (who was in total darkness) that we were experiencing with great enthusiasm this impressive moment. a live set the impression & sound of which can only be compared to some of the best 'ambient' (or call it whatever) moments of people like zbigniew karkowski, sons of god, hafler trio, etc & here is nothing but the audio documentation of this monumental night." [Nicolas Malevitsis]
www.void.gr/absurd
|
2002 |
€10.00 |
|
| ILLUSION OF SAFETY |
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 |
|
| |
Surrender |
CD-R |
"I've been releasing things outside of the internet (no part of it), and one of them has been "Surrender", the newest outing by Illusion of Safety. Daniel Burke has made a "remix overview" of this work, and I had to let the cat out of the bag. More information can be found at the video link, including the mail box where money orders/hidden cash is to be sent. Do check it out! The video is exceptional! I've been told some of the processes in making it, and it's nothing short of deftly inspired! $7 postage paid in the US. $12 elsewhere. Available in pro cassette and pro CDR format.
I haphazardly spurred Illusion of Safety back into live action in 2008 when I asked him to do a show with me at the Empty Bottle. From there, we were both asked to perform for WTII's monthly showcase at Darkroom, wherein this clown video material first surfaced, so it's a pleasure for me to release the nexus of a soundtrack to this imagery, coming full circle.
"Illusion of Safety, just passing its 30th year since inception, is often regarded as the innovator of "ambient industrial". Despite having traversed nearly every arena of the experimental milieu, performed prestigious fests all over the world, and collaborated with some of widest ranging and heaviest hitting of the avante garde, core member/founder Daniel Burke has both shown a return to form and a veritable bouquet of new frontiers in his most recent outing, "Surrender". In just under 60 minutes, the listener is taken on a dizzying carousel ride where everything but the kitchen sink is employed to weave a deeply personal (abstract, wordless) narrative that comes off as minimalistic, condensed, and bombastic. But at the same time, it is a constantly shifting, complex and ornate grid iron amalgam of genuine enthusiasm and horror. Recommended if you like a complete disregard for the myopic trappings and short sighted formulae of contemporary sound art today." [label info]
nopartofit.blogspot.de
"Somewhere, an old T-shirt from Illusion Of Safety exists (the last we saw was affixed to Sigtryggur from Stillupsteypa some 10 years ago) with a deadpan/ironic catch-phrase "Illusion Of Safety gives you that soaring feeling" next to an image of a man tumbling headfirst out of a skyscraper window. Such a calculated juxtaposition of word and image was emblematic of the '80s art world (e.g. Barbara Kruger), often speaking to the underbelly of callousness, cruelty, violence and general amorality within consumerist society. Outside of this bold piece of iconography, Illusion Of Safety has operated within a more liminal state of mysteriousness through signifier and meaning. Even in their most placid albums of soft-focus ambience, the specter of some unknowable threat lurks in the background. More common in the Illusion Of Safety catalogue is an iron-fisted grasp of that sense of foreboding and dread through psychologically tense sound design. Over three decades in existence, this Chicago based project has been whittled down to its core member Dan Burke - with a few comrades-in-arms joining him occasionally - and is probably the longest running American industrial project, having produced a very impressive body of work. The 2014 album Surrender fits comfortably next to some of the masterpieces of the IOS back catalogue (e.g. Cancer, In Session, Historical, etc.) through the trademarked juxtaposition of noxious frequencies snaking in and out of harmonic phase patterns only to snap out of existence with a razor-cut edit into an electrical burst of tesla coil noise (for example). Disjointed rhythms, mediated collages, decontextualized field recordings, and psychoacoustic phrases map this album with incredible control and precision. Illusion Of Safety proves once again that they are one of the greats of industrial culture. Grab this album before it disappears, the pro-duplicated cd-r is limited to just 100 copies. Same for the cassette." [Aquarius Records]
"Among the few artists I have been following what seems now to be a lifetime (Asmus Tietchens, Main, Organum), Illusion Of Safety is probably among them the band I saw play live most. Dan Burke, the main man, is a most loveable chap and he always surprises me with his next move. His music doesn't operate in any particular style, but overlaps various genres. Improvised, industrial, ambient, musique concrete, and even a bit of techno beat thrown in. Here's a new album that proofs it. It's called 'Surrender' (which word always reminds me of the Cheap Trick song) and on a label called No Part Of It, meaning they don't want to be part of the world of Internet. There is a website, but there catalogue is hand scribbled on a sheet of paper and the CDRs - professionally designed - can be bought with a money order. Yes! That's what I like. Swim against the tide. Music wise Illusion Of Safety does something we haven't seen him do in quite some time. The collage styled music in which lengthy chunks of sounds are suddenly cut away by voices from radio and TV, a techno beats slips into view and sounds remarkable like the early 90s works such as 'Historical', 'Inside Agitator' or 'Distraction'. Quiet at times, but also quite bombastic at other times, filmic but without too many words. And if we hear any, it's about nuclear waste leakage. In that sense this album also harks back to the post-industrial sound of yesteryear. The balance between the very quiet and the very loud, between the ambience and the beats, is maintained very well throughout this release. Daddy's all right: surrender!" [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€9.00 |
|
| ILTA HÄMÄRÄ |
Velloa |
7inch |
"After being around for twenty-three years, Meeuw Muzak releases their forty-ninth catalogue number, so time for MM050 being something special, but surely a 7", as Meeuw Muzak releases solely in that format (well, two 10" and a 8" not withstanding, but that was a long time ago). Ilta Hämärä you ask? I asked the same thing, as the over didn't tell me much. The website only gave this sparse note: "Timo
Van Luijk and Bart De Paepe in troubled water". Van Luijk we know as a serious man within the realms of improvised music, and I never heard of De Paepe, who is, apparently also known as Father Sloow, Bart Sloow or simply Sloower, partly because he has a label called Sloow Tapes. I know quite a bit of Van Luijk’s music but this particular enterprise I had not heard before. They have a cassette and LP available and now there is this 7" with two songs. Some tormented slow (sloow?) drum machine, and
much delay and reverb on the guitar, along with some percussive bits, and together they create some highly wacky pop music. Maybe not unlike that of Jonathan Valdez reviewed elsewhere, but Ilta Hämärä don't use any vocals. There is an abundance of sound effects used, adding a sort of psychedelic flavour to the music, maybe the effect of it is a bit murky, troubled water indeed. You could wonder as if this was recorded by a mister nobody anyone would touch it to release it, which actually can be said
of various things I hear every now and then, but given the fact that Van Luijk is slowly becoming a household name, surely this will go down well. Slowed down off side rock music; I love it, but I would also said that if it was recorded by the nobodies." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2018 |
€7.00 |
|
| IN MEDITARIUM [IN MEDITARIVM] |
Plexus / Uterus |
do-CD |
Composed and recorded by Olegh Kolyada and Sergey Svistelnik in 2000 - 2001. Additional mastering by Olegh Kolyada in 2015/2019.
Female vocals by Ooteka.
Photos by Svetlana Kazmerika, taken in summer 2003, Zhytomyr.
Design by Mauro Berchi.
A compilation of the two official early albums of the project "Les Fleurs Du Mal" and "Uterus" with three exclusive tracks recorded during the same period.
In memory of Sergey Svistelnik († 2nd January, 2018).
https://oldcaptain.bandcamp.com/album/in-meditarivm-plexus-uterus |
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| INADA, KOZO |
j[ ] |
CD |
"CD - 5 tracks - 45:30 min. 4 panels cardboard in plastic bag
Cat. number : sns-03 - Release date : feb. 07 2007.
Edition : 700 copies.
Kozo Inada is a japanese sound artist who has previously released records on various labels around the world (Staalplaat, Selektion,
Digital Narcis, V2). His last record published is a collaborative work with Philip Samartzis on the australian label Room40. His music is a balance between austere minimalism and immense spaces in sound that creates a very strong tension and keeps the listener captivated from the beginning to the end. For J[], he uses samples and loops of classical music as sound materials for Max/Msp treatments. The result is a densely layered and strong sound work, with slow rises and falls, hypnotic loops and some ruptures that give texture to silence. A sonic journey into aerial and hypnotic universes sometimes also visited by P. Niblock or Hafler trio." [label press release]
"My sympathy and love for the work of Kozo Inada didn't came straight away. His first few releases on Staalplaat were alright, but I didn't think brilliant. Coins dropped at a concert I saw by him in Barcelona. It contained the same sounds, but played at this immense volume, the listener gets sucked in it, and when the sound is gone, very fine particles remain and tease the listener further, until the next wave comes. Coming back I listened to his music with totally different ears. For reasons I don't know (it seems his private website needs updating) we don't hear much of him in the recent years, which is a great pity. 'J[]' is a new (?) work, or at least just released (on a totally different I'd like to add that Sonoris just also re-released David Maranha's 'Piano Suspenso', which we reviewed in Vital Weekly 175, so read that please). Moving away from the field recordings which Inada used in his previous releases, for this release he concentrates solely on classical music samples and loops. At first that sounded a bit cheap to me, clearly since they are not too difficult to recognize. Inada produces perfect loops that don't skip or anything, but make a sustaining wave of sound. In each of the five pieces things move slowly but steadily and Inada continues his working methods: from soft to loud, although it seems to me this time on a less radical level than before. It's again quite a powerful work, and opening up new worlds to explore for Inada. It would be great to see more of his work being available." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.sonoris.org
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| INCAPACITANTS |
As Loud as Possible |
do-LP + 7inch |
The mid-90s were particularly abundant years for harsh noise, producing many albums which are now considered masterpieces. One of the most beloved classics from this period is "As Loud As Possible" by Incapacitants. Active since 1981, the duo of Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai found their stride in the early 90s and set off on an unrelenting course which produced countless gems of noise. Many of these have been well preserved and documented elsewhere, compiled on "Box Is Stupid" and "Alchemy Box Is Stupid", however, "As Loud As Possible" has never been reissued since its original release on Zabriskie Point. It is now made available for the first time since 1995, with no corner cut in preparation of its reissue. The audio was transferred from the original tapes by Din-I-Ilahi, and re-mastered for digital and vinyl formats by Rashad Becker. The iconic cover photographs by Naomi Hosokawa have been scanned from the original negatives and enlarged for the expanded format, along with outtakes and unused shots, which are now included here for the first time. T. Mikawa also dug into the Incapacitants archives and unearthed two additional tracks of previously unreleased material, recorded around the same time as the album. These two tracks, entitled "As Loud As Possible Revisited" are included as a bonus 7" with alternate picture sleeve. Features extensive liner notes written by Sam McKinlay aka The Rita. A personal all-time favourite, it is an honour to present "As Loud As Possible" as a double LP in deluxe gatefold sleeve. Includes digital download.
https://totalblack.bandcamp.com/album/as-loud-as-possible
|
2022 |
€32.50 |
|
| INCITE |
Minimal listening |
CD-R |
First (?) release of this raw digital ambience project from Hamburg, clicks’n’cuts in quasi-rhythmic, dry & mechanic structures with some great sounds and effects, like a more noisy IKEDA or NOTO. filed under: Minimal listening !
“incite/ - gemeinsames Projekt von axiomatic integration und Gradient Communication - spielt mit changierenden repetitiven Mustern und minimalistischen Beats. Die Arrangements bewegen sich zwischen gebrochen groovig und experimentell. Bei einer Performance entwickeln sich im Zusammenspiel Sounds und Rhythmen live zu staubtrockener minimalistischer Hörmusik. Gegründet im Dezember 2002, spielten incite/ im Jahr 2003 15 Konzerte in Deutschland, den USA und Spanien.“ [label info]
|
2003 |
€6.00 |
|
| INNER VISION LABORATORY |
Continuum |
CD |
Karol Skrzypiec returns with a new album to the Zoharum fold. This artist, consistently following the path chosen by himself, discovers new areas with every new recording. In his compositions, synthetic structures increasingly give way to acoustic instruments. Not only does it give a different quality to his music, but also affects a completely different reception of it. Nowadays it is more spatial, has richer arrangement and boldly goes beyond the former structures that have been associated with the INNER VISION LABORATORY project. It would be difficult to describe this album as dark ambient. Although it is impossible to deny a composer the skill of building the right atmosphere, he is far from pathos or dark aura. You can find a note of melancholy, thoughtfulness, a space for reflection, but with light seen from a distance. Who knows - maybe it is an attempt to reconcile with the inevitable, with the thought that all that touches us serves the purpose of going further? To sum up, "Continuum" is an album of many sounds, colours, moving not only by the richness of sounds, but also encouraging reflection and bringing solace.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/continuum
"It begins with Alan Watts’ sampled quote, from his “The Sense Of Nonsense” lecture. These words briefly introduce you to the idea of the album, while the titles and the music itself are following it in the most evocative way. I feel this is the album about our vegetation, not existence, but vegetation. Dull, monotonous, with automatically repeated daily actions and movements. Waking up, taking a shit, going to work, getting drunk, having sex, going to sleep. And for what, as our final purpose is withering and eventually death.
Lucky for us, there are people like Karol on this planet, who can forge this not quite optimistic worldview into the music we can in a certain way identify with. As Orson Welles once said: “We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone”. I would extend this quote with art. Music in this particular case. “Continuum” makes me think that you are alone, but at the same time you’re not. That there are people who feel alike, who suffer alike, who will die alone, but during this road to the eternal non-being will share these few brief moments of a strange bond with the other folks who are on the same wavelength, so to speak. Even though you listen to the music alone and it’s even better when you listen to it alone. Such a weird paradox of “Continuum” and ambient music in general.
As for the music, it is a straight follow-up to my beloved “Anywhere Out Of This World”. “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. The delicate guitars and piano also do their job, some fragments remind me a little bit of the Japanese soundtrack masters, Yamaoka or Hisaishi (“Forsaken”, “Ended”)… In the end, I believe this is his best effort since “Anywhere Out Of This World”, perhaps because this less dark face of Inner Vision Laboratory” simply suits me better. Music to drown in." [Santa Sangre] |
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| IRISARRI, RAFAEL ANTON |
The North Bend |
LP |
"10 year anniversary & remastered version of the album, that saw Irisarri leaving the world of piano motifs, shifting to much hazier and clouded affair, beat-less and ethereal, feeding on something primal and cinematic. Irisarri builded each piece from a slow recurring core theme, and expanded it outwardly from there. The process is the same all the way through, and the soundscapes remain very consistent from start to finish, creating a single powerful narrative."
https://irisarri.bandcamp.com/album/the-north-bend
|
2020 |
€28.50 |
|
| |
Agitas Al Sol |
LP |
Rafael Anton Irisarri's works from Room40 have always dwelled in a place of pressure. His low frequency excursions have charted out a unique voyage into a territory in which texture and density are equally matched to create a visceral, but ultimately comforting zone of entanglement. At the same time as completing his Solastalgia edition (RM 4105LP), Irisarri recorded Agitas Al Sol. Like its sibling work, this album is an enveloping sonic drift that traces across the unsteady topographies of the Anthropocene. It moves in deep exhales, drawing from within and pressing outward into a sound vista that is effortlessly deep.
From Rafael Anton Irisarri: "It's sometimes hard to go back and speak to work that was made in the past. Things change, but they also stay the same in some ways. I feel this strongly coming back to these pieces. Agitas Al So was a companion suite of materials that was composed alongside my album Solastalgia. For those with a keen eye for wordplay, they might notice each title is an anagram of the other. In some respects, this is actually a very fitting sonic analogy too for the pieces from the two records. They mirror each other in various ways, harmonically in the very least, but they also share the same deep sense of pressure that forged them so acutely. To come back to these pieces, I was struck by how much they expand on the ideas contained in Solastalgia. Where as Solastalgia might have been me breathing in, this set of pieces is a deep, deep exhale. Remember to breath."
Rafael Anton Irisarri is a composer, record producer, and mastering engineer living in New York. Irisarri's compositions field an array of modern ambient overtones threaded through oceanic symphonies with tape loops, bowed electric guitar and vast washes of overdriven sound. His most recent album for dais records, peripeteia, portray these common themes giving way to metal and classical influences that emphasizes Irisarri's melancholic tendencies. These unique overtures, coupled with his signature layering of distortion and bleached-out textures, fabricate an audible environment that would seemingly be at odds with, yet gracefully complement each other.
https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/agitas-al-sol
|
2022 |
€27.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| IYV (SKELDOS & RUKANA) |
Upes |
LP |
"I came across the music of IYv shortly after I encountered the dark ambient project Skeldos. Both are projects by the same musician. The IYv debut release (and only so far) “Upės” I had missed when it was released on tape. But I had been listening to it a lot when I was away during the winter of 2020 at a small house at a lake. There was a bluetooth speaker in the house so I could listen to the music there. The beauty of this music really resonated with me. Some time later after the musician contacted me (there are no coincidences) to order the Ô Paradis & Nový Svět LP I released on Vrystaete I dared to ask him if he would be into doing a vinyl version of this long sold out tape release. I was very happy he and his partner in crime involved in this project liked the idea.
About IYv… it is a project by Vytenis (Skeldos) and Inga (Rūkana) from Lithuania and “Upės” (meaning “Rivers”) was released by themselves in 2017 in a small edition of 72 copies. While Skeldos is more towards the dark ambient sort of thing with hints of (post-)industrial music, IYv is much more on the melancholy side of things… accordion, electronica and Lithuanian vocals make up for a beautiful post-folklore album… The musicians themselves described the album in a perfect way… so I will not try myself to capture the mood and spirit of the music:
“Upės” is an album about travelling. About the hearing of birds, close to the rock chains, which twists on the surface of mountains, through marks of our memory just like the rivers. The album was recorded in seclusion: in a log barn and wooden summerhouse. It’s decorated with deliberately left spontaneous inaccuracies and coherent crookedness. Nostalgic loops of ambient music tells a natural story about the composers: approaching gritty earth, enjoying crackling fire in the night, enduring live rain and swimming through the river streams."
https://www.enfant-terrible.nl/releases/iyv-upes/
LP, 150 copies with screen printed artwork, hand numbered (75 copies on brown paper, 75 copies on grey paper)
|
2022 |
€22.50 |
|
| JACASZEK & KWARTLUDIUM |
Catalogue des Arbres |
CD |
"CD - 8 tracks - 46:06
Track listing and notes:
1. Sigh (Les peupliers)
2. Green hour
3. A book of lake (Roselière)
4. Garden (Les sureaux)
5. From a seashell
6. Circling (Le pré)
7. Anthem (La forêt)
8. Kingdom (Les chênes, les bouleaux)
For the past decade or so, Polish musician Michal Jacaszek has been exploring a new, resolutely modern chapter in Eastern Europe’s long, storied love affair with classical music. His creations are painstakingly crafted collages of electronic textures and baroque instrumentation, harpsichords being swarmed by woolly static one minute and pulled apart by billowing wind the next. A push-and-pull tension runs deep and constant throughout. Ambient music is rarely so sonically challenging. Jacaszek has recorded for Ghostly International, Miasmah, Gusstaff Records and Experimedia and other labels. This is his first release for Touch.
Michał Jacaszek writes:
"When poets and writers declare their enchantment for the forms of nature, they often use musical terms as methaphors. Visual artists' creations often resemble graphic partitas, when recapturing the rhythms of landscapes.Confirming, in a way, these musical intuitions, composers write great music deeply inspired by birdsongs, wind rustlings, waves repetitions etc.
Making "Cataloguge des Arbres”, my ambition was to join this broad artistic movement devoted to natural phenomena and find my own way to describe trees: their forms, atmosphere and mystery. I have started with "open air" recordings, capturing mainly leaves'' rustlings - from different distances, in different locations and weather conditions. This collection of nature recordings was transformed into a kind of "organic drone" and becomes a main background for instrumental and voice improvisations. My initial inspiration here was Olivier Messiaen's' bird songs transcriptions for piano – the composer's work title "Catalogue d'Oiseaux" I have paraphrased on my album . A piano, clarinets, violin and percussion parts, performed by the Kwartludium ensemble, were electronically processed, and afterwards all this electro-acoustic material was turned into a collection of 8 soundscapes - forgotten songs performed secretly by my beloved trees."
composed, recorded and produced by Michał Jacaszek | additional composing and all instrumental parts performed by Kwartludium | Voice parts (tracks 1, 8) performed by 441 Hz chamber choir | Additional clarinet parts (tracks 2, 3) performed by Andrzej Wojciechowski Grand piano recorded by Cezary Joczyn at Gdańsk Academy of Music
Kwartludium are Dagna Sadkowska: violin | Michał Górczyński: clarinet, bass clarinet | Paweł Nowicki: percussion | Piotr Nowicki: grand piano
Biography:
Michał Jacaszek lives in Gdansk, Poland.
Author and producer of electroacoustic music, composer of soundtracks and theatre music, and sound artist. He is a curator of C3 Festival /Club Contemporary Classical/. Member of Polish Society for Electro-acoustic Music. Michał Jacaszek lives in Gdansk, Poland. Jacaszek gained Grand Prix at "Dwa Teatry" Festival for music composed for the play "Golgota Wrocławska" directed by Jan Komasa. "Walking underwater" a documentary by E. Kubarska with music by Jacaszek has recently been awarded The Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto.
He has performed in USA (Unsound New York, Communikey, Hopscotch), in Canada (Mutek ), in Great Britain (Fertilizer Festival, Apha Ville Festival), in Nederlands (Urbanexplorer Festival), in Belgium (Fereejen Festival), Portugal, Sweden (Volt Festival), Slovakia, Germany, Ukraine and Russia (Electro-Mechanica Festival); as well as in Poland at the most important festivals: Heineken Opener Festival, Off Festival, Unsound Festival, Astigmatic.
www.jacaszek.com
www.kwartludium.com
www.touchmusic.org.uk
"From the outside it may seem that Touch always works with the same artists and to some extent that's probably true. What's wrong with that? They act as a proper record label, not working on a project-to-project basis, but push a limited of artists. But sometimes an entirely new name pops up, such as Michal Jacaszek from Poland, who is a composer of soundtracks and theatre music, as well as a curator for various festivals. His previous work was released by Ghostly International Miasmah, Gustaff Records and Experimedia, although I must say I didn't hear any of that. Here he works with a quartet called Kwartludium: Dagna Sadkowska on violin, Michal Gorczynski on clarinet and bass clarinet, Pawel Nowicki on percussion and Piotr Nowicki on grand piano. Much like composers have tried to describe animals through instruments (Messiaen, Saint-Saens), Jacaszek wanted to describe trees, 'their forms, atmosphere and mystery'. He started with the recording of leaves rustling and wrote the notes
out for the quartet and then, in the final stage, treated everything in a way that is owed to the world of electro-acoustic music. The 441 Hz Chmaber Choir performed some voice parts. Great story, fine music, which carefully balances on the modern classical on one side and electro-acoustic music on the other side. Jacaszek really makes his sounds - whatever source - to have a rustling character, such as in 'Garden (Les Sureaux)' - which rustles all around - the field recordings, the percussion instruments, but also the other instruments making similar gestures. Most of the time this is played introspectively, but not dark, doomy. It's airy music, open, like a mild summer breeze (and with today's sunny weather I can exactly know how that feels), meandering through space, without getting weightless or new age inspired. Jacaszek knows how to create music that is partly gritty, a bit dirty, just off the beaten track. I'm never too fond of anything that is even remotely modern classical,
but I must say: this is great!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€14.50 |
|
| JARL |
Akatisi / Somnolens Part I-VI |
CD |
"Advanced Experimental Drone"-Musik von ERIK JARL (eine Hälfte von IRM), das grossartige TANTRIC-Album (aufgenommen bereits 2003); schwelende Geräuschfelder, wummernde Klangflächen, elektro-magnetische Mikrodetail-statik, zwischen Ent- und Anspannung, voller interessanter Sounds & kontemplativer Kraft !
"Solo material from soundartist Erik Jarl known by his works with power electronics monster IRM. Sustained static fields and repetitive patterns construct expressive layers of sound in contrasting colours. Delicately and ambitiously put together to a transcendental cycle - this is music for occidental meditation. Limited to 499 copies." [label info]
"....Over the 6 tracks and 45+ minutes Erik has taken the concept of drone music and revitalised and buffed this sometimes staid and boring music into a shimmering gossamer sheen. Drifting pastoral passages are continually looped into hypnotic rippling waves of sound that appear almost ethereal in structure. Slight faint jarring effects are carefully layered into the mix along with flecks of faint Industrial and ritualistic bias that reaches out towards black malevolent ambience before being drawn back clutching despondently at the air. "Akatisi / Somnolens" is music to meditate to. To dream sweet dreams to. To fully immerse yourself and lose all track of time to. Time becomes totally irrelevant, a non event, when listening to music that bathes and cloaks the senses in full spectrum of a rainbow. Erik and his amazing Technicolor drone overcoat.
Around this part of a review I suppose I’ve got to try and mention like minded recording artists in case the words I’ve written haven’t conveyed the musical style adequately enough. Fair enough…though it will be a difficult task…so having had a quick trawl through my record collection I offer up the following: MRSA-16, Troum and Elektro Nova. Elements of each can be found ever so partially on "Akatisi / Somnolens" but Erik has retained a unique individuality and foresight which has been stamped firmly across this recording. If his earlier works were his evolution then "Akatisi / Somnolens" marks his re-birth as a genuine musical maestro. Artist and label in a marriage made just for each other." [Aural Pressure]
www.the-edge.ws/pretentious/tantric-harmonies
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Phonophobia |
CD |
"Phonophobia" is a kind of continuation of the subject matter of the previous release. While "Hyperacusis" was an attempt to explore this phenomenon and has shown it through the sound and final composition of songs directly influencing the peculiar nature of the album, "Phonophobia" refers directly to the issue of psychology and clinical psychiatry, where, thanks to methodically developed sound structures, arranged and marked appropriately on the scale of impact intensity with numbers 1-3, it recreates the world of sounds, closed in the mind of a person suffering from this ailment. Here, the space is suddenly filled with high-intensity sound waves, stimulating the listener to active reception and strongly influencing his psyche (at the same time). The feeling of rising does not disappear here even for a moment and accompanies the last sound on the album. After it, there is absolute silence, becoming a counterpoint to the music that resounds in the head for some time.
Once again, Erik Jarl takes an interesting topic into his workshop and realizes it in a peculiar and extraordinary way, providing his listeners with coherent, intriguing material and giving the opportunity to discover it multiple times with each subsequent listening session.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/phonophobia
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Isolation Colours |
CD |
The new Jarl album Isolation Colours is the 7th on Zoharum and consists of seven tracks, here named as Circle 1- 7 which 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.
Grey-Scale one, Blue Grey (Livid ), Blue, Black, White, Grey Scale- Two and also Blindness in between with no colours.
Painted by the sounds from Analogue Synthesizers. As often Jarl has a sort of a psychedelic sound which is hypnotic , cosmic ,melodic, intense but also restrained and withdrawn with different colour cords.
Isolation, sadness, anger, fear, gloom, misery, separation but also innocence, inspiration and calmness are topics the colours can represent, but it’s also up to the listener to decide.
Six colours scales separated from eachother
Somehow a connection from previous albums like Turbulence, Amygdala, Hypnosis and Misophonia colours, although Isolation Colours sounds different and have a different theme.
Album is available on CD folded in 6-panels digipack and on limited tape edtion of 30 copies.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/isolation-colours
"... In the case of Erik Jarl, the music is dark and ominous, but it's also quite pleasant. There are hints of cosmic music as if they were on a long journey through before reaching Jarl, so it's not the same anyway, but eroded and decaying, or, perhaps, a decommissioned spaceship that is still on a course (see, I think about films!), especially in 'White'. Big-time space music, not melodic, but created from drones, isolated tones, oscillations, and whatever connections can be made with analogue synthesisers. Music with a shimmer of light, hope, and refined beauty. That's my kind of music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€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 |
|
| JAZZKAMMER |
Pulse |
CD |
“Jazzkammer are Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre from Norway. Together they have been making music as Jazzkammer since 1998. Past releases include Timex, Rolex (a remix album), Pancakes and a live album with Merzbow. Jazzkammer are relentless sound explorers with no set style or specific 'sound' -- they move swiftly from hardcore overload electronics and sonic freakouts to lowercase soundscapes and location recordings. Once described as 'sonic architects', Marhaug and Hegre insist they are merely trying to make 'good music'. Pulse was recorded in Singapore during the SARS-crisis in april of 2003. It was inspired by a theatre piece of the same title that they were working on at the same time, though the music on the CD does not resemble that of the play. The album Pulse is a single beautiful 32-minute piece; its basic structure is a drifting electronic drone that slowly unfolds and mutates, with subtle layers of location recordings and vinyl-static adding color and depth. Like last year's Pancakes, Pulse has a cinematic feel to it, a feeling that is further enhanced by the photos of acclaimed photographer Yuen Chee Wai that grace the cover and 12-page booklet." [press release]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| JENNIFER GENTLE |
Live in the House of God |
LP |
"Recorded in an empty, deconsacrated church sometime in summer 2003, this LP is another installment in an on-going series of records documenting the weird life of Jennifer Gentle in the foggy plains of Northern Italy. Basically the sound of JG's mainman Marco Fasolo going wild with an old, battered electronic piano and a bunch of sound effects, "Live at the House of God" is a side-long improvisation sharing the same spirit of those 20-minutes keyboard freak-outs Sun Ra used to record in the late Sixties. Alternatively spacey and noisy, the piece is a dark, often unnerving exploration in sound, shimmering all the way through with a distinct Krautrock / early Cluster vibe. The new owners of the church were horrified and outraged by the sheer loudness of the performance, but God liked it a lot. Record comes in a deluxe heavy cardboard sleeve, including one insert...
Strictly limited to 300 copies only!!!" [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2008 |
€19.50 |
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| JENSEN, CLARICE |
The Experience of Repetition as Death |
CD |
Brooklyn-based cellist Clarice Jensen’s gorgeous sophomore album and first for FatCat’s pioneering 130701 imprint, ‘The experience of repetition as death’, was recorded and mixed by Francesco Donadello at Vox-Ton studios in Berlin in late 2018 and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri. Following up her hugely impressive 2018 debut, ‘For This From That Will Be Filled’ , which included collaborations with Jóhann Jóhannsson and Michael Harrison, all of the material on this new album was written and performed by Clarice alone and all of the sounds on it were created with a cello through a variety of effects and effects pedals.
An outstanding musician, Clarice has recorded and performed for a host of stellar artists including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, Björk, Arcade Fire, Nick Cave, Jónsi, Stars of the Lid, Dustin O’Halloran, Joanna Newsom, Nico Muhly, Dirty Projectors, Frightened Rabbit and Beirut. As the artistic director of ACME (the American Contemporary Music Ensemble), she’s helped bring to life some of the most revered works of modern classical music, and as a solo artist has developed a distinctive compositional approach - improvising and layering her instrument through loops and a chain of electronic effects to open out a series of rich, drone-based sound fields. Forging a very elegant and precise vision, her music has been described by Self-Titled as “incredibly powerful neo-classical pieces that seem to come straight from another astral plane” and by Boomkat as “languorously void-touching ideas, scaling and sustaining a sublime tension”. Her debut album was released in 2018 on Miasmah and followed in September 2019 by the ‘Drone Studies’ cassette EP on Geographic North. Receiving glowing critical acclaim, both releases made it into Pitchfork's end of year charts.
Expanding her sound again, ‘The experience of repetition as death’ is a warm, deep and cyclical album that explores notions of repetition in both its conceptual underpinning and musical structure. Unlike the easily readable step builds and grid-locked looping of so many artists using the looper as a compositional tool, 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. Where her live performance relies heavily upon the use of loop pedals, in the studio she and Donadello recorded much of the material onto tape to create a series of physical loops. There’s something oceanic in the immensity of the resulting work - in the ebb and flow of her sound and the way it builds and dissipates through swelling and wave reflection.
Whilst in previous releases Jensen’s cello has largely been abstracted via effects to sound somewhat other than itself, ‘The experience of Repetition…’ opens with an undisguised passage that is clearly wood and string - a clarity retained throughout much of the album. Across its span, Clarice balances her material between darkness and light and the shades in between. Rigorously structured yet fluidly slipping between states, the album shifts from a glowering sense of dread / malevolence to warm, euphoric washes; from an elegaic or graceful sense of suspension to curious, clipped interstitial loops that recall the segues in My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Loveless’ or the minimalist pulsing and phase-shifting of Steve Reich. Throughout, the album reveals a viscerality and attention to textural accretion that’s reminiscent of more electronic artists like Actress or Gas; whilst the glacially moving, hypnotic build recalls prime Stars Of The Lid. Other reference points might look back to Minimalism, to the deep listening immersion of Pauline Oliveros, Eliane Radigue, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, and the long-string drone work of Ellen Fullman. Or forwards to the rising current wave of drone-spinners like Kali Malone, Ellen Arkbro, Caterina Barbieri and Sarah Davachi, and adventurous cellist peers like Hildur Gudnadottir or Resina.
Conceptually, the album is based upon the theme of repetition and informed by some of Freud’s key principles of psychoanalysis (namely the “compulsion to repeat” self-destructive beaviours or re-live traumatic events explored in his writings about the Death Drive in ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle’); by notions of the primarily repetitive nature of our existence and attempts to break beyond this: “I hope this album, in its repetition, might provide the listener with a respite from - or a reflection upon - the malaise and / or comfort of life’s repetition,” she writes. The album’s title is taken from a line in a 1971 poem by the influential American radical feminist poet Adrienne Rich called ‘A Valediction Forbidding Mourning’ – a response to a John Donne poem of the same title from 1611. Jensen expresses great admiration for Rich both as a writer and feminist icon, citing her as “an inspiration to create work in a field that is still largely male-dominated," and noting how “her poem to me is a reflection on the idea that dying and death are ordinary. Any meaningfulness we create comes from within and is deeply personal but entirely our own construct.”
With death as a clear subtext, Jensen describes how the music was written or conceptualized in a period towards the end of her mother’s fight with leukemia and shortly after she passed away. “My sister and I were taking care of her. So I’m also referencing the repetitiveness of all the mundane things we still did with her in the face of her terminal illness - preparing meals, doing the shopping, paying bills - as well as the repetition of all of visits to the doctor and hospital." Third track ‘Metastable’ was inspired by the chorus of repetitive beeping heard in hospitals - a sound that can be both fascinating and beautiful as well as overwhelming or irritating. The beeps here integrate themselves into a single loop, creating a fixed counterpoint around a deep, foreboding bass loop and slowly building, Reich-ian structure. “This idea of the ‘metastable’ became very pronounced to me”, notes Clarice. “Her continually evolving treatments kept her in temporary states of stability that would eventually become unstable, which would then require some different treatment."
Perhaps the most dramatic of the five pieces here, ‘Holy Mother’ is a towering piece that moves through all twelve chromatic pitches. The title refers to the Tibetan name for Mount Everest (Qomolangma) and through this piece Clarice has attempted to evoke a sense of that place and the obsession with its conquest - an extreme example of the feats people attempt in an effort to break from the monotonous repetition of everyday life - as well as contemplating the bodies of those climbers who didn’t make it, left frozen and permanently entombed there.
Musically, in addition to the looping on every track, the concept of repetition is also expressed on a larger scale, with the album’s central melodic theme repeated in different ways across its length. On opening track ‘Daily’ the theme appears in the track’s second half, fragmented into three different tape loops and never expressed fully in order; in ‘Day tonight’, it’s played in full but in an unfamiliar key and rhythmically augmented; whilst mirroring track one, closing track ‘Final’ employs the same tape loops as the opener, but this time with the tape having been subjected to methods of degradation in order to erode the sound – crumpled up, creased and stepped on, and run (silently) for long periods of time to deteriorate the quality of the tape and the sounds recorded on it. As the piece draws to an end, the album’s theme is finally presented in full in its original key and fully harmonized, performed by a quartet of cellos without effects and emerging whole at the end of the process in a beautiful resolution.
Structurally smart, texturally rich and deeply immersive, ‘The experience of repetition as death’ is a powerful new album by a hugely talented young artist, whose star is clearly on the ascendant. It is released on FatCat’s 130701 imprint on 3rd April on vinyl and digital formats. Clarice will be touring the US in March / April supporting A Winged Victory For The Sullen, with whom she will also be performing as cellist.
https://claricejensen.bandcamp.com/album/the-experience-of-repetition-as-death |
2020 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Drone Studies |
LP |
"In the past few years, Clarice Jensen has forged her own path. Recently, her focus has shifted to film scoring, successfully recording work for three feature films between 2020 and 2021. At the same time, Clarice continues to serve as artistic director of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, while continually collaborating with an impressive array of musicians, such as Max Richter, Björk and Stars of the Lid, to name a few.
That being said, it was her 2019 tape release on Geographic North, Drone Studies, that initially caught the attention of a wider audience, with the work showcasing a compelling assembly of deeply immersive drones, and elegantly orchestrated compositions, in which neoclassical elements collide with electric density.
Three years later, the work has lost none of its innovative character and appeal. It also documents a turning point in Clarice's career, one where her classically trained background started to converged and overlap with her interests in improvisational electronics and drone music. As a result, the aptly titled Drone Studies shows Clarice at her most exploratory, introspective, and daring, channeling her areas of interest into a collage of richly textured timbers, and cello movements of sublime tension.
Now for the first time, the original album can be experienced through an expanded vinyl reissue, mastered by Rafael Anton Irissari, and carefully adjusted for vinyl by Ian Hawgood. The new reissue also features an additional track by Clarice called Platonic Solids 2, which was originally conceived around the same time as Drone Studies, and which has now been made available exclusively for the vinyl edition and on the Vaagner Bandcamp.
We hope that this new reissue will aid in introducing Clarice's groundbreaking Drone Studies to a new crowd of listeners through this expanded edition."
https://vaagner.bandcamp.com/album/drone-studies
|
2022 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
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 |
|
| JERMAN, JEPH & DOUG THERIAULT |
Tathata |
CD |
"Tathata is a central concept in Buddhism, literally translated from sanskrit as 'thusness' or 'suchness'. Tathata expresses appreciation of the true nature of reality in any given moment. As no moment is exactly the same, each one can be savored for what occurs at that precise time, whether it is thought of as being good or bad. However, Jeph Jerman and Doug Theriault are trying to give us the possibility to meditate on this word, they recorded three long improvised pieces for the same-titled album. Jeph plays acoustic sources (stones, health balls, metals, sticks etc) and Doug played guitar and processed it with his laptop. The music is very quiet, the sparse and spontaneous movements reveals the silence playing the main role between abstract sound gestures. It seems so that the musicians have no intent to produce music, which can express certain ideas or follow the process, thus it's setting free your mind and clear it from any predominant thoughts. In fact, it's a new direction of perceiving the environment, the musicians share with some sounds, originated far from the complex pseudoreality programming, it's mostly intuition. Another important step to understanding the musical ecology, to reach the point where anything can be taken apart from everything else." [label info]
www.nitkie.ru
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| JOB KARMA |
Punkt |
CD |
"New album from this Polish duo, who are gradually becoming the spearhead of landscapists of the genre. These two boosters of post-industrial tradition have forged 8 well-shaped and perversely tuneful pieces, which form an ideal soundtrack for an apocalyptic soap opera that eats up bits of our lives every now and then. Escape from...but where? Everywhere is the same in the giant guts of the mechanical Leviathan. The cosmos serves more and more darkness from the frighteningly far galactic preserves, the black hole gets bigger and bigger. But do not be afraid. The Mind Grinding and Oppression Machine (the fearful MGOM), choking and wheezing with its own enormity, gets jammed and broken more and more often. The fight goes on. As ever. 6-panel digipak with phenomenal cover design by Arek Bagiński." [label info]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| JOBIN, FRANCE |
Death Is Perfection, Everything Else Is Relative |
LP |
"The last two years have seen me maintaining an association with an unusual bedfellow, death. The loss of Mika Vainio, as well as three members of my own family, has had a profound effect on me and spurred a lengthy reflection on life, death, and everything in between.
Parallelly, while studying the philosophy of science, I came across shadow photons:
“Tangible photons are the ones we can see or detect with instruments whereas shadow photons are intangible (invisible) detectable only indirectly through the interference effects on the tangible photons.
There is no intrinsic difference between tangible and shadow photons: each photon is tangible in one universe and intangible in all the other parallel universes.
They travel at the speed of light, bounce off mirrors, are refracted by lenses, and are stopped by opaque barriers or filters of the wrong colour. Yet, they do not trigger even the most sensitive detectors. The only thing in the universe that a shadow photon can be observed to affect is the tangible photon that it accompanies. This is the phenomenon of interference.
Shadow photons would go entirely unnoticed, were it not for this phenomenon and the strange pattern of shadows by which we observe it.
Thus the existence of a seething, prodigiously complicated hidden world of shadow photons has been inferred.”*
I have drawn a parallel between shadow photons and death. The interference phenomena, parallel universes, and how shadow photons affect tangible photons they accompany, offer, in my opinion, similarities, an unknown universe which is death and how we, remaining tangible human beings, are affected. This quest has led me to be more willing to accept chaos in my life and to conclude that Death is perfection, everything else is relative.
*The fabric of reality, David Deutsch, Penguin Press 1997.
All sounds recorded at various locations in Europe, South America and at EMS, Stockholm using the Buchla 200 modular synthesizer.
soar, all sounds recorded with Klara Lewis in Montreal 2018
https://francejobin.bandcamp.com/album/death-is-perfection-everything-else-is-relative
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"Subsequent to a series of personal losses, France Jobin – Montreal’s minimalist composer of deserved renown – was forced to come to terms with something that haunts the existence of countless beings. As pathetic as this usually appears (courtesy of the average human’s shallowness), she attempted a rational collocation of chaos in her life, at the same time recognizing death as the ultimate symbol of a not better specified “perfection”. The introductory notes quote an excerpt from David Deutsch’s book The Fabric Of Reality, grounded on the theory of phantom photons. Now, when it comes to photons this writer’s cynical experience translates as follows: interesting stuff on paper, yet inevitably destined to become, in most cases, food for pseudo-intellectual exhibition of the self (though I’m convinced that Jobin doesn’t belong to that category). After all, everyone is entitled to clutching at the straws of unearthly conjectures to put a measure of order in their own mind. Particularly when the grim reaper comes around waving us hello under various guises, which – in this day and age – happens quite frequently, including the cerebral demise of selected wannabe “authorities” dabbling in issues beyond their reach.
Fortunately, besides any cognitive necessity Jobin is an expert sound assembler. The music she created for this album derives entirely from a Buchla 200 analog synthesizer, except for a shorter and less assuaging track – “Soar” – made with Klara Lewis and exclusively available in the digital version. The longer pieces “Inertia” and “P”, however, represent everything that needs to be (un)told. There’s an answer to every question, there’s calmness behind any anxious doubt if only one delves in the right combination of frequencies. Jobin concocted textural trails that stay with the listener unobtrusively, typically projecting one or two suspended chords. The result amalgamates perfectly with our environment when played at moderate volume. Still, the apparent stasis is perturbed by the very pulsation that it contains. We detect imperceptible subsurface discolorations, brief dissipations of energy across the harmonic flawlessness, a few dynamic weaknesses and slight distortions in an otherwise rather narcotic flux. It’s sorrow-inducing, brain-quietening, and profoundly individual." [Touching Extremes]
|
2020 |
€19.50 |
|
| JOBIN, FRANCE & FABIO PERLETTA |
Mirror Neurons |
CD |
"Mirror neurons represent a distinctive class of cells that fire both when an animal executes an action and when it observes another individual performing the same action. Discovered by Italian neurophysiologist Giacomo Rizzolatti and his team at the University of Parma while doing a research on the neural representation of motor movements in monkeys, the precise function and influence of these neurons has become one of the most important topic in neuroscience. They have been linked to many behaviours and abilities, from empathy to learning by imitation and language acquisition, as well as implicated in conditions such as autism and other brain disorders. These findings suggest that the mirror neuron system plays a key role in our ability to experience empathy.
Initiated by sound artists France Jobin and Fabio Perletta, Mirror Neurons is a media-project investigating the notion of empathy and physical distance. The entire album is the result of extended sound files exchange between Montréal (Canada) and Roseto degli Abruzzi (Italy). Each of the pieces is based on rough sounds and their consequent re-working, listening and reaction, processing and imitation. The ongoing process helped the artists to draw inspiration in terms of stimuli for the act of composing itself in two very distant cities, different climate, time zones and languages.
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. In order to further develop the concept of distance/connectivity, visual artists XX+XY from Rome have been involved in the process. They created a multi-dimensional, generative and ever-changing sound visualization through the use of quiet textures and subtle movements emphasizing the slowed sense of time of the work itself. Thought to be performed live in a big space, the video aims to create an immersive environment and a unique occasion to reflect about the behaviour of our emotions and the importance of human interaction." [label info]
www.dragonseyerecordings.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| JOHANNSSON, JOHANN |
IBM 1401, a User's Manual |
CD |
Nach den schönen TOUCH-CDs ein weiteres stark Filmsoundtrack-artiges Album des Isländers, dass uns stark an die emotionale Musik von ARVO PÄRT erinnert... sein Debut für 4AD !!
"Johann Johannsson ist Isländer und lebt in Reykjavik. Er ist Musiker (sowohl Solo als auch als Mitglied des Apparat Organ Quartets), Komponist, Produzent und Labelgründer (Kitchen Motor). Johannssons Name ist auch immer wieder in den Credits der Produktionen renommierter Künstler zu finden. So produzierte und schrieb er mit Marc Almond an dessen Stranger Things' Album, arbeitete mit Barry Adamson, Pan Sonic, dem Hafler Trio oder Jaki Liebezeit zusammen.
Als Komponist verzaubert er seine Zuhörer meist mit seiner stattlichen und eindringlich-melodischen Musik. Sein neues Werk ist bis dato seine am anspruchsvollsten instrumentierte und attraktivste Komposition. Die Idee zum Album basiert auf der Arbeit von Johanns Vater. Dieser war im Jahr 1964 als leitender Techniker bei einem der ersten Großrechnerprojekte Islands beschäftigt und es gelang ihm, den Rechner IBM 1401 mit einer Melodie zu programmieren und diese aufzunehmen. Diese Tonbänder, die Johann auf dem Dachboden seines Vaters fand, bilden das Herzstück des Albums. Für die Aufnahmen schrieb Johannson seine Komposition für ein Streicher-Sextett um und komponierte einen neuen finalen Satz." [Indigo]
"So here it is, Jóhann Jóhannsson’s eagerly awaited debut album for the 4AD label, and we’re very happy indeed to say that it’s the finest record he’s put his name to yet. I suppose the move from Touch worried some fans at first, but on hearing ‘IBM 1401…’ in it’s entirety it makes perfect sense as part of the 4AD catalogue. Jóhannsson found inspiration for the record after discovering his father’s IBM1401, a cumbersome 1960s computer system for which his father was a technician. Apparently these machines used to cost $2500 per day to lease and probably did a lot less than you’d think given the price, but Jóhannsson saw something intriguing to sample and in the same way that he utilised morse code receivers and ham radios on his Kitchen Motors disc, he uses IBM1401 training tapes as the thematic link on these tracks. An English voice can be heard describing the computer parts and how they work and how to engineer repairs on the machine and it’s peripherals, of course this is something that can ruin an otherwise good piece of music, but Jóhannsson in his restraint has managed to use the samples so cleverly that they actually become part of the music itself. The assertive voice becomes a symbol of nostalgia and that dusty sentiment, a picture of technology passed, or an electronic postcard from 1960, and never becomes there merely for the sake of it. Coupled with the simply stunning string arrangements they add a strange ethereal narrative, and while not telling a story as such, they bring vivid pictures to mind with great ease. Jóhannsson’s skill in merging sounds doesn’t end here either, as we heard on the stunning ‘Englabörn’ he can subtly blend his electronic production methods with the orchestral arrangements without it ever falling out of place. Synthesized chimes trip and fall in-between the orchestral swells and radiophonic bleeps to create soundscapes so breathtaking they can leave you totally lost for words. It would be almost offensive however to merely label ‘IBM 1401, A User’s Manual’ as cinematic, rather Jóhannsson has pushed the bar higher and taken the infant post-classical genre to the next logical place, creating an album which doesn’t just suggest visuals, rather with it’s oblique use of sampled voices and atmospheric sounds the visuals are there all the time and are simply left for us to interpret. A challenging, engaging and utterly breathtaking experience, Jóhann Jóhannsson has proved he is out there on his own. Essential purchase." [Boomkat]
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| JOSEFSON, MATHIAS |
Suihkulähde |
LP |
Erster Solo-Release von JOSEFSON aka MOLJEBKA PVLSE, auf seinem eigenen Label in schöner "letter-press"-Hülle. Ganz verschieden vom typischen M.P. Drone- und Geräuschsound wurde hier auf Seite A ein "ready-made" verewigt, der konkrete Klang einer mechanisch dröhnenden, röhrend-gurgelnden Maschine, ohne weitere Overdubs! Alltagsgeräusche in voller Aufmerksamkeit, auch das kann ein Erlebnis sein. "ALTE WEGE DIE WIR WANDERN WERDE NEUE SEIN". Auf Seite B dasselbe nach leichter Bearbeitung... Ein obskurer "Klangkunst"-Release, der zunächst verwirrt, dann begeistert!
"Side A of this album is a ready-made, a found sound. Except for adjusting the volume, the recorded source material is not processed with effects in any way. Side B is a processed version of the same track." [label info]
"Who, you may ask? Mathias Josefson is however not an unknown person in the realms of Vital Weekly, as he unleashed a whole bunch of recordings under the guise of Moljebka Pvlse, but for this new release he chooses to use his own name. Not an uncommon trend in the land of serious music. Perhaps it has also do with the nature of this record. One side has a found sound, the other is a reworking thereof. The found sound is not explained but it sounds to me like a fridge. I once tried to sleep somewhere next to a fridge, but the sound of it kept it me awake all night. Not a big problem, since I liked it quite a lot. Josefson's found sound side reminded me of this night. The drone of a machine, with all it's subtle varieties, the way it switches of in the end it is still a great listening experience. The 'processed' version of the track eludes me a bit I must say. Whatever there is that has been processed, I may have a trouble hearing it (and no, I am not listening on computer speakers, as
a disappointed artist once suggested). The processing are done probably very subtle, but they don't seem to be adding much to the other side. Now if I had two copies and a DJ set up I could perhaps check it out, now it's a bit more of the, albeit nice, same. The work of Josefson moves away from the ambient industrial park and this piece of sound art is a most promising start." [FdW/ Vital Weekly]
label: www.isoramara.com
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Night is the best time here |
10 |
"Of Mathias Josefson’s (Moljebka Pvlse) own records one does not always know what is his, what is found sound. The same here. Night is the best time here is like the rustling of dry leaves, or the crackling of a campfire, in a strange collage. In truth, the instruments are pieces of paper and some fans, which made up the original art installation. The piece is very hard to really grasp. It somehow reminds me of Earth, in turn, is the same stuff, but with more echo and a lower frequency. It works extremely well. This record is a tribute to Andrei Tarkovsky’s film version of Solaris, but is nevertheless an individual work, and does not resemble the soundtrack of that movie.
This is a fascinating product, but quite probably of interest to just a very narrow audience." [Jiituomas]
http://www.kuolleenmusiikinyhdistys.net/arvostelut/levyij/josefson-night.html
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| JULIUS, ROLF |
Music for the Ears |
CD |
"For a long time I've been thinking about how to create spaces into which one can retreat, where one can find quiet, where one can see, hear, where one is able to concentrate, where one is isolated from the world around but still is able to participate in itby means of art or Music or both' Rolf Julius, 1987. 'Futurism and Dadaism both made use of the synthesis of audio and visual arts to create a singular experience greater than the sum of its parts. This idea was further advanced by the Fluxus and Minimalism movements. Born in 1939 in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, Rolf Julius was profoundly influenced and inspired by these movements while he studied art in Bremen and Berlin. YEars later, after immersing himself in Musical works by artists like Morton Feldman, John Cage, and La Monte Young, Julius began to shift his focus from visual art to the synthesis of sound and visual art and nature, exploring the relationships between sounds and objects and environments. Julius soon discovered how sounds can influence vision, creating simple tones to be presented in conjunction with his early photographic work. Such experiments culminated in the creation of his pioneering work 'Dike Line' (1979), which combined visual images with texture-inducing tones. This piece was presented at the ground breaking exhibition 'Fur Augen Und Ohren' in 1980. Mythical in scope, this was the first major European exhibition attempted to map international research by artists exploring relations between sound and visual art, bringing together work by John Cage, Luigi Russolo, Nam June Paik, Joe Jones, Bill Fontana, Milan Knizak, Harry Bertoia, David Tudor and Rolf Julius. Over the next 30 yEars Julius went on to create some of the most meaningful and moving works in the grey area between Music and art, between sound and silence. Alongside Takehisa Kosugi, Terry Fox, and Akio Suzuki, he has emerged as one of the most important and influential sound artists of our time. Since the early 1980's Julius has referred to his compositions as Small Music, receiving international acclaim from those in the fields of contemporary art and Music for calling the origins of sound and vision into question. Small Music not only describes Julius' approach to composition (soft and compelling sounds from simple instruments and nature), but also a way in which to view his works and ultimately the world. Art historian Bernd Schulz once wrote 'if one recalls John Cage's central theme of 'silence' then Rolf Julius is the contemporary artist who approaches him most closely'. Julius' Small Music has the distinct ability to heighten our perception such that 'silence' becomes a positive quality of a place and a situation, and not just an absence of sound. Whether using photographs, ink drawings, audio compositions, or subtle and sometimes almost hidden outdoor installations, Rolf Julius' works serve as catalyst, increasing our awareness of the great beauty of the world that surrounds us. Western Vinyl is proud to release 'Music for the Ears' the first in a series of Small Music releases by Rolf Julius. With a goal of creating solitary sound environments, the Small Music series will culminate into a boxed edition of seminal works by this master sound artist. 'Music for the Ears' is comprised of two long tracks of gently weaving tones exploring the possibilities of spatial experience. The cover image depicts Julius' sound installation in a bamboo forest in Kyoto, Japan where his Music is placed high in the air, by speakers hanging freely from the branches of the trees. As the Music suspends itself in the air, the tones sway in the wind floating ever so gently, caressing the Ears, the trees, the light, and clouds." [label info]
www.westernvinyl.com
"Now here's someone who is perhaps world famous in the world of sound art, yet hardly ever appears in Vital Weekly. Its, among other reasons, because he didn't release that music, but also because his music is usually heard in museums and galleries and not always on record. But the good news is that Western Vinyl will re-release eight of his old works, starting with 'Music For The Ears', which comes with the subtitle 'small music no. 1' and small music it is. 'Song From The Past', the first of the two pieces on this album sounds like one long tape loop of bamboo flute being played. Every now and then it stops and then it starts again. Music that is very undemanding - an environmental piece to fill your ambience. Or perhaps music to meditate by - if only I ever did that. The second piece 'Music On Two High Poles' is different. It might be played on a small, children's organ or a harmonium, cut into two loops of a varying length. Its a bit louder, or perhaps it just appears so: I turned
up the volume quite a bit for the first piece, so this one comes in louder. I think both pieces are designed to do the same thing: create a sonic environment. What I especially liked about it, and that's something you can only hear when the volume is quite a bit, is all the extra sounds that come along: the static hiss from the used analogue tapes that creates a nice additional sonic layer to the music. And which doesn't seem to make the music static but very much alive and vibrant. Excellent music. This is the earliest Rolf Julius recording, from 1979 and the start of a great career. Can't wait for the other seven releases." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| KABOOM KARAVAN |
The Log and the Leeway |
LP |
Incl. 16 page booklet of Musical illustration/collagés, oxblood red vinyl, 200 copies
The Log and the Leeway follows a 6 year journey of personal exploration and drastic change for Bram Bosteels and his singular Kaboom Karavan universe. What entails is a sound-curiosity of rare format, following a metamorphosis that goes beyond the musical.
Early in the process, Bram was struck by the word/concept of a Leeway : the gradual departure from an intented course due to external influences. Following a boyish fascination for explorers travel journals, logbooks and the far fetched corners of the world, he could not have forseen how fitting of a title he had chosen. Drastically all of a sudden one day, completely unexpectedly, Bram experienced his own father dying in front of him from a rare disease. Shocked and confused by this intense encounter, his perspectives and musical course departed from its original path. But at the same time it was an enlightenment and a necessary influence for him to realise the initial idea and finish this album, started over half a decade before.
The ones familiar with Kaboom Karavan already know that nothing really sounds quite like it. Bram’s musical (and non-musical) universe is of the rare breed that seems to be entirely his own. Self-contained, but never opaque. Quite the opposite actually. Bram never pushes us away, instead, by listening to his music we are given view to a synesthetic wunderkammer of images, places, objects and possibilities. Distant but magnetic, alien but intimately familiar, Kaboom is folk music from another dimension. Listening to The Log and the Leeway is like waking up next to a bonfire in the middle of a swamp wearing somebody else’s clothes: You may not know how you got here, but whatever is happening seems to very directly involve YOU. What will happen?
Note from Erik K Skodvin (Miasmah): All the sounds, fabrics, instrumentation and stories that binds The Log and the Leeway together go far beyond what can be touched up in this simple writeup. As someone who have followed this journey since the beginning, and seen it shift from lighthearted fun to the most crepuscular personal experience, heard the stories behind (almost) every field recording and gone through boundless amounts of clips, visual details, notes, and inspirations – I can only say that it is with great pleasure and certain nostalgia I can present this record in full through Miasmah and close this quite extraordinary chapter. Bram is without doubt the most fascinating person I know. Like I told him in April 2020 during a trying time: “If everything fails, we´ll open a Kaboom Karavan museum” - an idea that might not be as far-fetched as it sounds.
Featuring: Cover painting by John Lurie. 16 page booklet of Musical illustration / collagés by Walter Dhoogh & Erik K Skodvin that more or less connects (or confuses) the dots between the music and stories behind. Mastered by Lupo at Loop-O
https://kaboomkaravan.bandcamp.com/album/the-log-and-the-leeway
|
2020 |
€26.00 |
|
| KALLABRIS |
Red Circle |
LP |
On “Red Circle”: Though severely cut, Red Circle doesn't exactly sweep along. It has a deliberate pace as Kallabris sets up the score of thirteen chance acquaintances who plan and carry out the sacking of our acoustic consciousness... Understatement is the method of these compositions for a small modular synthesizer. If there ever was something like heist music, this here surely is. (Vincent Canby, with a few minor changes and adaptions)
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/red-circle
"A few other projects came in the slipstream of Germany's Cranioclast, such as ABGS, Core, and Kallabris. That was in the late 80s and early 90s. I always assumed they were just different names for the same people making music together. At one point, much later, I realized this was an independent project and only connected through the CoC label. Behind Kallabris is Michael Anacker, and since the mid-80s, there has been a string of releases and even the odd concert, so there is hardly much mystery. As I play 'Red Circle', I think Kallabris embraced the modular synthesizer community. The eleven pieces have that modern electronic feel of carefully constructed tones and fragmented cracks. Much to my surprise, I read in the information that "technical and compositional innovation is not at the core the group's work but the active engagement with the limitations and the objects of everyday life". Plus, Kallabris "has persistently neglected any usage of advanced recording technology", which doesn't exclude the use of modular synthesis, but I found it at least remarkable. The press information calls his set a "small modular synthesizer", which, last time I looked, seemed out of my financial league. I found these pieces to be most enjoyable, even when it is all a bit abstract and distant. There are a few sounds here and there, but it never completely shuts off. On a first encounter, the music had an aleatoric feeling, but after some repeated playing, it turns out that there is order in this madness; or, maybe, I recognized order in what remained chaos? Hard to tell, but every time I heard it, it grew further on me. Interesting album!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€18.50 |
|
| KAPALI CARSI / NYM |
split |
MC |
Too much noise, drone, and other post-industrial stuff sounds pretty much the same by now. This release, however, is one of the rare cases where proven elements are reconfigured in a way that is really fresh, surprising, and suspenseful. Starting out with what sounds like a battle between a diesel engine and a chainsaw, the piece morphs into glacial sheets of lowercase hum before, on the B side of the tape, fierce percussion starts to build up an extremely ominous atmosphere …
One of the satisfying things about this release is that it manages to use both concrete and completely abstract sounds to their full emotional impact. Even though split into two sides of the tape, the release has a very consistent sound and dramaturgy. After the subdued, near-silent end of side A, the insistent rhythmic build-up on side B – almost like a shamanic ritual – comes as a real surprise and also something that brings out what was foreboding throughout side A. If you only ever get one NYM release, get this one.
File under: Drone, musique concrète, dark ambient
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2013 |
€7.00 |
|
| KAPOTTE MUZIEK |
Musik ohne Ende |
CD |
Professionally-manufactured CD in full-color, 4-panel digipak. Includes bonus tracks from compilations (Tracks 5 - 7)
Originally released 1988 via Prion Tapes
Mastered by Nÿland at 4 & Rising
Cover by Adrian Gormley
"In the 1970s, serious music lovers had a reel-to-reel tape deck. My father certainly loved music and had one to tape classical music off the radio. I recorded my first musical experiments with this machine, fascinated as I was by slowing down the speed so my pieces last longer. Later on, I had some more experience, and my father turned to playing CDs, so the reel-to-reel machine has used a lot less, and I was allowed to drag it upstairs, and I borrowed one from the likewise serious Phillips employee next door. Now having two machines, I was able to create longer loops, which became an overall ingredient in the music of Kapotte Muziek. 'Music Ohne Ende' means 'music without an end', which is what tape-loops are all about, isn't it? The four pieces on this cassette from 1988 are recorded with sound sources mentioned in the titles; metal, feedback, paper and surfaces, and resonances. I remember very little about the recording process, to be honest, but somehow this tape I enjoyed for its instability in sound and the noise of it all. I also used a loop housed in a normal cassette at that time, but those results never captured the same power.
For this CD re-issue, there are also three bonus tracks from the same period, using the same tape machines, but more cut-up/collage, cutting tapes and sticking these together in random order."
Frans de Waard, September 2022
https://tribetapes.bandcamp.com/album/musik-ohne-ende
|
2022 |
€12.00 |
|
| KAR |
Piccolo racconto crudele sulla notte appena trascorsa |
CD-R |
Interesting drone / field / concrete atmospherics-recordings from this duo consisting of ADRIAN SCERNA (also active as –> ANOFELE) and MARCO CARCASI. “a jungle of magnified lowerglyphs math-looped in a hive of despair by the roman duo of Adriano Scerna and Marco Carcasi.”[label description]
“ Kar has had releases before on the S'Agita label, but that was a live CD. Here they offer a studio CD, with just one track of thirty seven minutes. Kar is a duo who produce also microsounding stuff but less refined than Fioratti/Belfi. Traces of old school industrial music can be detected throughout in the louder bits in this piece. Things are more straight forward, direct in your face approach. Processings take a much simple course and the overall approach is much more minimal. Things stay longer in the same vein. For those who think microsoundings are too soft, this is the one to get then... “ [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2003 |
€9.00 |
|
| KAVE |
Dismal Radiance |
CD |
"Monstrously deep dark ambient. Evolving structures and unsettling atmospheres with a somehow "cinematic" touch for all the fans of CAUL, YEN POX, AMON and for anyone else into menacing, profound black ambience." [label info]
www.eibonrecords.com
"Imagine that you are standing in total blackness. There are no people. It’s as if you are standing in a large, cylindrical hall of emptiness where the echoing sounds around you are endless. Haunting shapes whistle by quietly and ominously. Streams of sound blow through as if there’s a wind fuelling this vision of nothingness. There’s the occasional splash of water. Rumblings can be heard in the distance. There’s no passion, no emotion, just a spooky and mystical atmosphere of desolation and helplessness. This black ambiance is the world of Kave, a mysterious band from Holland.
The atmosphere changes very little. “Dismal Radiance” is minimalist, even in comparison to a Blut aus Nord production where a similar soundtrack-type atmosphere prevails. The droning, spooky style is in fact more akin to Yen Pox and Troum. It’s very marginal with this style but I think I prefer the evolving atmospheres which those bands generate. But this is impressive too. Here there is no beauty in this blackness, nor is there any deviation or sign of escape from the bleak and apocalyptic aspect. As this album progresses, we find ourselves deeper inside the chasm with no sign of a beginning or an end. As the rumbling winds continue, the sense of solitude is intensified. We find ourselves staring into space but it’s not a space we can see. This album will neutralise you in its empty blackness.
There are eight tracks but it’s not that you would notice. It’s not stasis but let’s face it – we’re stuck in a void here. Those track titles are revealing and appropriate: “Tomb of the Black Sand”, “Corridors under the Sea”, “Dark Monoliths Rising” and “Encompassing Emptiness” are among them. Of all of them, “Bleak Phantasm” develops the most spiritual quality but as ever it floats away before another set of shapes set in and we are enveloped further in the menacingly tranquil scene.
Yes, there is a subtle evolution over the course of the album but we remain in the same dark place. The power lies in the absence of apparent human control over these frightening and monolithic structures that epitomise the sounds of “Dismal Radiance”. It is a very lonely experience. It is monotonous and desolate. Yet in spite of being depressive, nightmarish and overwhelming in its weightiness, its mesmerising consistency gives it the paradoxical quality of being inspiring. Some of us will see it that way. Others, I suspect, will not want to stomach this ambient and despairing soundscape." [Andrew Doherty / AVE NOCTUM] |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| KEELER, JAMES P. |
Terrarium Dreams |
mCD-R |
james p. keeler submitted us the three tracks of "terrarium dreams" in november 2020 for the fifth volume of our "homework" annual digital compilations. it was so intense that it was absolutely impossible to take one track so we proposed james to release a new 3", almost 20 years after his "5 shades for a grey room" released on taâlem in 2002. et voilà!
james p. keeler used:
field recordings, object manipulation, samples, synths
recorded 2020
"From the various projects that James P. Keeler has, as Keeler Designs, or in groups such Amputation Theory, Astronomy, Hedorah, Human As Disease, Maggotapplewonderland, Minotaur, The Leg, The Oak Trio, and Wilt, only the latter made it to these pages, albeit a long time ago. This is his second release for Taalem, following '5 Shades For A Grey Room', in 2002. Keeler uses field recordings, object manipulation, samples and synthesizers. Here we arrive at the more noisy end of ambient music. And, perhaps, also a more ritualistic aspect attached by Keeler. I am not sure why I am thinking of this, but the chirping of insects and wandering along the coast, along with the occasional slow thud, just make it sound like a ritual. The three pieces here drift on the edge of noise and lacks the delicacy of many other releases by Taalem. I found all of this a bit without focus, but at the same time, I am not sure why I am thinking this." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€5.00 |
|
| KENNEY, JESSIKA |
Atria |
LP |
Atria is a full length LP featuring compositions written between 2007-2013, including performances by esteemed musicians from Gamelan Pacifica, Gamelan Kusuma Laras, and Gamelan Rakyat, as well as Eyvind Kang, and recorded in multiple contexts with sound engineer Mell Dettmer. LP edition of 300 copies in tri-tone LP sleeve, with oversized LP booklet containing scores and translations. Album art by Faith Coloccia and Jessika Kenney.
The term “Atria” emerged in a dream in 2007, at a time when I was simultaneously writing new music for the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble at the invitation of Chris Miller, and recording “Voices of Spring” with Ostad Omoumi. “Atria” sounded like the Latin plural of atrium, evoking the chambers of the heart, and reminded me of the Javanese Satriya or “Knights”, but it was only later I realized the reference to the Arabic triliteral root “atr” or scent. This music has come into being in a similar way, by associations, breaths, correspondences, and dreams, with the untranslatable and the inexpressible as a compass. At the same time it is a document of a learning process, and although I have been so fortunate to have incredible teachers, all the errors and delusions are my own. This is a meditation on an internalized meta-historical dynamic between Javanese and Persian traditions, and is a tribute to the role of sound in the context of esoteric practices, including prophetology and healing water.
sigerecords.blogspot.de
|
2016 |
€30.00 |
|
| KEROVNIAN |
Far beyond, before the Time |
CD |
"Reissue of the long sold out and sought after Dark Ambient masterpiece from 1999, with 4 previously-unheard bonus tracks.
“Far Beyond, Before The Time” was the first genius offering of Kerovnian, spewing forth the bleakest, Blackest Ambient ever released. This music comes from the deep abyss, the bottomless wells, the blackest pits. Coupled with ultra low sonics, is the deep language of Kerovnian – words of a 1000 year old mixture of Persian and Greek. First released in 1999, “Far Beyond…” has received wide critical acclaim as an essential album of the genre. We’re very proud to finally reissue this masterpiece! The album was mastered by Denis Blackham. First edition was Ltd x 1000 copies. The 2015 edition comes with 4 bonus, previously unreleased tracks, recorded during the same sessions.
For fans of Lustmord, Inade, Atrium Carceri" [label info]
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| KESZLER, ELI |
Stadium |
do-LP |
NewYork-based artist Eli Keszler is at the apex of his career. This year alone he’s had a three-month-long solo exhibition (“Blue Skies” at Fuse Arts, Bradford, UK), performed internationally in a duo with Laurel Halo, collaborated with noted Hungarian author La´szlo´ Krasznahorkai, taught experimental composition and performance at Camp in the Pyrenees mountains, composed music for Turner Prize– winning visual artist Laure Prouvost, and most recently embarked on a world tour with Oneohtrix Point Never.
“Stadium” is his new album for Shelter Press. As his ninth solo record,“Stadium” reflects his move from South Brooklyn to Manhattan, where he produced the album. The constant blurry motion and ever-changing landscapes of the fast-paced island helped him modify and shape his sound into a new kind of film noir. “After we moved into our East Village apartment,” Keszler explains, “we found a guitar pick on the floor that read ‘Stadium’. We looked at each other at the same time and had the same thought. It could have gone any number of ways.” Indeed, there is a startling amount of expression at play on each track, where intersections of melody, restraint and rhythm are used to challenge the idea of memory, impression and space.
Keszler is often mistaken for an electronic musician, but in fact his sounds are raw and natural, produced by hand live in-situ. His performance with the drumset and acoustic percussion are central to his work. He produces almost impossible textures through self-realized methodologies: cascading melodies, a shadow of voices, and a unique pointillistic materiality. Although playing with the intensity of digitally-created music, his communications are done live with no processing. These haptics are what give “Stadium” its depth and its warmth. In a recent interview for Dazed, collaborator Oneohtrix Point Never comments, “I’ve always described his playing as bacterial. He’s able to parallax into very small, very acute, very specific relationships between percussive textures. It’s beyond just being a drummer — he’s a world-building percussionist.”
In “Stadium,” Keszler uses lived experience to realize the most wide-ranging sound he’s created to date. “Stadium” draws out textures from overlapping geographies (from Shinjuku arcades to city streets and Brutalist architecture) and transforms these travelogue field recordings into starting points for composition. He then builds on these environments to create subliminal spaces for his percussion, keyboards and acoustic instruments. His “world-building” techniques are pushed to new levels with mesmerizing string and brass arrangements. Throughout the album, Keszler’s writing, keyboard playing and scoring operate like a sonic channel that transports the listener into a quaking web.
Perhaps this is the “stadium” referred to in the title: a larger network of sound and bodies moving continually, oscillating and turning in on itself. Keszler has explored these ideas before both in his visual work and sound installations - especially notable on projects such as his massive Manhattan Bridge installation ‘Archway’ or his Boston City Hall work 'Northern Stair Projection'. “Stadium” takes these long-running ideas to new depths. “My installations work with massive city spaces for a complex of individuals,” Keszler states. “The recordings on Stadium are inverted. They are landscapes scaled for the singular. Like a mass collecting in one arena, this music compresses city spaces, genre and instrumentalism into an amorphous form. On the record, there are ruptures of information and happenstance. Like a game, it could go any number of ways.”
|
2018 |
€26.50 |
|
| KLEISTWAHR |
Do Not |
LP |
Limited edition reissue of this album originally released in 1986 on cassette on Broken Flag. Comprising two untitled side-long pieces, Do Not catches Gary Mundy of Ramleh in peak "noise" mode with his solo endeavor, taking much from his place as one of the innovators of the so-called power electronics genre yet pushing this confrontational avant-garde sensibility somewhere entirely new. It is a sound that Kleistwahr has continued to explore and add new dimensions to since, but never completely untangles itself from this particular root. Raw and seemingly unrestrained, these pieces present a robust, white-hot sonic meltdown up there with the very best from this ultimately fertile period for music from the basement. This LP is packaged similarly to the vinyl reissues of the first two full-length Kleistwahr albums released by Harbinger Sound in 2011, Arsonicide and Myth. It is also being released the same time as the one-sided Mobility (FD 129LP) reissue originally released on cassette in 1983.
https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/product/kleistwahr-do-not-lp
|
2022 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Mobility |
LP (single-sided) |
Limited edition reissue of this cassette originally released in 1983 on Broken Flag, gathering five untitled solo pieces by Gary Mundy of Ramleh in full on early power electronics mode, firmly illustrating his place as one of the innovators of this genre yet likewise pushing this confrontational avant-garde sensibility somewhere entirely new. It is a sound that Kleistwahr has continued to explore and add new dimensions to ever since, but never completely untangles itself from this particular root. Raw and seemingly unrestrained, these pieces present a robust, white-hot sonic meltdown up there with the very best from this ultimately fertile period for music from the basement. They last around 17 minutes in total.
This release is packaged similarly to the vinyl reissues of the first two full-length Kleistwahr albums released by Harbinger Sound in 2011, 'Arsonicide' and 'Myth'. It is also being released the same time as the 'Do Not' reissue originally released on cassette in 1986.
##############
"Limited edition reissue of an ultra-rare Broken Flag cassette (BF27), by Gary Mundy of Ramleh's longstanding solo endeavour, originally released in 1983. Unavailable for over 30 years, this is a must-have record by all those with an interest in Ramleh and their offshoots, the Broken Flag archives or, more broadly, anything from this fertile period in noise / avant--garde music from the basement. Ltd x 300 copies with insert. Mastered by Sion Orgon. Artwork by Gary Mundy and Puppy38."
|
2022 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
For the Lives Once Lived |
CD |
"Several years ago, Gary Mundy of Ramleh/Broken Flag (and far more besides) declared to me that he wished to do one new Kleistwahr album every year until he's no longer able to do them. Fourth Dimension Records has subsequently fulfilled a promise to honor this plan as much as possible and is managing to keep up so far. How Gary manages to keep pulling new ideas out of the proverbial hat at this rate is anybody's guess, but the latest album, For the Lives Once Lived illustrates very clearly that the wellspring he draws from has far from dried up. If you have been paying attention to the albums that have been released by Fourth Dimension Records during recent years, you should understand that his solo music has retained the molten intensity it has always been propelled by since Kleistwahr was founded in the early 1980s. While the work occasionally seems as though it draws from the same dusty religious setting as some of Messiaen's wonderful organ compositions, there's still an all-encompassing blanket of ravaged psychedelia firmly laced with blood-flecked barbs to help counter this. When Kleistwahr's music seems poised to elevate the atmospheric gestures towards the sublime and elegiac, there's always a gaping maw lined with razor-edged teeth lurking nearby to help keep all those lofty hopes and expectations from getting above themselves. For the Lives Once Lived may also surprise many with its opening song, "Rotten Boroughs," which both stands out from the rest of the album yet makes sense as part of it. This is another fantastic album from the unstoppable force that is Gary Mundy's Kleistwahr. Long may it continue. For the Lives Once Lived appears packaged in a Broken Flag-style sleeve featuring photos by Chris Low, design by Puppy38, and mastering by Sion Orgon."
https://garymundykleistwahr.bandcamp.com/album/for-the-lives-once-lived
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| KLINE, PHIL |
Around the World in a Daze |
2 x DVD-A |
Ausschweifender & hochgelobter neuer Release von PHIL KLINE, den wir bisher nur von der sehr schönen "Glow in the Dark" CD kannten (1998). Dabei ist er in den Staaten sehr bekannt, hat in frühen 80ern eine Band mit JIM JARMUSCH gehabt, war Bestandteil des GLENN BRANCA.Orchesters, und hat als Klangkünstler in diversen Galerien Klang-Installationen "ausgestellt"... AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE wurde speziell für "surround sound" aufgenommen und zeigt auf 10 Stücken eine grosse Variabilität, verbindet Komponiertes mit "gefundenen" Quellen, meist geht es um minimale konzeptuelle Arrangements basierend auf vokalem, elektronischem und kammermusikalischem Material; von harmonischen, fast kitschigen Melodien bis hin zu übereinandergeschichten Tape-Flächen und obskuren Field Recordings, z.B. eine Aufnahme aus Afrika von Tausenden Graupapageien die mit seinem dronigen "tape choir" verbunden werden, und ein echtes "Madrigal" gibt es auch zu hören.
Auf der zweiten DVD ist dann Film-Material: MEDITATION (8+ min), ein Film / Musik-Clip mit PHIL KLINE, ein 35minütiges Interview mit ihm und einige Fotos. Kommt in einer übergrossen Doppel-DVD Hülle, mit ausführlichem Booklet.
"Leading new-music composer Phil Kline debuts a major work on this new surround sound DVD. Heard here for the first time, this 65-minute studio composition was commissioned by Starkland to premiere on this high-resolution surround-sound DVD. Daze is Kline's longest work and biggest commission to date. Daze is also likely the largest work so far commissioned for a high-resolution surround-sound recording. Performers include the uber-cool Ethel string quartet and violin virtuoso Todd Reynolds. Surround-sound tracks place listeners inside wondrous boombox choirs, an ethereal Ethel string quartet, a weird madrigal, hyper-dense bells (hundreds of thousands at one point), richly mournful multi-tracked vocals, soaring violinistics, and an immersive environment of 15,000 African gray parrots. The release also offers a second Extras DVD with a composer-produced music video and a 30-minute interview with Kline and John Schaefer. The custom 5"x10" digipak includes a 24-page booklet. The two DVDs contain a total content of 110 minutes. This release follows Starkland's groundbreaking surround-sound Immersion DVD, now recognized as the first commissioned high-resolution surround-sound recording. Immersion won praise from Sound & Vision, Stereophile, Billboard, etc. and was the #1 best-selling DVD-Audio at Amazon for nearly a year. The main disc offers Daze in several formats for various home playback setups: the standard Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, DTS 5.1, and high-resolution audiophile DVD-Audio, as well as a stereo version. Playback of the Daze music is accompanied by over 80 images shot by Kline."
[label description]
www.starkland.com
"..From the title you may deduce that space is a keyword in this production. Recordings for this project were done all over the world. But besides Kline is very interested in the spacial aspects of music and sound. He played with these aspects by using whole sets of boomboxes for the recording of most tracks. Besides this main interest, other musical items led him by constructing ten very different works. The lengthiest piece 'Pennies from Heaven' is the one I liked most. Because of the sound and because of the structure of the piece. The same descending scale is repeated and repeated again, transposed and multiplied, etc. The constant downward movement is very imaginative and brings about a meditative state. Also the opening piece 'The Housatonic at Henry Street' fascinates because of its multilayered and detailed soundspectrum. Other pieces use the human voice as the most important material, like 'The Wailing Wall' resurrected by the voice of Kline himself. Two other pieces have the violin in the center: 'Svarga yatra' and 'Grand Etude for the Elevation'. The beautiful concluding piece is built from field recordings done in Central Africa. Tracks differ also because for the different structuring principles that are used. But as said the pieces impress above all because of their soundqualities and spatial characteristics. Each piece is accompanied by its own series of photos. Nice photos often. From urban environments, to nature, etc, etc. But I didn't need them for enjoying the music, nor the other way around. And I couldn't bridge them in my imagination. While listening I felt a bit 'imprisoned' by looking at the same time at the pictures. Well, this also a spatial effect I guess. The second dvd has an extensive interview with Kline commenting on each piece. This gives a good insight in what Kline had in mind. Congratulations for Starkland for releasing this extraordinary and well-documented release." [DM, Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€16.50 |
|
| KLOOB |
Remarkable Events |
CD |
Here on 'Remarkable Events', Kloob has brought a darker, much more intense, rich feel to his music, quite different from some of his previous works. The tracks switch between dark and light and you can feel the influence of his recent Eastern travels, crackling in the air, in the field recordings, in the synth sweeps and patterns and in the sonic landscapes that the album creates and carries you along. Make no mistake, this is not an album filled with the chants of Hindu monks and the busy clatter of every day Indian life. It is an intensely spiritual album, which for its duration will take you along the same paths traversed by the artist himself.
Kloob wants to thank to Max Corbacho for his mastering work and Mark & Patricia from Winter-Light label for their great support and awesome involment in this album.
https://kloob.bandcamp.com/album/remarkable-events |
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| KLUSTER |
Admira |
CD |
"Admira is sourced from original master recordings discovered by Kluster member and Tangerine Dream engineer Klaus Freudigmann. Along with Vulcano, also being released at the same time on Important, Admira is presented here for the first time in this deluxe package. These intense sessions were made with Schnitzler at the helm, as always, after the departure of Mobius and Roedelius from the group. Conrad Schnitzler founded Kluster in 1969 along with Roedelius, Mobius and often Klaus Freudigmann who had multiple roles within the group as a player, engineer and instrument inventor. Eventually Roedelius and Mobius left Kluster and continued on as Cluster while Schnitzler and Freudigmann continued as Kluster often exploring the communal aspects of music by bringing new people into the group." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| KNIZAK, MILAN |
Broken Music |
LP |
"Black vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.
Original design + extra text.
Milan Knizak 1979's masterpiece never re-released before.
Milan Knizak (born 19 April 1940) is a Czech performance artist, sculptor, musician, installation artist, dissident, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art. Before everyone else - Christian Marclay, Philip Jeck, eRikm, Martin Tétreault, Otomo Yoshihide - there was Milan Knizak. In 1964, Milan Knizak, a member of Fluxus from behind the Iron Curtain, sat down on a sidewalk near the Charles Bridge in Prague, laid down a paper carpet right into the street, and starts tearing pages out of books and burning them... Around the same time, he began to create music from defective, worn, damaged or broken LP's. These Broken Music compositions, his classic collages of noises created during performances and happenings, are widely regarded as important sound art documents on record." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
"We had a cd reissue of this years and years ago, that's long out of print, but now here's a nice vinyl reissue of this pioneering 'turntablist' experiment from the '60s...
The Czech artist Milan Knizak began his art career without much success, getting himself thrown out of Pedagogic Uni Prague, Preliminary Art School Prague, and Art Academy Prague in quick succession. But during the mid '60s, Knizak affiliated himself with Fluxus and began experimenting with turntables, tape recorders, and the surfaces of vinyl in order to make a 'broken music,' predating the damaged turntable 'n' vinyl experiments of Christian Marclay by almost two decades! Originally he would just slow down and speed up his records to change to quality of the intrinsic music. But by 1965, he started to scratch the records, punch holes in them, sticking tape to the surfaces, dumping paint over whole record, burning them, literally cutting the records apart and gluing them back together. These would then be played on his turntable, and inevitably destroy the needle and often wreck the turntable itself! The collages that Knizak arrived at are nerve-wracking clattering works in which snippets of the original would emerge amidst erratic skips and asynchronous warbling. Certainly for those adventurous fans of Philip Jeck, "Metal Machine Music," and Marclay." [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Broken Music |
CD |
"Milan Knizak 1979's masterpiece never re-released before.
Milan Knizak (born 19 April 1940) is a Czech performance artist, sculptor, musician, installation artist, dissident, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art. Before everyone else - Christian Marclay, Philip Jeck, eRikm, Martin Tétreault, Otomo Yoshihide - there was Milan Knizak. In 1964, Milan Knizak, a member of Fluxus from behind the Iron Curtain, sat down on a sidewalk near the Charles Bridge in Prague, laid down a paper carpet right into the street, and starts tearing pages out of books and burning them... Around the same time, he began to create music from defective, worn, damaged or broken LP's. These Broken Music compositions, his classic collages of noises created during performances and happenings, are widely regarded as important sound art documents on record." [label info]
www.subrosa.net |
2015 |
€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 |
|
| KODI & PAUSA |
In one week and new toys to play |
CD |
Number seven in the BROMBRON series, this time by a dutch impro-duo that does “the weird stuff” and more childish atonal/electronic experiments in the vein of DDAA, KLIMPEREI, FS BLUMM....
“Korm Plastics is proud to present the seventh 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.
Natalie Bruys (Kodi) is foremost a visual artist who studied at De Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, where she graduated with the production of a vinyl record with her own music. She then moved temporarily to Berlin where she continued to produce her own unique blend of soundscaping, plunderphonica and techno.
Lukas Simonis (aka Pausa) has his roots as an instrumentalist and musical 'activist' in the industrial music and noise rock of the Eighties ( Throbbing Gristle, the Residents, Pere Ubu, Sonic Youth and beyond).Being a part of the Rotterdam jazzbunker scene (a collective that consisted of heavy drug induced punk rockers, freejazzers, early electronic musicians and pre-postrock combo's) he discovered the delimited world of improvisation. In the meantime he played in bands like Dull Schicksal, Trespassers W and Morzelpronk. At the same time he was writing for underground magazines like Trespassers W, Opscene, Mondain Den Haag and the Koekrandt as well as organizing concerts, events and films, first at the Jazzbunker in Rotterdam later on the Dissonanten festival, the Dissidenten festival, Popifilm, Dodorama and finally WORM, a multimedia centre for experimental art. At the moment Simonis plays in Coolhaven (with Peter Fengler and Hajo Doorn), Liana Flu Winks (with Nina Hitz and Wilf Plum), ApricotMyLady (with the Bohman Brothers and Ann Laberge), The Static Tics (with Henk Bakker) and Vril (with Chris Cutler and Bob Drake). This sounds like a lot of work (and sometimes it is) but these bands and projects all exist only a few weeks or months a year. (so time enough to sit at home).
On 'In One Week And New Toys To Play' Kodi & Pausa combine their totally different background of rock and techno, playing the studio's analogue synth collection (aka the new toys to play) but also guitar, banjo, rhythmbox and a touch of the city's sounds through their use of field recordings.” [press-release]
|
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| KONRAD KRAFT |
Accident in Heaven |
LP |
2nd re-issue of Konrad Kraft's mid 80s electronic underground recordings on TAL after "Arctica" in 2018. ACCIDENT IN HEAVEN was originally released in 1987 as a hand-made micro-edition of about 40 cassette tapes. It was only the third ever release on the short-lived now near legendary SDV label which had been established that same year by Konrad Kraft, Bernd Sevens and Dino Oon in Düsseldorf. Finally finding a more substantial and appreciative audience on vinyl over 30 years after its original limited release, ACCIDENT IN HEAVEN is a strong testament to the explorative experiments of Detlef Funder a.k.a. Konrad Kraft, whose homebuilt studio sound attempted to bridge the clinical roughness of Severed Heads and the psychedelia of Coil with the density and force of industrial, post-punk and prototechno. Concurrent with his ever-expanding production skills, KONRAD KRAFT's sound work in the second half of the 80s stayed firmly rooted within a highly stylised underground spirit. Both his music and also the freshly launched SDV label first and foremost served as a medium for communication. The vital urgency of ACCIDENT IN HEAVEN underlines the record's core narrative which arguably sounds even more futuristic today than it did 30 years ago.
|
2022 |
€23.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| KORBER, THOMAS / RALF WEHOWSKY |
Walküren am Dornenbaum |
CD |
"This three year-long collaboration begun in 2006 when Korber and Wehowsky embarked on intense recording sessions in Eggenstein, where the latter resides, lasting several days. The output from these sessions forms the basis of this work, augmented by additional field recordings and various electronic manipulations. Korber and Wehowsky used the same software which allowed them to exchange the pieces at any stage of the compositional process, so that every detail of the music could be shaped in a truly collaborative manner. The result obliterates the borders between improvisation and composition, spontaneity and careful planning. Tomas Korber (Zurich, 1979) received a basic training in clarinet and music theory alongside guitar lessons. He discontinued these studies after five years, shortly thereafter teaching himself to play electric guitar and use the computer and other electronic devices for music making. Korber has written compositions and played improvised music since the early 1990s. He is a prolific solo artist and performer; his work includes film scores and music for dance and theatre, as well as numerous collaborations. In 2009 he was awarded an artist residency in New York City by the Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Zurich. Ralf Wehowsky founded the group P.D. (later renamed P16.D4) in 1981 and the label Wahrnehmungen in 1980, which was renamed Selektion in 1982. P16.D4 was a highly influential and experimental group. Their concept of materialaustausch (material exchange) was developed long before the term Ôremix' was coined. They performed at punk and No Wave festivals as well as at the bastions of academic avant garde such as Ferientage Neuer Musik in Darmstadt. In the early 1990s Wehowsky adopted his RLW moniker. His quiet, highly complex style of composition is based on artifacts of instrumental and electronic lateral noises. First edition of 300 copies." [label info]
www.entracte.co.uk
"Nur mit einigen Schwierigkeiten konnte ich diese laminierte Musik aus ihrer Verschweißung pulen. Aber wer würde bei dem Titel erwarten, dass einem da etwas leicht gemacht werden soll? Der Zürcher Bruitist ist durch Releases auf Cut und For4Ears, mit Mersault und dem Signal Quintet, ein seit 2003 wiederkehrender Name in der Noise Culture. Aka RLW reitet bereits seit 1980 ohne Furcht und Tadel auf den steinigen, dornigen Pfaden der Musique concrète und der experimentellen Klanggestaltung. Wobei ich immer schon lieber Spiel als Experiment dazu gesagt habe. Was die beiden da miteinander spielen, zielt, durch die Anweisung PLAY LOUD! forciert, auf das Hör-, nicht auf das Sprachzentrum. Wie es also in Worte fassen? Vinylglissandos und entsprechend verzerrte Samples, manchmal wie von gurgelnden Stimmen, mischen sich mit sirrendem Bohren, rau holpernden, rauschenden Verschleifungen, granularer Körnigkeit, zittrigem Mikrobeben, zischendem Brausen, streuenden Pixeln, aufwallendem und verhallendem Gedröhn zu durchwegs plastischen Eindrücken. ‚Leben in roter Landschaft‘ könnte auch ein Informel- Gemälde heißen, von Schumacher oder Tàpies. Die Ohren tasten über wulstige, körnige, löchrige Oberflächen, voller Grus und mit splittrigen, strohigen Einschlüssen. Als wären das Braillezeilen für brobdignagsche Fingerkuppen, oder eben Vinylauslaufrillen im Riesenformat. ‚Abstieg der Geisterseher‘ fiept zage, plinkt und flattert dazu drahtig. Tropfen hageln und prasseln, aus Liliputperspektive wird diese Perkussion zum katastrophalen Steinschlag. Zuletzt prasselt und knurscht noch einmal eine rote Landschaft, mit Effekten, als würde ein Tonband rückwärts gespult. Das ist nicht der Stoff, aus dem die Träume sind, sondern Reibungsflächen und Strahlungsimpulse des Materiellen." [Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| KOWALSKY, GREGG |
Tape Chants |
CD |
"From GREGG KOWALSKY: “After my first album for Kranky, I was eager to adapt a new method of composing and performing as a way to distance myself from the digital realm. I felt limited by the unlimited possibilities of digital production, and I had spent the previous 5 years composing with the computer as my main instrument. In an effort to push myself I spent two years experimenting with tape loops, cassette players and recorders, analog synths, sine oscillators, mixer feedback, contact mics and various acoustic sound sources. Through these experiments I developed a series entitled Tape Chants, which is made up of performances and compositions using tapes as the main source material, as well as the mono speakers of various cassette players for the piece’s amplification. All of the cassettes are tuned to each other using the pitch control and halfspeed playback devices located on the Sony TCM 200DV cassette recorder. All of the compositions are constructed with tuned sinewaves as the starting point and the pieces are built using sources such as shruti box, percussion, gongs, etc. During the construction of the studio version of Tape Chants, I was interested in adding rhythmic textures to the once static drone compositions. The recorded version of Tape Chants does not try to replicate the surround sound component of the live performances, but there is a variety of different acoustic spaces located in the source material. Many of the same cassettes that were used in the several editions of the series were used to record this album." [label info]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2009 |
€14.50 |
|
| KRAKEN |
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 |
|
| KRAUSE, ANDRES |
Move Ground |
LP |
"The development and reproduction of new sound spaces, Move Ground is based on the soundtrack of an audio-visual installation of the same title that was premiered at the third Horkunst Festival in Erlangen, Germany in 2005. Field recordings from locations with inspiring acoustic qualities in Cologne were edited and mixed with select electronic sounds to create a sonic journey exploring varying external and internal spaces, providing an experience of the atmosphere and the spatial dimensions of the different locations. Move Ground was recorded and mixed by Andrés Krause in 2004-2006."
"From the top you can make out the wonderful and awesome sight of the plains that lie below, worn out at the foot of the city. On the horizon tall brick chimneys, round and square, vomit billows of soot into the clouds, while little further down, barely passing over the flat roofs of workshops covered in bituminized felt and sheet metal, whistling jets of white steam escape from thin aluminum flue pipes. A great silence descends over the plain as the rumble of the city dies out little by little and the noise from distant factories reaches you but falteringly. Sometimes, however, like a horrible complaint, you can hear the dull, raucous whistle of trains from the station as they pass, hidden by an embankment planted with acacias and ash trees. Finally, in the distance, in the far distance, a large white road climbs a hill and loses itself in the sky, its summit crowned by a billow of dust, like a cloud stirred up by an invisible horse drawn cart, hidden by the curve of the earth." [label info]
"Der Kölner Künstler Andrés Krause wirkt im Verborgenen. Große zeitliche Abstände liegen zwischen seinen Releases und auch die Musik selbst ist von einer gewissen Flüchtigkeit und strahlt etwas von dunklen Geheimnissen aus. Move Ground erstreckt sich in vier Parts über zwei LP-Suiten und ist wieder eine kraftvolle und intensive Arbeit geworden. Aber auch hier wird der Hörer nicht durch augenscheinliche Dynamik ins Geschehen hineingezogen, sondern muss sich den Zugang gewissermaßen erlauschen. Ein Aufkleber auf der Hülle verweist als Sourcings auf Klänge des Kölner Außenraums – kaum zu glauben, lassen die bassig-schabenden, irgendwie noch vorne drückenden Klänge doch eher an Unterwasserlandschaft oder schattige Höhlen denken. Lediglich im Part 4 von Move Ground treten konkrete Klänge aus den tiefen Frequenzschichten hervor: ein pochender Rhythmus wie von Fußstapfen mischt sich in die Textur, auch meint man, Stimmen zu hören. Ein Release, dem man Zeit geben muß, um auf as Gemüt zu wirken." [Zipo / Auf Abwegen]
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| KRENG |
The Summoner |
LP |
LP : Laser-Cut Outer Sleeve in Fulltone Bronze & Black, incl. full Color Insert
"The Summoner comes 4 years since the last Kreng album Grimoire and 3 years since the massive retrospective box set Works for Abattoir Férme 2007-2011. A lot has happened in between, and this new recording can be seen as quite the departure from the aformentioned.
His most personal album to date, The Summoner is based around the 5 stages of mourning and is made after a year of losing several close friends. Hard enough material to work on, he decided to add a 6th stage, entitled The Summoning to be able to arrive at the finalé, Acceptance.
Conjuring up the spirit of György Ligeti, the first half of the album is made entirely of 12 string players being directed to play around, make noisey clusters and crescendoes, moving you between Denial, Anger, Bargaining and Depression. In fact, The Summoner is the first Kreng album NOT made by hordes of samples. Music to really dig deep in to.
Following into the second part of the album, twists and turns are taken and it's hard to know where exactly you are. The Summoning's haunting organs and smoke-filled chambers lead you in to an earth- shaking wall of guitars, drums and bass courtesy of Belgian doom band Amenra. Leaving you in a state of shock, the album closes in an incredibly heartfelt and quiet way with the fittingly named Acceptance." [label info]
www.miasmah.com
"The first release from Kreng since 2011, but well worth the wait. While the sound sources on The Summoner are quite the departure from his 2011 release Grimoire, the dark and disorienting atmosphere is still here. Here Caudron conducts a dozen string players, creating a twisted and droney orchestral mass that explodes and dies without warning, bringing to mind the terrifying works of Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. The song titles here, too, tell Caudron's story as the five stages of grief, going from "Denial" to "Acceptance". The first four tracks are dark, twisted, orchestral soundscapes, dynamic and haunted that slowly goad you into Caudron's warped world. The climax of the album is without doubt the titular track, sandwiched between "Depression" and the somber "Acceptance". The 15-minute long track features Belgian doom band Amenra (whose album Mass V we reviewed back in 2013) providing the slow, crushing trudge (with maybe the slightest, SLIGHTEST hint of uplifting melody) to bring the whole piece to a bombastic, epic zenith. Very few out there can capture the range of emotion and atmosphere that Kreng can - terrifying, cathartic, bleak, and maybe just a little bit uplifting. For fans of Gnaw Their Tongues, The Caretaker, and anything on the Miasmah label." [Aquarius Records]
"Es sind schon viele Alben aus Trauer entstanden, und viele handeln von der Trauer um eine geliebte Person. Alben, die das Trauern als solches zum Thema haben, sind seltener. Das könnte damit zu tun haben, dass die Frage nach den Mechanismen des Trauerns sehr theoretisch anmutet, aber sie ist auch komplizierter als man vielleicht denkt, denn eine Trauer, die sich weder in die Verdrängung noch in Selbstmitleid flüchtet, erfordert Leidensfähigkeit und ist keineswegs eine passive Angelegenheit.
Für den Belgier Pepijn Caudron ist das Thema auch keine theoretische Sache, denn der Grund für seine Beschäftigung mit dem Wesen der Trauer ist ein sehr persönlicher und rührt aus dem Verlust einiger ihm nahestehender Personen. Irgendwo stieß der Musiker auf die psychologische Beobachtung, dass Trauer häufig in mehreren, sich teilweise widersprechenden Phasen bewältigt wird. Zunächst schreckt der Trauernde davor zurück, den Verlust und den damit verbundenen Schmerz anzuerkennen und klammert sich mit unterschwelliger Verzweiflung an die Zeit vor dem Verlust. Da eine solche Verleugnung nur auf Zeit funktioniert, stellt sich bald so etwas wie Wut ein, Wut auf den Verlust als solchen, vielleicht auch auf die betrauerte Person, aber auch auf sich selbst und die eigene Unfähigkeit zu verleugnen und zu verdrängen. Mit der Phase des inneren Abwägens setzt der erste Schritt in Richtung Akzeptanz ein, dem allerdings meist eine Phase der Depression vorausgeht: Erst wenn diese durchlebt ist, kann der Trauernde den Schicksalsschlag akzeptieren.
Caudron erkannte in dieser Beschreibung so viel von seinen eigenen Erfahrungen wieder, dass er den Drang verspürte, seinen eigenen Weg durch die Trauer in einem Album durchzuarbeiten. „The Summoner“, das auf diesen Erfahrungen und Überlegungen beruht und doch noch einen Schritt weitergeht, stellt in der Diskografie des Musikers schon deshalb eine besondere Wegmarke dar, weil hier erstmals mit Studiomusikern statt ausschließlich mit Samples gearbeitet wird.
Die minutenlange Stille, mit der „Denial“ beginnt, könnte glatt für all das stehen, das der Trauernde, beide Hände auf die Ohren gedrückt, nicht wahrhaben will. Doch es ist eine trügerische Stille, in der sich klammheimlich eine unerbittliche Realität zusammenbraut, die durch ihr schwelend kreisendes Dröhnen, durch seltsame Stimmen und entferntes Gerumpel so bedrohlich wie ein düsteres Wahngebilde anmutet. Caudrons Erfahrung bei der Arbeit fürs Theater kommt ihm schon hier zugute, denn die leicht überhörbaren Details schwirren derart gekonnt im Raum herum, dass man auch als Hörer dieser Wirklichkeit kaum entweichen kann. Die darauf folgende „dialektische“ Folge von wenig Licht und viel Schatten weiß ebenfalls davon zu kosten – das trockenere, direktere „Anger“ mit seinen lauten und eruptiven Streicherkaskaden, das mit viel orchestralem Geklapper vor sich hinsuchende „Bargaining“, das weitaus eindeutiger dahingleitende „Depression“ und zuletzt die genügsame Ruhe des schlichten Pianos in „Acceptance“.
Mit „The Summoning“ geht Caudron über das Theoriekonzeot hinaus und markiert den Punkt, an dem der schwärzeste in den lichtesten Abschnitt übergeht. Wie um zu zeigen, dass an der Stelle etwas neues geboren wird, scheint er hier noch einmal das ganze Album zu bündeln und über sich selbst hinauszuführen, und es ist nicht unpassend, dass er dies nicht im Alleingang vollzieht, sondern seine Landsleute von Amenra mitmischen lässt. Das schleppende Schlagwerk, die kraftvollen, kernigen Gitarrenwände und das heißere Gröhlen der bekannten Doommetaller, die im Normalfall als niederdrückend empfunden werden, wirken hier fast so erhebend wie eine Levitation." [Uwe Schneider / African Paper]
africanpaper.com/2015/05/09/kreng-the-summoner/
|
2015 |
€17.00 |
|
| |
Selfed (SOLD OUT) |
do-10inch |
"Starting with soundtracks for the Belgian theatre-company 'Abbatoir Fermé' in 2007, PEPIJN CAUDRON aka KRENG has since then created an impressive catalogue of work, submerging deeply into a cinematic musical world, often built on 'classic' instrumental sounds, expressing a fascination for "the secrets of our culture, the roots of our collective fears and the hidden wounds, phantasies and rituals of our time" (as 'Abbatoir Fermé' denotes their own programmation). KRENGs compositions share a rare intensity and originality, immersing the listener into gloomy and surealistic atmospheres. SELFED is a work for a dance choreography by KEVIN TRAPPENIERS, a piece for a single dancer that relates to the phenomenon of 'Self-Pollination' in Biology. SELFED is seen as a metaphor to overcome mental and physical barriers of the self and society, by "investigating the notion of the energy of self and self-sacrifice". The three pieces suck you in with their spiraling sounds from the very first minute, ending in an early claustrophobic climax, from which structure and beauty is
regained ... An interplay of circling dynamics.
This 2 x10" vinyl (45 rpm) comes in a full colour double-gatefold cover, each record pressed in a different colour (blue-black / red-black), the fourth side contains an etching of all credit information. First ed. of 498 copies. Artwork design by TILMANN BENNINGHAUS. Mastering: PETER ANDERSSON." [press release]
Words by the director about the concept of SELFED: "In botany, selfing causes an animal or plant to breed with or fertilise one of the same hybrid origin or strain, thus causing the organism to self-pollinate or self-fertilise. The cover pictures refer to ultrasonic pictures of a self-replicating cyberpunk/biopunk unborn being in its early stage, to repetitive oscillator sounds and cyclic lifeforms.
In SELFED, the performance, as well as the score and the sound design, explore methods to adapt the body to mental and physical barriers and how to overcome those obstacles or gain control over them. The dance performance incorporates both the philosophy and techniques of Parkour within contemporary dance. We investigate the notion of the energy of self and self-sacrifice. The self meant as an aid and a tool for introspection and reflexion, for demolition and construct of the borders of the self - of the body and the mind. Accordingly, the performance and music reflects on the positioning of mankind towards individual and social power structures." [KEVIN TRAPPENIERS]
(In 2014, Kevin Trappeniers was artist in residence TAKT Dommelhof (BE) to create the dance performance SELFED, that premiered at Plesni Teater Ljubljana (Slovenia). After this choreographic debut, which consisted of an outside and an inside part made for the specific locations in Slovenia, Trappeniers reworked the inside part to physical theatre.)
credits:
selfed
concept, direction, choreography, scenography: Kevin Trappeniers
dance & performance: Dagmar Dachauer
music & sound design: Kreng
light design: Laurence Halloy, Kevin Trappeniers
in collaboration with: Luka Avguštin, Enej Progar, Jan Ulčar, Sebastjan Zupanc (SloMotion, Slovenian Parkour Family)
dramaturgy & mentorship: Andreja Kopač
coaching & distribution advice: Vincent Company
producer: Živa Brecelj
production: Plesni Teater Ljubljana (SI) - Choreographic Debut PTL 2014
co-production: TAKT Dommelhof (Neerpelt, BE)
in collaboration with: Muzej in Galerije Mesta Ljubljane (MGML)
artwork & photography: Kevin Trappeniers
thanks to: Vincent Van den Bossche, Blaze Urban Academy (BE), Šolski Center Ljubljana (SI)
"Substantia Innominata est la 10ème Série de vinyles de Drone Records et a pour but de présenter des travaux inspirés par l’inconnu, autour de nous ou parmi nous.
Commençant avec les bandes sons pour la compagnie de théâtre belge \ Abattoir Fermé\ en 2007, Pepijn Caudron alias Kreng a depuis créé un impressionnant catalogue, plongeant profondément dans monde musical cinématique, souvent construit à partir de sons instrumentaux « classiques », exprimant une fascination pour \ les secrets de notre culture, les racines de nos peurs collectives et les blessures cachées, phantasmes et rituels de notre temps\ (comme \ Abattoir Fermé\ désigne leur propre programmation).
Les compositions de Kreng partagent une rare intensité et originalité, immergeant l’auditeur dans des atmosphères sombres et surréalistes. Des bruits de bateaux sous marins suggèrent en effet l’immersion inquiétante raclant, puis un saxo sirène orientale, et ça se calme en hélico dans un essai d’envol des flots, des résonances lointaines et un sonar ou celui d’un dauphin ou baleine construisent cet univers sonore immersif, un peu comme si on était pris dans un U-Boot.
Selfed est un travail pour une chorégraphie de danse de Kevin Trappeniers, une pièce pour danseur seul relatant le phénomène de \ Pollinisation Atomatique\ en Biologie. Selfed est à voir comme une métaphore les barrières physiques et mentales de soi et de la société, en \ investissant la notion d’énergie propre et de sacrifice de soi\ . Les trois pièces vous sucent par leurs sons en spirale dès la première minute, se terminant dans un climat de début de claustrophobie, dans lequel beauté et structure sont retrouvés.... Une réciprocité de dynamiques circulaires.
On y entend des voix, puis des rythmes secs et rapides de peaux élastiques mixés avec des voix pour montrer cette Auto Pollinisation de musiques concrètes et électroniques par les voix. Comme dans la « Pollinisation Automatique », les éléments humains et industriels se mêlent et se confondent.
Ce vinyle 2 x10\ (45 rpm) est livré dans une pochette double-gatefold, chaque disque est pressé dans une couleur différente (bleur-noire / rouge-noire), le quatre titres contient une gravure première édition pressée 498 copies par Tilmann Benninghaus. Mastering - Peter Andersson. Sortie - Avril 2016" [translation by Flow / Le Bokal]
|
2016 |
€25.00 |
|
| KRISTUS KUT |
Butterfly King |
CD |
"MInd Flare Media's first official release from Kristus Kut. Butterfly King showcases Kut's most recent advancements in his sound. Branching off from his earlier, more noise-influenced work, he enters a realm of voodoo-worshipping, highly sexual, dark, ritualistic ambient. Known for his elaborate performances, this work features a story revolving around sexual development and liberation. The album features seven tracks ranging from trance-inducing soundscapes to pulsing rituals of sound." [label info]
www.mindflaremedia.com
"Kristus Kut (dutch for Christ Cunt) was founded in 2008 and is inspired by rituals like voodoo, cantomble, santeria and lukumi. The band works with bass-guitars, bamboo, broomsticks, vocals and effects to create ritualistic, dark and esoteric energy. Every performance is an event on its own, a spontaneous moment which are sexual, wild and tough. For now Kristus Kut plays together with Jabu Warrior, who plays a berimbau, a single-string percussion instrument. Butterfly King is the first release at the label Mind Flare Media situated in the USA. The CD contains seven tracks. The first track is highly erotic by the voice of a screaming woman and dark tones and abstract beats. The second and third track refers to music like Zoviet France. Minimal beats on the berimbau and other percussion instruments with delay and echo. Nice subtile trance-creating compositions. "The Transformation of Love Honey for the Queen" has also a high ritual atmosphere with a repeating chants, beats and noise. Nice track as well, especially of lovers of the early Current 93 music. The second transformation track is more abstract and a nice mix of electronics and acoustic sounds, but also in the same atmosphere as before. The last track "Vagina Libertatis" starts with a voice repeating the word Kristus Kut and goes on for 21 minutes long and music elements are added with dark soundlayers, noise and beats on the berimbau. Twenty minutes stands for the period of Zen-meditation, but the words Kristus Kut are just words and not like a chant to get into a trance. Too bad, cause the rest of the album has this potential." [JKH/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK |
Elusive Trajectories 2003-2006 |
CD |
"The series of archive recordings "Znaki / Die Zeichen" continues! The labels kultFRONT and ZHELEZOBETON present its fourth installment – the collection of compositions of the St. Petersburg-based noise project Kryptogen Rundfunk, recorded in 2003-2006. Most of these tracks were released on small-edition compilations of the same time, but some of them remained unpublished until now.
This album offers a fresh look at the early period of Kryptogen Rundfunk’s sound in all its diversity. Sharp injections of digital glitches are polished by dense electronic drone and radio noises, raw sound of Soviet analogue synthesizers pervades the space with low-frequency vibrations, drum machines rumble in a slow industrial dance with a sampler used instead of a vocalist... The textures of the tracks vary from dark abstract drone ambient to edgy dashing noise, sometimes passing the stage of funny delusional rhythmic sketches. Each composition here is a separate short story, from a 12-minute immersion into the depths of radio waves on a psychedelic submarine to a 1-second collage made of several found sounds.
Traditionally for the "Znaki" series the artwork was created by the media artist Oleg Paschenko (humanimalien.ru). Based on the cover design, a small edition of Kryptogen Rundfunk’s t-shirts has also been printed. The t-shirts are made of premium quality “penye” fabric and are available in all sizes between XS and XXL."
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Tales from the Mirrored Spaces |
do-CD |
Developing his sound from previous works, on this album Kryptogen Rundfunk uses more acoustic instruments (mouth harp, bowed guitar, metal plate, singing bowl, voice), yet stays true to his favourite array of synthesizers, effect units and of course his trademark shortwave radio noises and transmission interceptions. With all this set-up he creates a dynamic sonic universe varying from ritualistic ambiental textures to heavy electronics, abstract multi-layered drones and sharp gritty noises.
The release is presented in two versions: standard single CD edition (ltd. 200) in a 4-panel ecopak and special double CD edition (ltd. 100) with a recording of a live gig based on the same material and played in Gdansk in November 2017. Both versions contain beautiful artwork by the St. Petersburg-based graphic artist Kirill Rozhkov.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/tales-from-the-mirrored-spaces
|
2019 |
€19.50 |
|
|
To Dream Is To Destroy |
CD |
This is the fourth studio album of Kryptogen Rundfunk, and the first one since the project moved from Russia to the Netherlands. Six lengthy tracks full of weird trademark radio noises and interceptions, heavy bass drones and piercing high frequencies, abstract electronic signals and quirky samples. These layered compositions slowly build up, creating thick mesmerizing walls of sound, yet at the same time leaving room for a bit of flippancy. An uneasy ride for a restless mind, but quite exciting for an attentive one! 44 mins. Ltd x 103 copies CD-proper in a gatefold matt-laminate digisleeve.
https://kryptogen.bandcamp.com/album/to-dream-is-to-destroy
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
To Dream is to Destroy |
MC |
This is the fourth studio album of Kryptogen Rundfunk and the first one since the project moved from Russia to the Netherlands. Six tracks full of weird trademark radio noises and interceptions, heavy bass drones and piercing high frequencies, abstract electronic signals and quirky samples. These layered compositions are slowly building up, creating thick mesmerizing walls of sound, yet at the same time leaving room for a bit of flippancy. An uneasy ride for a restless mind, but quite exciting for an attentive one!
Sources: Degen DE1103, Rokton, Korg Volca FM, ExWr Oranj, Moog Mother-32, electric guitar, field recordings and found sounds.
Treatment: Behringer DSP2024P Virtualizer Pro, Yamaha EMP100, Digitech DF-7, Mooer Reecho Pro, Mooer Reverie Reverb, various software filters and processors.
Initial recordings made in 2014-2018 in Russia, Norway and Greece. Vivisected and reassembled in February-March 2023 at Base Station, Amstelveen, The Netherlands.
Released by Base Station, distributed by Fonodroom.
https://kryptogen.bandcamp.com/album/to-dream-is-to-destroy
|
2023 |
€8.50 |
|
| KUBISCH, CHRISTINA |
La Ville Magnetique / The Magnetic City |
CD |
"24 Electromagnetic Walks in Poitiers. Produced at Studio Hoppegarten and Electronic Music Studio of the Technical University Berlin, October-November 2008. Liner notes and other info in French and English. The recordings of the 24 Electromagnetic Walks in Poitiers were made on August 14, 18 and 19 2008, using only Christina Kubisch's electromagnetic induction headphones and a portable recorder. The sounds have not been electronically modified. The only intervention was the use of a frequency filter. From the linernotes: Today there is a lot of interest in the musical world in 'mapping', the art of tracing the world we live in by means of maps which differ from those made for trade, commerce and business. The maps of the 24 Electromagnetic walks are visual and musical ones. 24 volunteers explored the hidden electromagnetic fields of Poitiers wearing a special headphone created by the artist. This wireless 'tool' captures and amplifies the magnetic fields above and underground the city. The visitors were free to choose their own, personal paths (itineraries) and were asked to draw them upon a map of the inner city. The length of the recordings vary between 6 and 79 minutes. Every recording is a kind of 'mirror' of the character and personality of the walker. Some people walked straight and without stopping through the streets, others often stopped and played around by moving their head (or body) when entering an interesting field, some followed the 'historical paths', others used the personal itineraries of their daily life, some just went by chance and took the exploration as a kind of acoustic adventure. The collection of 24 sound channels in Poiters is a collection of electromagnetic field recordings- an electromagnetic portrait of the city. Often what you can see normally and what you hear electromagnetically, is quite different: quiet streets burst out with strong electrical hums, the lively market place is quiet instead, the train station is a dense net of regular beats and clicks, the parking Carnot is the place where antennas fill the air with internet signals, the ATM machines of the banks hum musical chords and the security gates in the shopping streets surprise by their volume and intensity of continuous signals. The juxtaposition of the 24 itineraries was the starting point for he composition. Several times the visitors were at the same time at the same place, but exploring the sounds in different ways. The piece is a mix of all the recordings, sometimes letting them together in big clusters, sometimes following an individual walker along his way. The beginning and the end of the recordings was the tourist information center of Poitiers. The voices and the music which can be heard were recorded not with a microphone but as well through electromagnetic induction: a cable loop inside the office makes the sound audible as well outside the building. It's here, where the information of the historical city meets with the contemporary hidden electromagnetic world of Poitiers. The participants to the recorded walks: Jean-Pierre Courjaud, Quentin Debenest, Jean Hiernard, Daniel Clauzier, Emmanuelle Baud, Claude Thibault, Marion Berthier, Marie Fournier, Jean-Pierre Potier, Benoist Baillergeau, Jean-Luc Terradillos, Dominique Truco, Patrick Treguer, Jean-Christophe Desnoux, Dominique Pichon, Thomas Sillard, Marion Valière Loudiyi, Mélanie Ribot, Nicolas Bernard, Aurélien large, Marine Antony, Lilian Gerling, Anne Gérard, Christina Kubisch. Credits: Artwork By [Cover Design] - Christina Kubisch. Artwork By [Graphics] - Frederic Briand. Engineer, Mastered By - Eckehard Güther. Liner Notes - Christina Kubisch. Mixed By - Christina Kubisch. Photography - Christina Kubisch , Daniel Proux , Dominique Truco , Marion Valière-Loudiyi. Technician [Recording Assistance] - Marine Antony.' [full label info / liner notes]
|
2009 |
€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 |
|
| KUBISCH, CHRISTINA & ANNEA LOCKWOOD |
The Secret Life of the Inaudible |
do-CD |
About our collaboration.
Annea and I first met in New York in 1975. I was writing an article about the experimental music scene in New York for an Italian magazine. We soon found out that we had a lot of common interests and ideas. In 1979 she came to Italy and together we performed her piece „World Rhythms“ at a festival in Como. I was deeply impressed by how Annea combined technical skills with intuitive performance.
Sound for her always has been more than just material to bring into a compositional form. It was more than raw material, it had a complex structure of its own and was transporting energy. Annea translated and communicated this energy to the listener and she does this with unusual intensity until today.
Over the years we followed each other’s works but unfortunately did not meet as often as we would have liked. During her stay in Berlin earlier this year we had another chance to discuss our works, materials, researches, concepts, doubts and future projects. The idea of a collaboration was a natural consequence of this exchange. We both investigate soundworlds which normally are not audible. Annea questions how the forces of nature influence us, I question how manmade electromagnetic fields have an impact on our lives. And we both love field recording, especially exploring underwater sounds with hydrophones.
We decided to exchange sound materials and left it open to the other what to choose and how to mix it into a new composition. The two new pieces which were created by this exchange are different but at the same time seem to belong together somehow. Annea sent me extracts from recordings of VLF chorus waves, solar oscillations, earthquakes, gas vents etc. while I transmitted to her a collection of recordings of electromagnetic waves which I had made audible and recorded with special custom designed induction headphones. Annea’s sound material was coming from sonic ultra and infra ranges and was speeded up or shifted down in order to become audible, my recordings are analog and were made directly on site in different cities. The sounds we use are all strange and powerful and they go together as if they were especially made for this collaboration. Until now what kind of influence the sources of these normally hidden waves have on us is not much explored. It is up to the listener to find out more about it.
Thanks to Gruenrekorder who supported our project from the beginning. — Christina Kubisch, November 2017
CD 1 – Annea Lockwood
WILD ENERGY | 2016 (with Bob Bielecki)
Wild Energy gives access to the inaudible, vibrations in the ultra sound and infra sound ranges emanating from sources which affect us fundamentally, but which are beyond our normal audio perception, many of which are creating our planet’s environment: the sun, the troposphere and ionosphere, the earth’s crust and core, the oxygen-generating trees – everything deeply integrated, forming an inaudible web in which we move, through which we live and on which we depend. It is our sense that through these sounds one can feel the energies generated, not as concepts but as energy-fields moving through one’s body. Here they have been shifted up (infrasound) or down (ultrasound) to bring them into the human audio range.
Wild Energy begins with solar oscillations (acoustical pressure waves) recorded by the SOHO spacecraft – 40 days of solar oscillations sped up 42,000 times, and ends with ultrasound recorded from the interior of a Scots pine tree.
Recordings made available to Annea Lockwood by scientists at the universities of Hawaii, Stanford, Iowa, Columbia (USA) and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research.
Sound sources:
The sun, acoustical pressure waves – recording courtesy of Alexander Kosovichev, Solar Oscillations Investigation team, Stanford University
Gas vents and tremors, Mt Kilauea – recordings courtesy of Milton Garces, the Infrasound Laboratory, University of Hawaii
VLF Chorus waves and Whistlers; Auroral Kilometric Radiation radio waves –recordings courtesy of Craig Kletzing, Radio and Plasma Wave Group, University of Iowa
Sei whale – recording courtesy of Arthur Newhall, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Earthquakes – recordings courtesy of the U.S.G.S; Ben Holtzman, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University and Jason Moran
Trees, cavitation events and ultrasound emissions – recordings courtesy of Melvin Tyree; Roman Zweifel , Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL and Marcus Maeder, Zurich University of the Arts, Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology
Hydrothermal vents – recording courtesy of Timothy Crone, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
Bats: pipistrelle, California myotis, silver-haired bats, Shockwave-Sound.com; big brown bat and Grote’s tiger moth recording courtesy of Aaron Corcoran, Wake Forest University
CD 1 – Annea Lockwood
STREAMING, SWIRLING, CONVERGING | 2017
Composing with combined sound files and sources, six from each of us, has been a unique experience for me, and a deep pleasure. I have long found Christina’s explorations of the electromagnetic fields within which we live now revelatory and essential – beautiful in their sonic detail and powerful in their effects on my body. And there is satisfying sense of complementarity here: Human-created sounds from Christina’s electromagnetic world, a world which she has been hugely instrumental in revealing to us, and non-human sounds and vibrations from the geophysical, atmospheric and mammalian spheres which are my sources.
Her sounds were a delight to work with, often with a clear pitch element and, while fluctuating in their details and flow, essentially stable. This contrasts well with the event-driven, more turbulent rhythms and noise content of my materials. It was fascinating to play with these differences and discover how easily our sounds blend as if drawn together magnetically into layered textures. I am most grateful to Christina for suggesting this collaboration.
Sound sources:
Annea Lockwood: Tremors and a bench collapse on Mt Kilauea, Hawaii, VLF whistlers, earthquakes in Sumatra and Honshu, Japan, ultrasonic sounds from a Scots pine tree, the Mid-Ocean Ridge Black Smoker hydrothermal vent, solar oscillations.
Christina Kubisch: electromagnetic waves recorded in a subway station, a server room, an underground tunnel, a power station, shopping centers and in the countryside during a thunderstorm after electricity had broken down.
CD 2 – Christina Kubisch
NINE MAGNETIC PLACES | 2017
Nine magnetic places is a journey without knowing where to go, what to find, how long to stay or what will come next. It is a discovery of a hidden world, a dreamlike trip by which the traveller encounters unexpected juxtapositions and sequences of electromagnetic waves. The piece was inspired by the first book using the technique of automatic writing, „Les champs magnétiques“ by André Breton and Philippe Soupault, published in Paris (1920).
The electromagnetic recordings were made in or traveling to: Las Vegas, Gdansk, Ystad, Kosice, Montreal, Bordeaux, Manchester, Dortmund, San Francisco, Paris, Ekaterinburg, Lagos, Venice, Bratislava, Bangkok and other places.
CD 2 – Christina Kubisch
BELOW BEHIND ABOVE | 2017
When I was about to finish this piece two powerful storms, called Xavier and Herwart, swept through northern Germany and Central Europe following each other within three weeks. The storms produced hurricane winds and left a path of destruction knocking down trees, power lines and buildings and caused widespread travel chaos.
I was working in my studio during both storms, looking at the shaking trees in front of my house while I was listening to sounds from vulcanos, solar oscillations, earthquakes and the intense vibrations of electromagnetic fields.
The experience of the two storms had a strong impact on my work. The piece became a kind of encounter of different energies and vibrations which meet in unforeseen ways.
Sound sources:
Annea Lockwood: Volcanic gas vents, VLF chorus waves and whistlers, earthquakes, solar oscillations and ultrasonic tree sounds.
Christina Kubisch: electromagnetic recordings from light systems, seismic research centers,transmitter systems and others. Hydrophone recordings from the river Rhein.
www.gruenrekorder.de
"A cause of extreme disgruntlement for this writer is the passive awareness that the bulk of a lifetime was splurged on issues and people not belonging to a sphere of intuitions and considerations even marginally correlatable with his own. If one inaugurates the process of growth by being predominantly attracted by non-vocal emissions, it is foreseeable that – quite soon – attention will not be given anymore to individuals imparting sagacity via mere words, typically instilling some kind of dismay in the potential victim. In that sense, imagine the (adult) quotidian disheartenment for not having a chance to remain within essential acoustic domains when the calls comes; silence is mandatory to do that, and silence is by now a rare commodity. Finally, try to explain all of the above to someone blathering non-stop because convinced – possibly via previous trauma – or out-and-out pretending of living outside his/her body, then get back to me for a good laugh together.
But we do get privileged whenever communicating – remotely but, by the grace of heavens, through sounds – with truly developed beings such as Christina Kubisch and Annea Lockwood, themselves linked by a long-time friendship and artistic consanguinity that never had resulted in a tangible collaboration. Until today.
Narrating yet again what these women have been doing throughout their histories of sonic researchers would be pathetic (but if you still think there is a need to, a peep to the presentation notes of this release will help explicating the kernel of the matter). This double CD encloses four handsome compositions derived from the manipulation of swapped materials; the common denominator is the attempt of turning invisible energies and inaudible frequencies into physically perceivable substances destined to increase one’s congenital acumen. Kubisch and Lockwood operate at levels of intuitive interiority unconceivable by the average gatherer of location recordings and electronics. We can literally “feel inside” the gradual effect of sources reconfigured in various types of aural concretization. They emerge as penetrating hums of radiophonic descent, or may resemble marine currents inhabited by a somewhat alien fauna attempting new forms of signal transmission. The ordinary becomes unconventional; the voice of nature and its private tumults get disfigured by deforming lenses that, rather amazingly, emphasize the gravity of each single event.
That these pieces ultimately can stand proudly amidst the finest electroacoustic musics of the last few decades is obviously a plus. However, what really counts is the implicit message: communication does happen at every stage of physical existence, including the supposedly inanimate. In times when most humans are bamboozled by things that do not exist particularized by brains that do not work, what we have to do is raising the aerials way up. Consequences – if there is sufficient emotional fuel in your personal tank – will inevitably materialize." [Touching Extremes]
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| KUBISCH, CHRISTINA & ECKEHARD GÜTHER |
Unter Grund |
CD |
The Ruhr Area lives from and with water. It needs drinking water, water for industrial facilities and water for transportation. Water veins pulse invisibly with groundwater, connecting rivers through subsurface tunnels that also force their way into disused mines. This mine water has to be drained continuously or pumped out from underground (one speaks of unending tasks) to prevent the collapse of old shafts, subsidence damage, and the contamination of drinking water. Without constant pumping of the groundwater the Ruhr Area would transform into a vast marshy landscape.
Fabian Lasarzik
"The discomfort from the underground
Christina Kubisch’s site-specific sound installations are based on retrieving parallel worlds. She often responds to structures and atmospheres of places and their unheralded vibrancy which she turns into concrete perception and imagination by the recipient. For the 26-channel installation “under ground” carried out on Zeche Zollverein Christina Kubisch examined above ground and subterranean streams which are little noticed, but play a decisive role: water which has to be developed from abandoned and not backfilled shafts and mounted into a complex canal and river system.
It is about the control and domination of mine water, which is nothing but ascending groundwater intruding former coal bearing seems and seeping away in deepness. It has to be pumped and conveyed permanently. Without this elaborate dewatering the tunnel system would be flooded which would set the surface in motion. By now the region in the Ruhr area sagged more than 20 meters within the last 150 years. Also the water would mix with our normal groundwater and soil it chemically. It would ascend and transform the Ruhr area into a swampy seascape with contaminated water. On Zollverein there are already six centrifugal pumps in 1000 meters depth, two of them working constantly. About 8 millions cubic meters of water are developed in average per year. Talking about perpetual burdens and costs means those strenuous efforts.
Those tremendous consequences and measures correspond to the enormous and massive historical interventions caused by coal mining that are widely unknown to the public. The artistic field studies by Christina Kubisch pick out this parallel world as central theme. With high sensitivity in her tonal production she feeds the dark dimension of our imagination, which associates the invisible “under the ground” with the uncanny, the uncontrollable primordial. The subject deals with the conscious and the unconscious in a metaphorical way: the lucent, literally bright surface reality in opposite to the dark, uncanny and hidden reality underground.
Christina Kubisch mediates those aspects within a spatial composition by using above and underground recordings. What we hear is reality, which can be sensually experienced within a composition subtly connecting documentary material with our imagination. If we engage in the imagination stimulated by this work, we feel the monstrous things which happened underneath our feet, humans competing with the bowels of earth and the forces of nature. “Under ground” — and we are talking about approximately 1.400 meters depth — associates the unconscious, the archaic, the long forgotten. Eventually we are standing on what deposited during millions of years and we only know little about, except it is tremendous and began before the emergence of mankind.
Our primal fear at this point is those primary things (basically nature itself) could turn against us and take revenge. Christina Kubisch’s work plays with those associations without pathos. When the bassy vast main water pumps raise their sound it seems we hear a giant organism underneath us breathing in and out. The sounds indicate magnitude, significance and menace. We become aware of something we normally do not notice. After all Kubisch uses military equipment like special hydrophones to make this parallel worlds tangible, and she probably does it with a certain subversive delight. It is not only about picturesque sounds and enthralling noises, but also about alternative ways of perceiving and accessing correlations. This is her deep conceptual approach. Kubisch’s work is about autonomously provided ways of experience and unofficial versions of reality. Therein lies also an ironic jab at our faith in technical progress, which on the one hand opens up the world to us, but with its focus on certain lines of development strikes us with blindness at the same time."
www.gruenrekorder.de
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| KUUPUU |
Lumen Thäden |
LP |
Das neue Album der Finnin KUUPUU erscheint auf dem renommierten TIME-LAG RECORDS, im übergrossen & laminierten Gatefold-Cover.
Ihr gespenstischer "low fi wyrd Folk" (das Label nennt das "Pränatal-Folk) erinnert an eine schräge Version von JESSICA BAILIFF oder GROUPER, ähnlich zerbrechlich ertönen ihr elfenhafter Gesang und die sparsame Instrumentierung, zusätzlich aber haftet dem ganzen etwas "schamanistisch-beschwörendes" an... really strange stoff !!
"Although Finlander Jonna Karanka has been slowly leaking out little Kuupuu jewels for six years now, somehow it's taken just that long to materialize her first 'proper' album. Maybe it has something to do with the time she's devoted to her beautiful artwork, or her time spent in a highly impressive string of other bands, including Hertta Lussu Assa (with Islaja and Lau Nau), Anaksimandos, Avarus, and many others. But, you know, I always figured Kuupuu music didn't have much to do with 'time' anyway. It's music from another reality, to put it bluntly. A beautiful place no doubt, but somehow totally other. You could call this music a lot of things, all without really saying much. Post-everything? Pre-birth folk? Bedtime acid-art? Naive avant-garde loop witchcraft? Maybe something like a thousand memories & vague images folded into each other and spooled out infinitely like a sloppy film loop. The sound of tiny bioluminescent insects systematically devouring an urban cityscape in hyper-speed, while just as quickly slithering neon flora entwine the metallic gray remains, only to then be gobbled themselves by a leaderless army of pulsating micro-robots. Got that? Now play backwards in slow motion. Surreal might just be an understatement. Packaged in a stunning ultra-heavy laminated full color gatefold cover with full color art labels, all created by Jonna. Pressed on audiophile 180gm vinyl. Limited edition of 750 copies." [label info]
"Kuupuu is a bit like a Finnish Grouper, her songs are murky and mysterious, the sounds feel disembodied and otherworldly, her vocals are ghostlike and gauzy, but those Grouper-like sounds are filtered through her Finnish folk filter, having spent time in Avarus, Anaksimandros and a handful of other big time aQ faves. Nearly half the record is made up of hushed intimate lo-fi ballads, muted and muddy and almost underwater sounding, her voice and musical accompaniment bleeding into each other until it's sometimes almost impossible to tell which is which, but those stretches of bleary eyed balladic drift and muffled shimmery dreamdrone are peppered with chucks of weird soft noise, abstract rhythmic workouts and some strange very Finnish sounding bursts of what-the-fuck chaos: plenty of clattery tribal percussion, detuned guitars, demented music box melodies, field recordings and found sounds, tape manipulation, gongs and bells and birdcalls, looped acoustic guitars, super lo-fi tape recorded voices, swooping backwards melodies, and the occasional jagged shard of feedback or streak of fractured crunch, but somehow Kuupuu manages to tie it all together into something much more cohesive and lovely than you might imagine.
Definitely for fans of all things Finnish and foresty and folky and freaky: Avarus, Islaja, Anaksimandros, Kemialliset Ystavat, Kiila, Shogun Kunitoki, Es, etc. And adventurous fans of Grouper might give this a try, if they're not averse to some weirdo noisemaking with their moody melancholia." [Aquarius Records]
www.time-lagrecords.com
|
2009 |
€23.50 |
|
| KÜPPER, LEO & HOSSEIN MALEK |
Santur: Orient/Occident |
CD |
SR419
CD digipack + 24 page booklet
This disc offers two approaches to an ancient instrument called santur. The first - the eastern - by the Iranian master musician Hossein Malek, features improvised pieces recorded by Leo in the 80's - a unique and valuable archive. The second is the Western approach of his friend Leo Kupper, a student of the first; where it goes through the filter of undetectable electronic.
Santur - the word is mentioned in the Bible and the word is Aramaic. We find a representation of an Assyrian sculpture of Assurbanipal (667- 626 BC. AD). The Santur is an isosceles trapezoid zither seventy-two string (36 strings of brass and steel 36) fixed and crossed (with four strings per note). We play the instrument with light rods and fines medlar.
LEO KUPPER
Born in Nidrum, Belgium, April 16, 1935. Musicology Studies and History of Art at the University of Liege and Brussels. Collaboration with Henri Pousseur, at Studio Apelac (first electronic music studio of Belgium) from 1962. Musician at Radio Télévision Belge (RTB and RTBF). Founder and Director of Studio de Recherches et de Structurations Électroniques Auditives, since 1967.
HOSSEIN MALEK
Hossein Malek was born July 17, 1925, in the popular neighborhoods of Tehran.
He died in 1999 in the same town after an exile in Belgium. He was only two years old when he heard for the first time and discovered the Santur with emotion (play by the master Habib Samai who lived next door). He then had several other professors: Nurali Khan Borumand, Abolhassan Saba, and Shokro Ghamar. He enjoyed worldwide fame, playing in most countries of the world and leading an existence of particular intensity. During one special evening in '70, the Queen of England apologized to the other musicians she invited, ssaying that what she had just heard was so beautiful that she no longer wished to listen to anyone else.
www.subrosa.net
|
2016 |
€14.50 |
|
| KÖNER, THOMAS |
Aubrite |
do-LP |
Thomas Köner is one of the most influential modernist minimal composers. His music is often defined as dark ambient or drone, because of the use of low frequencies, material from gongs, shadowy resonances and boreal ambience, but at the same time its sound with constant fluctuation and vulnerability of sonic events, what makes it organic, human and almost comforting.
Köners soundscapes are no longer simply dark, the question now is that of a profound blackness. Such is the generic darkness of the abyss, the void and vacuum, the darkness of more than silence, of catastrophe and cataclysm, but also the soundscapes have utopian moments. It is a cosmological blackness, the black of nonbeing.
The more subtractive, the blacker the sound synthesis, Köner writes. Such blackness is non-music. Music will never be music until it ceases to represent and begins to sound like non-music or monochrome.
"Whoever hears the distortion of all sounds, will soon become Ultrablack. Whoever listens to this world, but has no affection for any of its sites, even to the place of Black Noise, may soon reach Ultrablack. 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
Aubrite was first released 1995 on the label Barooni. Roland Speckle helped with production of the album. Aubrite is the name of a group of meteorites named for Aubres, a small achondrite meteorite that fell near Nyons in 1836.
https://forceincmilleplateaux.bandcamp.com/album/aubrite
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| 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 |
Air.Ratio |
CD |
Wer hat sich nicht schon einmal im Dröhnen & Rauschen von Lüftungs- und Klimaanlagen verloren? ERIC LA CASA hat hier 30 verschiedene Extrakte von ‘Nahaufnahmen’ gemacht, alle in Paris in verschiedensten Gebäuden auf Fluren, Toiletten, Badezimmern... AIR.RATIO zeigt die Verschiedenartigkeit & Vielschichtigkeit von ‘Rauschen, Dröhnen, Pfeifen, Heulen, Summen, etc.’ auf! Wenn man nur nah genug herangeht, eröffnet sich einem eine faszinierende, reichhaltige Welt (wohl das Grundprinzip experimenteller Musik – und vielleicht auch des Lebens an sich?). Nicht ein Stück gleicht dem anderen.
Im Booklet Texte zur ‘mechanischen Ventilation’ & der Abhängigkeit dieser Art der Klangerzeugung von diversen Parametern, die ‘künstliche Atmung der Gebäude’ als Symbol für die Rationalisierung unserer inneren Wohnwelten. Das ist die wahre ‘Maschinenmusik’ der modernen Welt. Wir meinen: Interessante Idee & fantastische Umsetzung, eine CD die die Ohren öffnen kann für die auralen Mikrowelten des Alltags, eine Bewusstseinserweiterung ohne Drogen! Diese (Wieder)-Entdeckung des Hörens kann glücklich machen.
63 Minuten Spielzeit, 33 tracks.
“Air Ratio. It all started in 1994, in a bathroom. An air vent above the bathtub attracted my attention. There, in the dusty environment, air became noise, music. Microphones were brought into contact with this acoustic territory to transmit the sonority of the aeraulic device directly. Since that day, I have been attentive to the flow of air in the modern architecture. This CD presents a selection of sound recordings made in Paris in buildings of various ages and dimensions. Without seeking to itemize mechanized ventilation systems in any methodical manner, I was interested in documenting their sonic and musical qualities. My approach wasn't strictly scientific, but nor was it primarily musical. All the sound recordings were made using a boom and of a pair of condenser microphones. Direct contact with the material was avoided. The recordings were subsequently assembled and equalized to optimize their abstract qualities, i.e. I sought to emphasize only sonic particularities related to the acoustics of the point of listening, not events related to the external movements (sounds of doors,
or voices): a listening devoid of both context and reference.” [Eric La Casa, liner notes]
“Each of the two minute pieces is a true delight to hear: mechanical sounding, sometimes far away, sometimes interfering with some other device (although none were recorded on the surface), this is a totally fascinating journey, that brings the listener more awareness of every days sound. Going into public places will never be the same again. Great sound work. “ (from FDW, Vital Weekly 533)
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
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 CASA, ERIC / JEAN-LUC GUIONNET / PHILIP SAMARTZIS |
Soleil d'Artifice |
CD |
Kaum zu beschreibende / zu erfassende Studio-Aufnahmen der drei Klangforscher, die - basierend auf einigen gemeinsamen Konzerten - Orts-spezifische Klänge von Räumen, Field Recordings, elektronische Sounds und Instrumentalklänge benutzen für ihre spannenden und jegliche Genredefinitionen sprengenden Geräusch-Felder zwischen Stille, Drone, Mikrosound & Field Recording...
"The trio of Eric La Casa, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Philip Samartzis first performed in Australia in July 2005 during Liquid Architecture 6 where they presented a series of surround-sound concerts in Melbourne and Brisbane. Their aim was to formulate a set of responses that addressed the specific spatial and acoustic dynamics comprising each site of presentation through improvised exchanges, microphones and electronics, and multi-channel diffusion. The trio resumed their investigations between April and June 2007 through a series of concerts in France, Germany and the Czech Republic, which were used to interrogate form, space and time using a revised set of strategies around location sound, amplification, diffusion, and real-time processing within improvised exchanges. Their intention was to explore the interplay between sonic articulation and spatial intervention to afford alternating states of awareness between musical and non-musical sound to demonstrate the complex set of acoustic and spatial interactions occurring between the constructed and the natural. Soleil d'artifice is a culmination of these investigations. Recorded june 22th 2007 at studio-KOUZ (Paris). Mixed and mastered by Philip Samartzis, November 2007. Jean-Luc Guionnet : extended saxophone. Eric La Casa : microphones, prepared recordings, laptop. Philip Samartzis : electronics, field recordings, laptop." [label info] |
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| LA MONTE YOUNG & MARIAN ZAZEELA |
31 VII 69 10:26 - 10:49 PM / 23 VIII 64 2:50:45 - 3:11 AM The Volga Delta |
LP |
"La Monte Young was born in Bern, Idaho in 1935. He began his music studies in Los Angeles and later Berkeley, California before relocating to New York City in 1960, where he became a primary influence on Minimalism, the Fluxus movement and performance art through his legendary compositions of extended time durations and the development of just intonation and rational number based tuning systems. With wife and collaborator, artist Marian Zazeela, they would formulate the composite sound environments of the Dream House, which continues to this day.
Seeing reissue for the first time since its initial 1969 release, Young and Zazeela's first full-length album is often referred to as "The Black Record" due to Zazeela's stunning cover design, complete with the composer's liner notes in elegant hand-lettered script.
Side one was recorded in 1969 (on the date and time indicated by the title) at the gallery of Heiner Friedrich in Munich, where Young and Zazeela premiered their Dream House sound and light installation. Featuring Young and Zazeela's voices against a sine wave drone, the recording is a section of the longer composition Map of 49's Dream the Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery (begun in 1966 as a sub-section of the even larger work The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys, which was begun in 1964 with Young's group The Theatre of Eternal Music). According to Young, the raga-like melodic phrases of his voice were heavily influenced by his future teacher, the Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath.
Side two, recorded in Young and Zazeela's NYC studio in 1964, is a section of the longer composition Studies in the Bowed Disc. This composition is an extended, highly abstract noise piece for bowed gong (gifted by sculptor Robert Morris). The liner notes explain that the live performance can be heard at 33 and 1/3 RPM, but may also be played at any slower speed down to 8 and 1/3 RPM for turntables with this capacity.
“La Monte Young is the daddy of us all.” — Brian Eno"
[press release]
"Just wanted to tell a little story about gongs… As the reader may know it, the B-side of La Monte Young’s Black record is filled up until its very end with some low-down rumbling noise which seems to be eternally reinforcing itself and at the same time voiding its own space. This peculiar track is called “The Volga Delta” and features La Monte Young and his wife on bowed gong. The story tells that it was around 1964 that the Fluxus sculptor Bob Morris gave out to La Monte a large gong and, as this instrument is (to my humble knowledge) the only one that contains all the upper tones possible for each single strike of it, the gong was soon to be one of La Monte ‘s favorite instrument. Now, get it on bang a gong is okay, but if you ever wonder how you can bow a gong, this is what you would need. A standard violin bow, a single contact mike applied to the gong’s surface, an amplification system, a pair of loudspeakers and you’ll be ready to start rubbing it so softly that the gong is gonna start purring like a cat.
Six years ago, I found on the Internet Archives, a 1965 performance of “X for Henry Flynt” by Peter Winkler. This performance piece was one of La Monte’s early proto-fluxus composition and Peter Winkler decided to do it with 42 gong strikes at irregular intervals, distant each other of about 12-15 seconds. I suddenly decided, upon downloading the piece, for a little aural tribute for both Henry Flynt and La Monte Young as I do regard their musical output as standing stones on silver sand beaches.
The Winkler’s piece was 16 minutes long and I did play it back on my media player (repeat function enabled) for 42 hours continuously. No kidding. That is approximately 7896 gong bangs. I remember the days, I remember the nights and I have the feeling that I always will. It was on October 7th-8th-9th 2009. Maybe you would like to experience it too, one day, because it’s a kind of sound immersion initiatory ritual beyond any comparison. I wanted to know what it sounded like to be immersed in continuous sound for days, as I did read many stories about this peculiar La Monte Young’s life aspect.
It is not easy at all. You pass through different humoral and mental states that come and go back again like a cyclic pattern. In a way, your head too is following the gong. At times, it seems so unnerving you want to destroy your complete hi-fi system. An hour after, you are in deep self-analysis wondering how the human mind can be so ever changing and that maybe the real mindset for happiness is to become constant as the gong. Some hours later, you are in a state of grace. Never did a drug cause any similar effect on you. The gong bangs are like written pages of an unknown manuscript you are now deciphering. None of them is exactly the same. They do all sound different. Then you wonder why the gong sounds so different while your mindset is now so pretty constant.
Past the middle of the experience, all your life is connected to the gong. All your fears, your goals, your worries cannot stand on it. They do desintegrate. The radiant coda of the gong, endlessly drifting through space blow them away. Its pulse is the only thing that matter. You realize you’ve been hanging on to it. It makes you smile thinking that three hours ago you want to stop everything.
Its pulse is now your entire life. You live in between it. Like the soul of a raga lives in between the notes, your body and breath is a whole completion of gong bangs. I tried to stay awake as long as I could but yet in my sleep I did hear it. It had become my inner clock ticking. It had liberated me from the tyrannic and stressfull second that ruins everyone’s life at some point. I had entered a body of space where the natural time flow had been expanded. I had entered the land of the giant-step seconds. It was my new time. I had for the first time the deep sensation of having the time to live my life. A new gong life." [REV from a review comment]
|
2023 |
€29.50 |
|
| LA MORTE YOUNG / DRONE ELECTRIC LUST (DEL) |
split |
LP |
"A split with La Morte Young and Drone Electric Lust. File under psychedelic rock, experimental, drone.
La Morte Young is the meeting of Talweg (Eric Lombaert, drums + Joelle Vinciarelli, voice) + Nappe (Christian Malfray, electronics + Pierre Faure, electric guitar and tape delay) + Sun Stabbed (the same Pierre Faure + Thierry Monnier, electric guitar and tapes). Recorded live at 102, Grenoble, in May 2014 by Pali Meursault.
Drone Electric Lust is Kjell Runar Jenssen, drums, electronics + Lasse Marhaug, electronics + Per Gisle GalŒen and Fredrik Ness Sevendal, guitars.
A coproduction between Doubtful Sounds, Apartment Records, Dysmusie, Pica Disk, Killer and Up Against the Wall, Motherfuckers!" [label info]
doubtfulsounds.info |
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| LA STPO (La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux) |
Le Combat Occulte |
CD |
Rares und live-Material dieser französischen « Avant Post-Punk »-Band, die in ihrer aktiven Zeit ingesamt mehr als 30 Mitglieder hatte!! Anklänge an DDAA (die erste Single von LA STPO erschien übrigens 1986 auf Illusion Production!), VOLCANO THE BEAR, und die wildesten RECOMMENDED RECORDS-Sachen.....Grosse weirde wilde DADA-Energie!
“It's strange to think that a score of years ago the world was just emerging from the last of its new wave haze, only to enter a brave new era of over produced, digitally recorded schlock. La STPO was borne into this miasma of mediocrity with knives out. They have remained bastions of outré ever since their bloodied birth. Vive La STPO! To celebrate two decades of one of the finest, most fractured & indefatigable European avant post punk bands, BlRR has nailed together this 11 track retrospective of 7300 days in the life of La STPO. & rather than trying to shape this into some sort of "best of" or "greatest hits," BlRR & La STPO have done the reverse by leaning more heavily in on the group's more exploratory moments. This also makes for a better album that, in its own skewed way, fits together as if all recorded in the same session. As presented here, La STPO are truly Rock In Opposition. Unlike their Zeuhl spewing forbears, however, STPO are not trying to fuse jazz & rock. Their rock is in opposition of all things safely established, including Rock In Opposition. Jagged & bleated arrangements with familiar rock instrumentation clash to form screaming, dada-pregnant, contorted punk concertos. Oddly timed & full of changes, this is music to fall down escalators to. Sometimes this is music to lay at the bottom of escalators to. Just as your fingers begin to snap, STPO leaps off the page into a droning menace. A cadence of broken buzzsaw guitar hums ejaculate into soft & staggering staccato strings. La STPO's propensity for quiet tension gives the tumult of their caterwauls that much more weight. The vocalist is as likely to coo & chirp as he is to chant & caw. Reeds, vibes & trumpets walk freely with the rest, making this as dynamic & interesting a record as one could hope for in this hopelessly metering post rock era. Any group that can take The Ex to task & come out singing an aria afterwards is certainly worth falling down an escalator for.” [label press release]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Le Combat Occulte |
LP |
Stark limitierte Vinyl-Version! Rares und live-Material dieser französischen « Avant Post-Punk »-Band, die in ihrer aktiven Zeit ingesamt mehr als 30 Mitglieder hatte!! Anklänge an DDAA (die erste Single von LA STPO erschien übrigens 1986 auf Illusion Production!), VOLCANO THE BEAR, und die wildesten RECOMMENDED RECORDS-Sachen...
Grosse weirde wilde DADA-Energie!
“It's strange to think that a score of years ago the world was just emerging from the last of its new wave haze, only to enter a brave new era of over produced, digitally recorded schlock. La STPO was borne into this miasma of mediocrity with knives out. They have remained bastions of outré ever since their bloodied birth. Vive La STPO! To celebrate two decades of one of the finest, most fractured & indefatigable European avant post punk bands, BlRR has nailed together this 11 track retrospective of 7300 days in the life of La STPO. & rather than trying to shape this into some sort of "best of" or "greatest hits," BlRR & La STPO have done the reverse by leaning more heavily in on the group's more exploratory moments. This also makes for a better album that, in its own skewed way, fits together as if all recorded in the same session. As presented here, La STPO are truly Rock In Opposition. Unlike their Zeuhl spewing forbears, however, STPO are not trying to fuse jazz & rock. Their rock is in opposition of all things safely established, including Rock In Opposition. Jagged & bleated arrangements with familiar rock instrumentation clash to form screaming, dada-pregnant, contorted punk concertos. Oddly timed & full of changes, this is music to fall down escalators to. Sometimes this is music to lay at the bottom of escalators to. Just as your fingers begin to snap, STPO leaps off the page into a droning menace. A cadence of broken buzzsaw guitar hums ejaculate into soft & staggering staccato strings. La STPO's propensity for quiet tension gives the tumult of their caterwauls that much more weight. The vocalist is as likely to coo & chirp as he is to chant & caw. Reeds, vibes & trumpets walk freely with the rest, making this as dynamic & interesting a record as one could hope for in this hopelessly metering post rock era. Any group that can take The Ex to task & come out singing an aria afterwards is certainly worth falling down an escalator for.” [label press release]
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Wir schwitzen Blumen / La STPO in Concerts |
LP |
"IF you’re shy, you especially need to pay attention in not too much exposing yourself!
Our illustrious society - the best-kept secret of the experimental musics in Rennes ! - skips away continuously for almost 30 years behind folding screens in the shape of sea horses, pieces deceiving the hearing and other fancies fruits of their harmonious inventiveness. The oblique, kinematic and double - bottomed compositions of the STPO join just as much the lineage of a certain 'rock in opposition' over-subtle and deserving the legacy of Albert Marcoeur and Etron Fou Leloublan for the texts and the odd atmospheres, as for the overexcited energy of the post-punk, like The Pop Group, or for the vocal eccentricities à la David Thomas from Pere Ubu!
This anthology of tracks, live recorded by KdB between 2006 and 2009 during three memorable concerts, because yes! our Shy society members are really great performers, reveal their capacity of this combo from Rennes to transform these long and over-subtle pieces in real playlets in which every musician embodies various roles, under the leadership of Pascal Godjikian, polymorphic storyteller who perspires of beautiful intensity. "Wir Schwitzen Blumen" presents five live pieces taken from the recent concert set of La STPO. "I Cuento Blumen" and "The Sound Of The City Seems Not To Disappear" come both from the album " Tranches de Temps Jeté / Slices of Thrown) time " released in 2005 on the american label Beta-Lactam Ring Records. The piece " Le Minisme " was recorded in 2009 for the compilation CD of the french label In-Poly-Sons " We All Believe in Utopia " ;; " La Vallée des Empreintes / The Valley of Imprints " a live track from the same period engraved here for the first time on a record, to our bigger satisfaction ! As for " Le Femme Immortel ", funny miniature between glossolalias and Dada choral singing, immortalized for the first time on a now impossible to find maxiCD, it is a vestige of their stage set of the 80s which they go on playing from time to time. So immerse yourself without further delay in the fantasy of this densely populated micro-society and rather than get lost in trying to raise the current direction of these river like compositions, let yourself be carried by the lush sonic textures and the inventiveness of the orchestrations of La STPO that function like lines of flight. Following the conclusion of the good doctor Faustroll: "What, however, should attract the attention of the naturalist, are some unexpected gaps, in no doubt spontaneous, of the bird to escape the net: here there is certainly an atavistic revival, and perhaps a return to wild instincts." [label info]
kdbrecords.free.fr
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Romanciel |
CD |
"At last, more than three years after the magnificent “L’ Empreinte” here is the new album from my favorite Society: “Romanciel“. The first impression concerns the artistic creativity of the group: it’s astonishing how high it has been maintained throughout an almost forty-year career. In fact, I can say it right away, “Romanciel” is one of the best albums of theirs, in the field of a discography that is filled with beautiful works. Then comes the great pleasure to find again all the elements that make their style unique, immediately recognizable and, at once, new and fresh every time: Pascal Godjikian‘s extraordinary expressiveness and vocal skills, JimB‘s sharp metallic electric guitar, Patrice Babin‘s stormy drums and delicate small percussions, Christophe Gautheur‘s versatile keyboards and Sébastien Desloges‘s bass and violin. Fascinating, as well, are the suggestions to which La Stpo‘s world refers: the artistic avant-garde of the twentieth century for instance (Dadaism, Surrealism, Expressionism) or some masters of modern music (King Crimson, Pere Ubu and David Thomas projects are the first names that come to me). The album opens with the twenty minute long “Roman“, and it is the violin of the latest arrival Desloges (he joined the group eleven years ago) that gives an important contribution to the atmosphere of unusual lightness of this first track. Along with it we have soft blows of flute and ethereal openings of keyboards. It reminds me of Kandinsky or Klee’s most abstract paintings. But lightness can easily evaporate and leave the place to gravity and harmony can become dissonance just like a clear sky can suddenly cloud over, tear with lighting and explode with thunder. La Stpo‘s songs are kind of like this, they are changing and surprising. Pascal Godjikian‘s lyrics, that often take inspiration from the dream world, are well suited to the music with their surrealistic, bizarre, non consequential features. They speak a language of their own. Actually, since the very beginning of the story, language has always been a reason of great interest for him, even of experimentation with the creation of neologisms and new ways of combining the letters together. The second track gives us a nice chance to approach a very special “Dictionnaire“.
“La Diminuée” has weird, theatrical tones alternating with tender sounds of twittering and magnificent lyrical breakthroughs. The mood changes drastically in the fourth and last song, “Rien qu’en Ciel“. It’s a twenty-four-minute performance, wonderful and frightening at the same time, that unveils a dramatic scenery, a kind of desperate cry while a higher and higher wall erases the sky. It’s a dark and haunting final but, despite of it, in the silence that follows the end of the music, a little smile finds its way and sweetens the lips and the soul of the listener. This is what happens in front of a work of art or a spectacle of nature. And this music is beautiful, imaginative and free just like a successful picture or like the flight of the birds that paint the sky with their wonderful parade." [Gabriele Carlini}
https://adnrecords.com/la-stpo-romanciel/
"Romanciel (DNN 032 C) beginnt mit ‘Roman‘ und endet mit ‘Rien qu’un Ciel‘, logisch, soweit bei LA STPO je etwas logisch ist. Zwischen die mit knapp 20 und 23 3⁄4 Min. mächtigen Flügel haben JimB – guitar, Patrice Babin – drums, Sébastien Desloges – bass & violin, Christophe Gautheur – keys & reeds und allen voran Pascal Godjikian zwei live schon bekannte Kabinettstückchen platziert: das a capella angestimmte meta-ykegiakische, meta-tidalikische ‘Dictionnaire‘ und ‘La Diminuee‘, das mit verkleinerter Nase die Schwarz-wurzel falsifiziert. Davor bringt Pascal Zeilen aus “Le Tueur Littéral“, einem Roman des Typs R, wie: On a paré tous les états de mort oder Enfin, les 16 décès aux joyeux abois.
Und stellt einen zuletzt vor eine höher und höher wachsende graue Mauer, Mauer, Mauer, die einem die Welt und den Himmel verstellt. Les pédales de la mort korrespondiert mit les états de mort. Aus Literatur werden Daten, Himmel gibt es nur noch auf Screens. JimBs Artwork lässt jedoch die farblose Sterilität eines Lochkartenlabors von Vögeln mit blauer Farbe bekleckern. Und von den ersten zitternden Geigenstrichen, von Pascals ersten irrwitzig artikulierten Sätzen an gibt da auch wieder die extraordinäre, im bad alchemystischen Sinn superlativste Musik ihr Kontra. Artrockistisch komplex, mit wieder Pascals unnachahmlichen Manierismen. Die phantastische Wortwahl und die theatralische, akrobatisch zwischen guttural und falsett springende Performanz suchen in ihrem surrealen, artaudesken Reiz, ihrer grotesken Komik einmal mehr ihresgleichen. Wie launig da wieder Babin mit Stabspiel klimpert oder übers Fell galoppiert, wie die Gitarre zuckt und Gift spuckt, der Kecak-Spaß, der vogelige Abbé Birdeen-Spleen bei ‘La Diminuee‘. Und schließlich das umflimmerte Pizzicato, die Violinrufe, das brachiale Mahl- und Basswerk, der Gitarrenexzess, die melancholischen Vibes, die ultimative, gegurgelte Glossolalie bei ‘…Ciel‘ als hochdramatisch karnevalsgrotesker Menschheitsdämmerung bis hin zu den finalen Paukenwirbeln und stechenden Pfiffen. Unfassbar stark!" [Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy 114)] |
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| LAABAN, ILMAR |
Ankarkättingens slut är sängens början |
CD |
Obscure Swedish sound-poetry with some very old recordings, from one of the lesser known artists in this field where meaning of words meets with the noise of words... Comes with nice gold-embossed small book with texts, pictures and graphics, all in Swedish !
“Ilmar Laaban´s poetry, practically a class in itself in Sweden, traverses linguistic borderlands where words can get split and torn apart, reduced to something beyond words, perhaps more universal than words, but where the various components can just as often be reassembled in new words. The cycle of destruction and construc- tion always fascinated Laaban the word-wright and word-kneader, going through it over and over again to find the cracks and clefts from which an unexpected spring might well forth.” Like Tristan Tzara he holds to the maxim "thought is born in the mouth. Laaban´s poetry, which gives sound and form to the subconscious, is a poetry of utterance, and therefore speaks for itself. But the appended compilation of statements on the subject, from the writer himself, nevertheless offer a rewarding insight into his poetic method and reveal much about the associative pathways down which his imagination has wandered. This CD begins with two examples of Labaan´s surrealist recitation from the 40´s and 50´s, followed by some of his polyphonic text-sound poetry (which he started in 1967), and finally some sound poems from the 90´s. Ilmar Laaban was born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1921. He studied Romanic languages at the university of Tartu and musical composition at the Tallinn conservatory. To avoid being drafted into Hitler´s army he fled to Sweden in 1943. He had already been writing surrealist poetry in Estonia, and continued in the same vein in Sweden, supporting himself as a freelance culture and art reviewer. His grasp and overview of the international art arena gave him an important role as a guide and source of inspiration for many artists who came in contact with him, not the least those in the circle around Fylkingen.” [label info]
www.fylkingen.se
|
1998 |
€12.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| LABRADFORD |
Mi Media Naranja |
CD |
Ihr viertes Album von 1997, instrumentale, einsame, melancholische Wüsten-Psychedelik.
"With their fourth album, Labradford have once again broadened and varied their sound, while maintaining their distinctive identity. Mi Media Naranja adds a string section, Fender Rhodes electric piano and slide guitar to the trio's sound bank. It is the most cinematic of Labradford's recordings to date. The music alternately stretches, ripples or lofts its way past the listener as if it was coming off a screen and not through speakers. The sounds here are reminiscent of John Barry, Bill Evans and most of all, Labradford." [label info]
“....It's downright cinematic. There's simply no doubt about it. And yet, it's infinitely more interesting than anything John Williams ever wrote. Labradford have invented the musical equivilent of the mysteriously abandoned small town. Old signs hang loosely from their creaky hinges, most of the windows have been smashed out and the wind seems to blow harder than normal. It brings you down in a comforting way, like you've just stumbled across an old picture of a four-year-old you and your since deceased mother. More accurately, Naranja's like traveling the dusty backroads of Athens, Georgia and finding Michael Stipe and Vic Chesnutt laying dead in the dirt. Initially, you're shocked and horrified. Then you realize you're gonna be on MTV News. Luckily, Labradford seem content to let you tag along on their tragic magic carpet ride through seven untitled tracks of middle- of- nowhere lonliness accentuated by the reverb of twangy guitars and pianos. Just don't talk.“[Ryan Schreiber, Pitchforkmedia]
“.....Labradford moves into the desert, with this soundtrack for driving down dirt highways and through abandoned towns with the word "gulch" in their name. "Mi..." is a beautiful record that is much more pleasant to listen to than their previous efforts. The cold, experimental touches the trio worked into their music are still there, but subdued and downplayed.” [Opuszine]
|
1997 |
€14.00 |
|
| LAGOWSKI PRESENTS LEGION |
False Dawn. 20th Anniversary Edition |
do-CD |
"20 years on, this dusty classic has gained a well deserved reissue. The new mastering was prepared by Łukasz Miernik (responsible for his excellent work on "From Earth to Sirius" compilation containing a track by S.E.T.I. - another Andrew Lagowski side-project) and the cover was redesigned by Maciej Mehring (who has done most of Zoharum's cover designs).
It has been expanded to include 7 rare/unreleased bonus tracks and has been adorned with an additional part entitled "False Dawn Revisited". The latter contains remixes of the three original tracks by Geomatic, Zenial and Maciek Szymczuk. These two additional sections give you a different perspective on "False Dawn" and LEGION's ambient stylistics. Here it is... False Dawn... to be discovered... again.
The reissue is presented in a 2CD edition in a luxurious 6-panel digipak." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"To create a work of legendary proportions is not easy, to create two is ever more difficult. Back in Vital Weekly 804 I told you about SETI's masterpiece 'Knowledge' and that I think it is very hard for Lagowski to do any more work as SETI afterwards that I thought was equally great. I forgot, probably, that Andrew Lagowski is also responsible for a great CD under the name of Legion, called 'False Dawn', which was released in 1992 and which I always regarded as a master piece of dark ambient. When I had aspirations to be some sort of ambient DJ, this is the one I always brought along. Especially the thirty five minute opening 'Colossus' was an excellent piece to stick on, with it's long synthesized, sustaining melodies and sounds dropping in and out, with the right amount of reverb, which could be used to drop in more sounds, voices perhaps or head to the bar and get another beer (let's be honest about that). Its one of those CDs that I played a lot, and after a certain point hardly again. Maybe I didn't hear this in, say, ten years, but it sounds strikingly familiar. Odd, although I am not sure if I would hear this for the first time today, I would think it would have the same impact as back then. But obviously I heard so much more music in the mean time, and so much more music with similar ideas as this. But no doubt very few do it like Lagowski did back then, with a set up of synthesizers and Cubase on an Atari, which was played in an improvisational way. Early digital, and partly analog. The other long piece, 'The Plasma Pool', is an excellent long form form quiet ambient music, with in the middle a more rhythmic short piece, an interlude between the long ambient pieces. On this double CD you'll also find bonus tracks from the same period, as well as a farewell to ambient piece from 2008, and one created especially for this re-issue from 2012 but 'Tunnelvision', from an extremely rare 7" (edition of sixty copies) and if that's not enough three remixes of the original three 'False Dawn' pieces by three Polish artists, Geomantic, Zenial and Maciek Szymczuk. That's what I would call a massive re-issue, and a mighty fine one indeed. A true genre defining classic in an excellent re-issue package. Nice to have it so complete." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| LAINHART, RICHARD |
White Night |
CD |
minimal ambience recorded 1974 ! Edition of 500
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...
Erschienen auf dem Label von TOBIAS FISCHER (FEU FOLLET) und MIRKO UHLIG (ex AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF).
"Back in 1974, one year before Brian Eno’s first landmark in Ambient-music, some young musician from New York wrote down a fragment of beauty’s hidden story with the minimal vocabulary of sine waves on the young black skin of a Moog synthesizer. The first release on CD features Richard Lainhart’s masterpiece in its original 29-minutes-version. There’s no single second to add, after this time everything is told though nothing has been said. Richard Lainhart about the work’s origin: "White Night" was composed and recorded in the late fall of 1974 at the State University of New York at Albany in the Coordinated Electronic Music Studio (CEMS). CEMS was created by my composition teacher Joel Chadabe with design and custom fabrication by Robert Moog and was, at the time, the largest integrated Moog modular synthesizer studio in the world. The piece consists of a dense, continuous four-note chord, each note in the chord recorded in a separate pass to one track on a Scully 4-track studio recorder. Each track consists of a single sine wave oscillator which is frequency modulated by a group of eight additional sine wave oscillators. Those oscillators are all tuned to different tones, each harmonically related to the fundamental chord tone. The amplitude of each harmonic oscillator is continuously varied under the control of an individual sequencer, and each sequencer is free-running - that is, the sequencers are not synchronized to each other, but rather running in their own independent timebases.The result is a continuously-changing complex harmonic waveform which modulates the frequency of the chord tone oscillator, generating a continuously-changing complex timbre based on the fundamental pitch of the note.
The center tone of "White Night" is 212 Hz, slightly higher than the G below Middle C. The other notes create a chord consisting of a perfect fifth below the center tone, a major seventh just below the center tone, and a major second above the center tone. "White Night" was composed without reference to the standard A-440 tuning system, as we had no such pitch reference in the studio; I just picked a center tone that felt right, and went from there. As such, "White Night" lives in its own pitch world.
The title "White Night" came about so: it was late December in upstate New York when I was finishing the piece, and a blizzard passed through town the night of the final mix. As I sat in the glow of the sequencers and tape decks in the University studio listening to the final version, I looked out the window and saw a security light on a building opposite the studio illuminating the blowing snow as it drifted off the roof. All I could see was the snow swirling in the light against the blackness; a moving painting continually drawn, erased, and redrawn, always changing, but always the same. It may sound bleak, but it wasn't - it was beautiful. It seemed to me that the image of the dancing whiteness perfectly matched the sound of the piece, and so I called it "White Night" to commemorate that evening of wind and snow." [label info]
www.exovo.org
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| LAMI, GIOVANNI |
मेम वेर्म [mema verma] |
LP |
मेम वेर्म [mema verma] is the final step of a study about an indian shruti box G (low) tuned, mostly used without emitting any note (as in the first two tracks, [kīṭa gīta] and [sautāceta]), sampling and processing the breaths, whistles and noise produced by the reeds. The third track, [annīgā śūnyatā], is the only one in which the shruti is played in a more standard way, as well as its sound was recorded through a set of very old mid-range speakers, later sampled and processed.
मेम वेर्म [mema verma] is split into three tracks but the whole project is sort of a metamorphosis of the same idea, where the sound is, step by step/track by track, more rarefied, losing that concrete feeling in the beginning and turning into a drone in the last track.
The project is titled "mema verma" and every track title is related to Indian language in a sort of "grammelot", since these words don't exist in Hindi, Bengali or other territorial languages except for the first one [kīṭa gīta], which means "the insect's song" in Hindi; this reflects the same relationship which intercurs between the artist and the medium, so different from the traditional use of this instrument in its own country.
मेम वेर्म [mema verma], released on May 23rd by Kohlhaas, comes in a limited edition 12’’ LP, featuring the artwork by Dead Meat [www.deadmeat.it], hand screenprinted by CORPOC [corpoc.com].
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
https://kohlhaas.bandcamp.com/album/giovanni-lami-mema-verma
"The title of this LP is translated as 'Mema Verma' and printed in Indian on the cover (I assume it's Indian, actually). The music is by one Giovanni Lami, of whom I never heard before. He created three recordings with the shruti box, G (low) tuned, but in the first two pieces (both on the A-side) without actually playing it, but using samples of the breaths, whistles and noise produced by the reeds. The one piece on the other side sees the instrument being played, but also the sampled and processed sound coming from a very old-mid range speaker. That's what this record is about, so it seems. One could easily expect, perhaps, something along the lines of M. Behrens or R. Meelkop, but that is the not entirely the case here. The manipulations employed here by Lami aren't supposed to create a highly abstract piece of music, but to bring out the more musical elements in the sound material. He melts his recordings into a synthesizer like soundscape along with percussive rattle and perhaps some more acoustic rumbling. It may seem an odd pairing but it actually works pretty well here in these two pieces; both of them operate on a similar level that seems to make them siblings of each other. This is all more collage like, melting estranged elements together. The one piece on the B-side is a powerful drone piece, but works along similar lines as the two on the A-side, but perhaps a bit more traditionally drone. It's a beautiful piece, haunting and shimmering, moving around like a gentle, caged beast. It seems slightly distorted in places, which I am not sure is the actual pressing or part of the music, but throughout it's quite a nice piece too. Very nice mood music is to be found in this place." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| LAND:FIRE |
Shortwave Transmission |
CD |
"Ist es wirklich schon fünf Jahre her seit das letzte Land:Fire-Album "Physical : Mental : Psychological" erschien? Ja, das Herbst9-Nebenprojekt von Henry Emich und Frank Merten hat tatsächlich so lang mit neuem Material auf sich warten lassen. Und trotz der grossen Zeitspanne ist das Thema des Albums ähnlich gewählt, geht es wieder um die Auswirkungen radioaktiver Techbologien. "Physical : Mental : Psychological" beschäftigte sich mit den Auswirkungen von 'Trinity', der ersten Atombombe 1945. Land:Fires neues Album "Shortwave Transmission" steckt den Rahmen etwas anders ab und beschäftigt sich mit dem Einsatz radioaktiver Substanzen in der modernen Kriegsführung, vor allem während der Kriege im Nahen Osten gegen Ende des letzten Jahrhunderts und den daraus resultierenden Folgen.
Das Duo zeichnet ein apokalyptisches Bild der Welt, das wir uns so kaum vorstellen können, waren diese Kriege doch zu weit weg oder sind schon zu lang her. Da erscheint es fast beschämend, wenn einem die Musik aus "Shortwave Transmission" gefällt. Dieses mit Sprachfetzen aus alten Aufnahmen angefüllte Inferno klingt wie der düstere Nachhall einer Menschheit, die sich selbst vernichtet hat und deren auditives Vermächtnis alles ist, was übrig geblieben ist und nun in Radiowellen transformiert durch den Äther schwebt.
Eine verlorene, einsame Melodie hallt knarzend vor sich hin. Bedrohliches Donnern macht Angst, genauso wie starkes, pulsierendes Rauschen. Blubberndes und kratzendes Grollen, von hellen, metallenen Tönen begleitet und mit unkenntlich verzerrten Sprachsamples führt zu einem abrupten Ende. Land:Fires Musik hat aber auch unweigerlich schöne Momente. Trostlosigkeit und Zerstörung sind nicht allumfassend. Der Schrei eines Raubvogels zum Beispiel oder die melancholische aber spärliche Melodie in "Most People Were Silent". Dieses Album ist eine Warnung, eine Aufforderung aufzuhören, bevor uns die Radioaktivität verschlingt. "Shortwave Transmission" ist kein Soundtrack für den Weltuntergang, sondern schon eher ein Nachruf." [Medienkonverter]
"Coming back with an all new album after more than 5 years the Alter Ego of HERBST9 delivers
another outstanding soundtrack about radiological warfare and it´s debris during the last century.
SWT is like a massive energy spike with a surrounding maelstrom of machine noises, rhythms, interferrences and electromagnetic waves. The complex arrangement of technical sounds creates a deadly atmosphere of fallout and devastated landscapes with an apocalyptic aura reflected by dissonant harmonies and deep shimmering ambient scapes. Presented in a 6 panel digipack. Mastered by Andreas Wahnmann." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
"With a title like 'Short Wave Transmissions', you could perhaps easily think that the album of Land:Fire is along that of S.E.T.I. That is only partly true. There is indeed a lot of talking on this record, snippets from the radio, but the music is somewhat different. Land:Fire is an alter-ego of Herbst9, and it has been five years since he last released a record. This is all about radiological warfare, nuclear fall out and other somewhat unpleasant things in life. Here too we have some analogue synthesizers, computerized effects but also rhythm machines, which create a cold clinical and mechanical sound. That may seem like something negative, but its not. The music is very dynamic, moving back and forth between blocks of synthesized sound and soft spoken ambient textures, all spiced up with radio talk. Its not easy to say wether the music really reflects the radiological/nuclear holocaust theme (would you be aware if it wasn't told?), but there is certainly a spooky atmosphere surrounding this record. Excellent soundtrack to an imaginary film about these kind of subjects." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| LANDING |
Fade In Fade Out |
maxi-CD |
"Neue Veröffentlichung der “heavenly guitar-spheres”-band, LANDING dringen hier auf 5 Stücken mit Gitarren, Echos und e-bows in endlose Weiten vor, himmelwärts schreitend und auch melancholisch-introvertiert – Bass, Percussion und Gesang erscheinen da schon fast als Beiwerk, fügen sich aber perfekt ein.
beautiful and elegant stuff ! Reminds on SLOWDIVE, LABRADFORD, FLYING SAUCER ATTACK.. 37 min !
New 5-track release, LANDING move with their music into endless heaven-spaces, very uplifting while being melancholic and introspective at the same time !!" [DRone Rec. 2002]
“ In one swoosh, Landing have constructed their finest and most representative achievement to date. Graceful and languid, Fade In/Fade Out sums up every last nuance about this band, rippling forth their detailed drone color splashes and songwriting surrealism from music made absolutely raw and in the moment. Fade In/Fade Out is the foundation to establish Landing as the humble heirs to the new space-gaze sound.” [label description]
label-website: www.strange-attractors.com
|
2002 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
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 |
|
| LARIVIERE, REGIS RENOUARD |
Contree |
LP |
Allégeance volatile and Esquive each tackle the same issue in their own way. Overcoming time: whether it be successive, additional, enumerative, or repetitive. However, there is nothing here about the ensuing nature of so-called "repetitive" music. These are types of high-end music. And it is more about insistence, the obstinacy of an individual who keeps knocking on a door that will never open.
Allégeance's rustic drumming, talkative, acidulous, colourful and overarticulated, with almost clownish desinences, eventually dies out in this very respite. The iterative and puffy shimmering of Esquive with its dull, thin and precise sounds, shifts and is engulfed into another sonic world — which appears as a gaping and collapsed response to this prime insistency.
This is, indeed, a ‘volatile allegiance’ and ‘avoidance’ from the sonic to the musical elements: the musical phenomenon anticipated and pursued as the non-sound of sound — or, in other words, the void of sound. This seems to be the lesson of the concrete attitude in music. Such is the kind of questioning that stirs the composer.
He returns with another title: Contrée, which, once again, speaks of a counter-event. Here, the movement is broader, more generous, more confident. Time spreads and stretches out. What seems to be a landscape of entanglements, trajectories, influx, masses and points emerges. “Something” rises and presents itself out of the sounds - these escaping beings, these "relatively short combustion flames " (Schaeffer).
The piece consists of five consecutive and uninterrupted parts: Entrée and Stance I — Véhémence de l’air and Stance II — Grande Allure. It is the central section of an electroacoustic triptych with Sables (2011) as the first and Nil (2017) as the last.
Contrée is dedicated to Philippe Mion, whose friendly ears have been entrusted with my music for so many years.
"‘Contrée’ is Recollection GRM’s first survey of work by Régis Renouard Larivière, three pieces variously exploring granular evolutions (‘Contrée’), hacked strings (‘Allégeance volatile’), and a rapid, chattering avian flux (‘Esquive’). This is one of the harder nosed GRM issues, but those with attentive ears and patience will be rewarded in multiples..." [Boomkat]
|
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
| LASWELL, BILL & NICHOLAS JAMES BULLEN |
Bass Terror |
LP |
The concept of this series was the confrontation of electric guitars as the tutelary instrument, but here and this time only, it came out of bassists confronting each other.Never released before as LP vinyl. Available here as a 400 copies limited red vinyl.
This recording is the dark side of Bill Laswell at the peak of his art in 1995. He goes into a black trance. The piece is not from a collaboration, it was designed alone, in his studio in Brooklyn. Bass Terror Tetragrammaton is also to be linked to an alchemical process.
Nocturnal Crawl is a totally hypnotic piece, the first that Nik Bullen designed outside of Napalm Death and Scorn. The two pieces answer each other strangely, like two sides of the same hidden anxiety.
|
2018 |
€15.00 |
|
| LE GALL, PASCAL |
Landscapes |
10inch |
"A carefully thought out, simple, clean but rich performance using really almost nothing, just a turntable, teach yourself foreign language LP’s, the impeccable timing of a percussionist, and an idea.
With the intense focus of a scientist fed up with pointless repetition, Pascal takes a scalpel to composition, improvisation and performance, and (with the most basic means) examines their sameness, and their miniscule but important differences. A riveting public dissection, his performances are, maybe you could say, allegories, in that an allegory (a symbolic representation of something else) builds away from itself, outwards, towards an idea. Totally non-literal, Pascal’s performances communicate the idea that improvisation and composition are harder to tell apart than you might think."
pascallegall.bandcamp.com/album/landscapes |
2017 |
€17.00 |
|
| |
Returns |
CD |
“RETURNS is a suite in four parts. At the beginning each part was a musical composition as such but finaly after a while the idea of an organisation of this different parts was introduced. The first part, mixed with the sound of different broken glasses, is a musical overture and introduce with his rhythms and his melodies the following parts. The three following parts are mixed with different sounds from records played on turntables with variable-speed drives.
With the intense focus of a scientist fed up with pointless repetition, Pascal takes a scalpel to composition, improvisation and performance, and (with the most basic means) examines their sameness, and their miniscule but important differences.”
https://pascallegall.bandcamp.com/album/returns |
2018 |
€14.00 |
|
| LEACH, MARY JANE |
Woodwind Multiples |
LP |
Mary Jane Leach is a composer focused on the physicality of sound, its acoustic properties and how they interact with space. She has played an instrumental role in NYC\\\\\\\'s pioneering Downtown scene alongside Arthur Russell, Ellen Fullman, Peter Zummo, Philip Corner, and Arnold Dreyblatt, as well as devoting years to the preservation and reappraisal of Julius Eastman\\\\\\\'s work since his death in 1990, compiling Unjust Malaise (2005) and editing the book Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music (2015). Woodwind Multiples features four pieces for multiples of the same instrument: four bass flutes, nine oboes, nine clarinets, and seven bassoons. Each piece works closely with the unique sound of each instrument, combining pitches that create other, sometimes unexpected, tones, primarily combination and interference tones, as well as rhythmic patterns. What you hear is what happens naturally -- there is no processing or manipulation. 8B4 (1985/2022), played by Manuel Zurria, is for four bass flutes. It is a revision of 8x4, which was written in 1985 for the DownTown Ensemble and was only performed once, due to its unusual instrumentation: alto flute, English horn (originally bass oboe), clarinet, and voice. Xantippe\\\\\\\'s Rebuke (1993) was written for Libby Van Cleve, for eight taped oboes and one live, solo oboe. The eight taped parts are equal and dependent, while the solo part is meant to be a solo with the tape as accompaniment. The piece works with the unique sound of the oboe, starting with unison pitches that create the richest sound, building the piece from there. Pitches and rhythmic patterns that occur naturally are notated and then played later, which in turn create other pitches and rhythmic patterns. Charybdis (2020), played by Sam Dunscombe, is for solo clarinet and eight taped clarinets. It combines a somewhat obscured reference to Weep You No More, a John Dowland piece, which combines with the sound phenomena created from the melody and supporting chords of the Dowland. Feu de Joie (1992) was written for bassoonist Shannon Peet and is an homage to the bassoon and its wonderful sound. It is for seven parts -- six taped and one \\\\\\\"live.\\\\\\\" The taped bassoons combine to create a bed of sound that exploits the unique qualities of the bassoon, creating combination and interference tones, starting off with unison pitches, creating a rich sound that builds from there. Most of the subsequent pitches and phrases occur naturally, and are then notated later on in the piece, which in turn creates other notes and phrases. Engineered by Manuel Zurria, Bryce Goggin, and Sam Dunscombe, mastered by Rashad Becker.
https://soundcloud.com/modernlove/mary-jane-leach-8b4
|
2023 |
€30.00 |
|
| LEGENDARY PINK DOTS & CEVIN KEY |
9 Lives to Wonder |
DVD |
"9 Lives To Wonder, A Film by cEvin Key documents the time that cEvin Key spent with The Legendary Pink Dots recording their seminal album of the same name. A first-person look into the process of musical creation, and the life that happens around it." [label info]
www.metropolis-records.com
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| LEGENDARY PINK DOTS (LPD) |
All the King's Horses |
CD |
Nun werden auch im “Alternative”-Bereich Releases veröffentlicht, die sich mit dem 11. September auseinandersetzen. Die PINK DOTS tun das auf ihre unnachahmliche Art und Weise, mit ihren introvertiert-introspektiven und doch so scheinbar banalen Geschichten, die manchmal auch als Fabeln funktionieren... hier tönen die Dots wieder sehr songorientiert und eingängig !
"I never liked discussing my own lyrics. In the early days of the Pink Dots, I steadfastly refused to include lyric sheets with the albums, in the belief that a listener cannot enjoy or enter a piece of music if she or he is reading and listening at the same time. However, when those lyrics began to be transcribed poorly and sometimes misinterpreted, understandably, by the people who bought the albums, I was forced to relent. I began writing the words for "All the King's Horses" and sister album, "All the King's Men" (on ROIR), early in 2001 with The Unlikely Event. The piece outlined a scenario which could occur in a society increasingly obsessed with technology. A plane is about to crash and one of the unfortunate passengers feels the need to phone his wife on his mobile, only to receive her voice-mail.
A runaway train was set in motion with that song. Pieces were written furiously throughout the rest of the year - before and after September 11th. As a result, "All the King's Horses" and "All the King's Men" appear thematic-- not by design, but on account of a body of work being made in a period when the World really did change. My silent wish is that this work leaves the listener hopeful. Even at a moment in time when only madmen of ALL creeds and colours seem to have the fate of this fragile planet in their hands. Let live." ~Edward Ka-spel~
|
2002 |
€13.50 |
|
|
10 to the Power of 9 - Vol. 1 |
LP |
"Die Kult-Fomation meldet sich mit einem großartigen Konzeptalbum zurück,
erscheinend auf RUSTBLADE als limitierte Colored-Vinyl-Edition (499 Exemplare)!
Selten passt das Attribut legendär so gut wie auf die Gruppe um EDWARD KA-SPEL und
PHIL „THE SILVERMAN“ KNIGHT, die seit nun mehr als drei Dekaden für ihren
unverkennbaren, einzigartigen Soundkosmos verehrt wird, bei dem Psychedelic-Heads,
Dark Waver und Freunde experimenteller (Elektronik-)Klänge gleichermaßen auf ihre Kosten kommen. Mit ihrem neusten Machwerk legen die LEGENDARY PINK DOTS den ersten Teil
einer komplexen Story über Konspirativität, Magie und Spiritualität vor. Minimale Synths,
Gitarren, synkopische Beats, die Verwirrung stiften, psychedelische und transzendentale
Geräusche, welche wie gewohnt von der charakteristischen Stimme KA-SPELs begleitet
werden. „Ten To The Power Of Nine Vol.1 ”ist ein dunkler und außergewöhnlicher Trip in die
musikalische Psyche der LEGENDARY PINK DOTS, die hier wieder einmal ihren Status als
absolut unverkennbare musikalische Ausnahmeerscheinung bestätigen." [label info]
www.rustblade.com
"For more than thirty years I have been following The Legendary Pink Dots, of which maybe twenty years close to the fire. I have written a lot about the Dots; about their music, the various incarnations, the old work versus the new and how some of the new albums released on smaller scale are more experimental than the bigger scale releases. When I was listening to '10 To the Power Of 9' (a culmination of two earlier LP releases under the same name), I was thinking about the latter notion - small/big, experimental or not - and thinking this is perhaps no longer the case. Whereas on the older yet recent works the stomping ground of krautrock was used a bit too much for my taste, the more experimental works were relegated to CDR, but on '10 To The Power Of 9' there is a fine balance between the experiment and the accessibility. A song like 'Malice/Freak Flag' shows this inside one piece: noisy guitars, spacious synthesizers, spacious guitars and mayhem, within these twelve minutes a lot
happen. It seems as if Edward Ka-spel's voice is more 'above' the music, more reciting than singing; the emphasis is more on the poetry than the pure song format. But all of that embedded within the experiment of the music. I quite enjoyed this album for its variation. The more song-like structures of 'Open Season', 'Room For Two' and 'Your Humble Season' or the title piece, but also a psychedelic outing as 'The Elevator', which remind me of the band's various incarnations of the piece 'Premonition'. It seems to me that The Legendary Pink Dots have found their ground better in a work like this. Highly varied, a display of their various incarnations and throughout a hauntingly beautiful release." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€23.50 |
|
|
The Museum of Human Happiness (col.) |
do-LP |
“A cubicle for you, a cubicle for me….but not together…”
The Year 2020 was not a year for a band to 'get things together in the country', or gather in a room to write songs. This statement certainly applied to the Legendary Pink Dots with two members in The Netherlands and one in the UK.
The pandemic reared its ugly head as the Dots’ criss-crossed Europe on the second stage of their 40th Anniversary Tour.
Just a few days before much of Italy locked down the band was in Milan. A few days later, the destination was Cologne where they opted for a hotel in the countryside…it turned out that the resting place was one village away from the most lethal outbreak of the virus in Germany.
The tour eventually finished in a sold-out club with a worryingly low ceiling in London. There were hugs, a real feeling of togetherness with a truly lovely audience.
Then the World stopped.
It was the last time The Dots were in the same room.
Song writing and recording were necessarily deemed to happen in cyberspace for the rest of 2020 and 2021.
As a result, the lyrics are utterly poignant, desperate, yet sometimes bearing a flash of gallows humour. The soundtrack is a purging fire. It’s a fire that still burns, and as I type this I can say I have never been so excited about the impending release of a new Dots’ album.
Never mind the distance, there is a single-mindedness about “The Museum Of Human Happiness.” It’s 2022. We’ll meet again…. [EK]
https://legendarypinkdots1.bandcamp.com/album/the-museum-of-human-happiness
www.metropolis-records.com/product/11839/the-museum-of-human-happiness
|
2022 |
€36.00 |
|
| |
The Museum of Human Happiness |
CD |
“A cubicle for you, a cubicle for me….but not together…”
The Year 2020 was not a year for a band to 'get things together in the country', or gather in a room to write songs. This statement certainly applied to the Legendary Pink Dots with two members in The Netherlands and one in the UK.
The pandemic reared its ugly head as the Dots’ criss-crossed Europe on the second stage of their 40th Anniversary Tour.
Just a few days before much of Italy locked down the band was in Milan. A few days later, the destination was Cologne where they opted for a hotel in the countryside…it turned out that the resting place was one village away from the most lethal outbreak of the virus in Germany.
The tour eventually finished in a sold-out club with a worryingly low ceiling in London. There were hugs, a real feeling of togetherness with a truly lovely audience.
Then the World stopped.
It was the last time The Dots were in the same room.
Song writing and recording were necessarily deemed to happen in cyberspace for the rest of 2020 and 2021.
As a result, the lyrics are utterly poignant, desperate, yet sometimes bearing a flash of gallows humour. The soundtrack is a purging fire. It’s a fire that still burns, and as I type this I can say I have never been so excited about the impending release of a new Dots’ album.
Never mind the distance, there is a single-mindedness about “The Museum Of Human Happiness.” It’s 2022. We’ll meet again…. [EK]
https://legendarypinkdots1.bandcamp.com/album/the-museum-of-human-happiness
www.metropolis-records.com/product/11839/the-museum-of-human-happiness
|
2022 |
€16.00 |
|
| LEJEUNE, JACQUES |
Early Works 1969-1970 |
LP |
"This LP of early compositions by Jacques Lejeune features three seminal works: D'une Multitude En Fête and Petite Suite, originally released on the Perspective Musicales series in 1970, and a previously unpublished composition, Géodes, from the same period. These three pieces (not included in the recent Parages and other electroacoustic works 3CD set) are some of Lejeune's earliest music for tape and may be considered a "prequel" to his later, more thematic works. Still, his concise musical narrative is ever-present in these first recordings. The sidelong D'une Multitude En Fête (1969) refers to multitude, number, celebration and any crowd situation as a form of ceremony — all evoking a circular gaze, as topics of the different aural events and their anecdotal development emerge, leading to the dream, as a story we tell to ourselves. Géodes (1970) features percussion improvisations by Lauréat Dionne with Jacques' tapework inflecting prisms deep into its thundering, rhythmic core. This concert version appears on vinyl for the first time. Concluding the album is Petite Suite (1970), with each section referencing a traditional musical form using both anecdotal as well as instrumental flourishes. The original drum and guitar elements performed here by Michel Foudrinoy and Jean-Pierre Vassout. These pieces have been compared to Pierre Henry's bold rock themes in Messe Pour Le Temps Present and also recall the peculiar atmospheres of some of the great, early Nurse With Wound records that would follow. In contrast, Lejeune's early approach was heavily steeped in sonic narratives, combining unusual and ambiguous events to create a sound world uniquely his own. Early Works 1969-1970 explores the first precision splices by one of the true visionaries in musique concrète." [label info]
www.robotrecords.com
|
2015 |
€26.50 |
|
| LES HALLES |
Zephyr |
LP |
The welcome and wondrous return of Lyon musician Baptiste Martin’s aerial ambient identity, Les Halles, following a year’s sabbatical from recording, Zephyr takes its name from a light westerly wind, which aptly evokes the warm, weightless, whispering spirit of these beguiling ambient designs. Working entirely with a computer for the first time, Martin’s sample bank swelled in both depth and detail, giving his compositions a crisper focus and finer grain. Slovakian fujara flutes shudder and shimmer, offset with rippling PVC panpipes, chimes, and gentle webs of delay.
The tracks are titled according to their sample source, designated with one of three words that are same in French and English: horizon, mirage, and distance. Martin speaks of these pieces as conjuring “landscapes with almost no human traces,” and his criterion for completion is simple: “When I feel like I’m losing the perception of time while listening.” Nine new divinations by one of today’s most attuned waking dreamers.
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| LETHAL DOSE 50 |
21st Century Awakening |
CD |
“The poison dose injected into the veins of persons sentenced to the death penalty in some states of the U.S.A.… but LD50 is also a Belgian trio which has been existing for years in the fields of electronic musics. After a self-released first tape and first CD-R, the first full-length CD by this talented unit. Using some digital instruments – synths, samplers- as well as some analogue ones –synths, rhythm’n box, effects,… LD50 develops an atmospheric music which is at the same time dark but warm, cosmic and experimental, melodic and deep, meditative but aware, often underlaid by some sampled voices and sound-collages, sometimes intermingled with/ intersected with some hypnotic rhythms. Being fully mastered and definitely original compared to some nowadays releases from the dark-ambient genre, “21st century awakening” will both appeal to the nostalgics of the 70ies and 80ies sonorities (old-school space-electronics from the 70ies and 80ies) such as TANGERINE DREAM, NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS..as well as to the lovers of some nowadays dark ambient acts such as SCHLOSS TEGAL, INADE, HERBST 9 or FIRST LAW… LD 50 is certainly the sole musical project able to set a bridge between these two tendencies, these two sounds, these two periods. “21st century awakening” will appeal as much to the soul as to the body, to the mind as to the heart. At first listening, this record may seem a little bit strange to you, like being out of phases, but the following listenings will draw you into an endless spiral similar to the one painted on the sleeve. Allow yourself enough of freedom for that. CD re-mastered by Christian RENOU, housed in an original A5 size silk-screened fold-out cover. Paintings by Leyla ERSEN.64 minutes/10 tracks” [label description]
|
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
| LEWIS, ANDREW |
Miroirs obscurs |
DVD-A |
"Penmon Point was realized in the winter 2002-03 in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of Bangor University (Wales, UK) and premiered on March 22, 2003 during the Electric Spring Festival in Huddersfield (UK). It was awarded First prize at the 5th Concurso Internacional de Música Eletroacústica de São Paulo (CIMESP ’03, Brazil). Penmon Point was recorded on the compact disc Música Maximalista / Maximal Music 10: V CIMESP 2003 in 2004.
Llanddwyn Skies was realized in the spring and early summer 2003 in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of Bangor University (Wales, UK) and was premiered on October 30, 2003 in Powis Hall, Bangor University (Wales, UK). It was also presented on February 13, 2004 during the Rien à voir (15) concert series at Espace GO in Montréal.
Benllech Shells was realized in the summer 2003 in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of Bangor University (Wales, UK); the 5.1 version was realized in 2007 in the same studios. Benllech Shells premiered on October 30, 2003 in Powis Hall, Bangor University (Wales, UK).
Cable Bay was realized in April 1999 in the studios of the Institut international de musique électroacoustique de Bourges (IMEB, France), with preparatory work undertaken in 1998 in the studios of Bangor University (Wales, UK) and premiered on May 29, 1999 as part of Synthèse, the Festival international de musique électroacoustique de Bourges (France). The piece was commissioned by the IMEB. Cable Bay was awarded First Prize at the Concurso Internacional ART’S XXI in 2001 in Valencia (Spain).
Danses acousmatiques was realized in the spring and summer 2007 in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of Bangor University (Wales, UK) and premiered on October 25, 2007 at SARC in Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK). Thanks to dobroide for the pigeon and bee samples." [credits]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| LEWIS, E.G. |
All Under |
CD |
"All vocals and instruments recorded and produced by Edvard Graham Lewis at Tip Top Studio, Uppsala,Sweden Between 2003-13. With contributors, Thomas Öberg, Pauline Svanerö, P.T.Kirk, Richard Sporrong. Mastered by Russell Haswell. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin. Cover and inner images by Edvard Graham Lewis. Sleeve Design by David Coppenhall. 'All Under', the companion release to 'All Over' compiles soundtracks to films, installations and a self penned short story. This is familiar terrain for Lewis who, along with Bruce Gilbert produced the early interactive audio-visual installation 'MZUI' at London's Waterloo Gallery in 1981. Since this period Lewis as been involved in countless soundtracks to all manner of cultural artefacts. The haunting score to Gunilla Leander's 2003 short film 'All Under' was improvised in real time with a sampler and FX processing and recorded on to mini disc. The results are a viscous ambience of swirls, feedback and distortion. This material was then adapted for an immersive 3 screen installation of the same visual material which features combinations of 6 nude bodies (4 men, 2 women) fighting and wrestling, filmed underwater. The soundtrack here crawls further in the depths as electronic phrases swim amongst a foreboding ambience. Both of these works encapsulate the same disembodied effect of the visual material as hovering, uncanny sound worlds seep into the listeners subconscious. The Eel Wheeled' features Lewis' reading one of his own bizarre stories underscored with a suitably disorientating soundtrack sourced from sound effects of the Prime Sounds SFX Library. This version was re-mixed by Thomas Öberg (member of Bob Hund and 27#11). 'No Show Godot' concludes the set. A soundtrack to a 'sky movie' (road movies be warned) completed in 2013. Coming out of the initial sub aquatic environments of the opening works, 'No Show Godot' takes us on a spiralling high before folding into a gritty godly industrial mantra which comes along as a perfect means of tying up these two concurrent releases as a symmetrical whole." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| LIBEREZ |
Way through Vulnerability |
LP |
Southend-on-Sea experimental outfit Liberez deliver the end result of a year and a half long recording process, an amorphous new line up and advanced studies in sound collage. On ‘Way Through Vulnerability’ new members Reay, Saunders and Ugarteburu channel the projects previous outings on Alter and Night School by conveying the same firm grounding in rhythm, though this time via Flamenco time signatures and eerie, repetitive clapping.
At times sounding indebted to the ‘tribal ambient’ of decades gone by, at times sounding fresh in their approach (‘Here is the Proof’ is of note) the trio manage to export motifs from Italian avant-garde circles, UK industrial and dare we say post-rock all at the same time. The sound design on ‘Derelict Intentions’ makes heavy use of background ambience and bleak, world-weary minimalism to lull us into a false sense of calm before harsh and unexpected blurts of noise break the equilibrium. In doing so they swiftly side-step any preconceptions of ‘easy listening’ and opt instead to drag us deeper down into their own dark waters. At times we almost seem to delve into lost theatre soundtrack territory; fragmented neo-classical elements dance with punchy drum machines (‘Cara En La Foto Pt II’) and things draw to a close with the end credit worthy swansong of the album’s title track. The group repeatedly utilise Basque country language, Hungarian dialect and ancient Russian to lend their compositions a cross-cultural underpinning and eschew any clear geographic origin, a decision which all but adds to the perplexities of their unique brand of electro-acoustic purgatory."
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| LIDDIKOATIGHT & LEIF ELGGREN / KAAOS IN ECCENTRIS |
split 7 |
7 |
Weird Single on this finnish label: KAAOS IN ECCENTRIS is an experimental improvisation-trio who build strange semi-electronic sound-sculptures that are at the same time chaotic and structured, whereas LIDDIKAOTIGHT, a project with KOUHEI and other japanese freaks, in “telephatic collaboration” with LEIF ELGGREN, create a mind-explosive ambient-noise composition, & with lots of unexpected sound-effects over a hiss-loop.
Liddikoatight = Kouhei Matsunaga & friends, here in telepathic collaboration with Leif Elggren.
Kaaos in Eccentris = Niko Skorpio, Ibrahim Terzic, Ovro & Mockingwyrd.
|
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| 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 |
€ |
|
| LILES, ANDREW |
Miraculous Mechanical Monster |
LP |
"Limitiert auf 500 Stück auf grünem Vinyl in glänzender, dicker und semipornographischer Hülle! "The Miraculous Mechanical Monster" ist der neueste Zugang zur ständig wachsenden und zum Sammeln animierenden "Monster"-Serie von ANDREW LILES. Die LP ist zum Teil ein Konzeptalbum, das die Geschichte von nicht richtig funktionierenden Robotern, Monstern und bizarrem Sex erzählt. Die Geschichte kann der aufmerksame Hörer verfolgen, wenn er den Text auf dem Rücken der LP liest. So wie alle Veröffentlichungen von LILES passt auch diese LP nicht in ein vorgegebenes Genre und ist damit unbestreitbar eine seiner verdrehtesten und exotischsten Aufnahmen. Diese LP wird in dieser Form nie wieder gepresst oder veröffentlicht werden." [label info]
www.myspace.com/andrewowenliles
www.dirter.co.uk
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Muldjewangk, Morgawr & other Monsters |
CD |
"Andrew Liles is an incredibly prolific musician working in the same vein as artists like Nurse With Wound and The Hafler Trio, releasing his oblique, idiosyncratic Surrealist sound compositions at a terrific rate to a fanbase who must have a good deal of disposable income. This disc is part of a larger collection of “Monster” themed works by Liles, from more music to wristbands, shirts, guitar picks and so on. This ‘brand’ seems to be presented with a certain sense of humour and a bit of a nod and a wink.
The bestiary to hand on this disc is a curious one, and we scuttle sidelong into it with the excellent digeridoo-drenched tribal oddness of ‘Swamp Thing’, which is surrounded by two more free-form pieces comprising creepy spoken-word stories, children singing and so on. In fact the longer you delve into ‘Muldjewangk, Morgawr & Other Monsters’, the more this becomes an obvious underpinning stylistic theme, the spoken word elements in a dozen languages (all real? I can’t tell) and spooky chanting/singing in children’s voices crops up repeatedly throughout.
Following the slightly helter-skelter opening sequence, things take a murky turn into the spaced-out and strange. ‘Pine Cold Emerald Lights’ is morose and Slavic – lamenting violins lurch around under a male voice imparting something Cyrillic. But then we’re led to meet the monster, more children’s voices intoning ‘followfollowfollow’ over and over, and we’re deep in the jungle.
More and more twists and turns follow, clattering, off kilter drums, sonorous tones and more half-heard narrations, a terrifying diversion into drum & bass, intonations and incantations. It’s all grist to the Andrew Liles mill, a genuine feeling of a confused stagger through a cryptozoological safari park while feeling like it’s all done with a sly grin. Also worth noting is the seeming lack or concealment of overtly electronic sounds or techniques, other than effects. This gives a really organic, earthy feeling, the twists and turns in the composition feeling like a natural shift. The one point where electronics show up – the queasy breakbeat section in ‘Gin Tumbler Landfill’ – it comes in like a radio being tuned to that accidentally and then is abruptly interrupted with a sudden shift to violin and piano, as if switched off in disgust.
I don’t really know much of Andrew Liles’ work away from his collaborations with NWW and Current 93 so this was an interesting listen for me, imagining the crossovers and identifying the stylistic differences. He’s definitely a point on that post-industrial Surrealist continuum, and long may he remain so." [label info]
www.touretterecords.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| LILES, ANDREW & WANDER |
Astronomical Entomologist |
pic-7inch |
Ein gar seltsames Sammerstück hat BETA LACTAM da aufgelegt (wir haben nichts anderes erwartet): Krautige Sequenzer-Kosmos-Analog-Elektronik von WANDER auf der einen, die Dekonstruktion desselben mit Drumbox & Gitarren auf der anderen. LILES ist einfach ein Schelm!
Nummerierte, irgendwie auch gesignte Auflage mit “original art insert” von nur 150 Stück!
“Wander does not another introduction here of course. But this 7" may need scrutiny: not the usual drone music, but a synthesizer sequence to which other synths have been added. Strangely reminiscent of seventies german synth gods like Tangerine Dream and others really. And quite funny. The other side seems to be a collaboration with Andrew Liles, I am guessing he is playing along with the Wander recording. And this is even more fun: the synth sequence is overruled by a drum computer beat to which guitars are added in several, mostly rhythmical ways. Reminiscent of early eighties punk/rock like nothing I have heard before. Very refreshing this little disc!” [MR / Vital Weekly]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
| LILLY JOEL |
What lies in the Sea |
CD |
" 'What Lies In The Sea' is the fruit of a ten year collaboration between singer Lynn Cassiers and keyboardist Jozef Dumoulin, and is the first release for their duo Lilly Joel. Both musicians are free spirits and true, much-lauded innovators in their respective fields.
Belgian singer Lynn Cassiers is as much a singer as she can be called a sound sculptor, using her voice, microphone, and electronics to create soundscapes.
Pianist Jozef Dumoulin (Belgium) redefined the Fender Rhodes keyboard through a scope that is at the same time fully contemporary, eclectic and highly personal.
This recording marks a milestone on their path as a band and crystalizes a moment in a universe that was carefully shaped and daringly explored. The music is straightforward, fresh and original - the focus never being the attempt to be part of some distinct genre, but only to be honest towards one's own place in a ever changing world. There are reminiscences of experimental music, jazz, rock, electro, pop, traditional music and contemporary classical music, which is totally normal considered who's at work here. Anyhow, all those influences are fully digested and serve as countless small bricks that are used to make a new big image, that stands on it own and can be watched as such.
Lynn Cassiers
Quoted to be 'one of the most remarkable voices of our improvisation scene' (enola), Lynn Cassiers' universe is one that covers a wide diversity of styles. Lynn is recognizable by her songlike approach in contexts that can range from noise over ambient to free jazz. She's part of impro-rock band Tape Cuts Tape on the sides of ex-deus guitarist Rudy Trouvé and improv-jazz drummer Eric Thielemans, and also performs with her solo project 'The Bird, the Fis and the Ball'. Besides writing music for theatre and her various collaborations with great artists and ensembles such as Marshall Allen, Octurn and The Brussels Jazz Orchestra, she is a steady member in different bands on the actual music scene of Western Europe.
Jozef Dumoulin
Known for his open and luminous approach to the piano and to music in general, always anchored in tradition without being burdened by it. Besides the Fender Rhodes solo, his own projects include The Red Hill Orchestra (a trio with Ellery Eskelin and Dan Weiss) and a duo with Benoît Delbecq. Highly-demanded as a sideman, Jozef Dumoulin has recorded and toured with the finest of musicians in the domain of jazz, improvised music, rock and traditional music. He currently lives in Paris." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| LINGUA FUNGI |
Flowery Dreams |
CD |
"Magical journey through the strange dreams in beautiful flowery scenery, drifting and melting. No sharp line between sorrow and joy, dark and bright moments. Lingua Fungi takes us along on the trip to the land of subconscious. Real instruments - flutes, guitars, bass, mandolin and different kind of ethnic percussions mixed with ambient soundscapes. Glossy varnished digipack designed by Michal Karcz. First 222 copies comes with additional handnumbered CDR EP "Spore Prints" which gives 25 minutes more of this amazing music. The price is the same as normal version." [label info]
www.waroffice.org
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOCRIAN |
The Crystal World |
do-CD |
"A marked change had come over the forest, as if dusk had begun to fall. Everywhere the glacé sheaths which enveloped the trees and vegetation had become duller and more opaque. The crystal floor underfoot was occluded and gray, turning the needles into spurs of basalt. The brilliant panoply of colored light had gone, and a dim amber glow moved across the trees, shadowing the sequined floor. At the same time it had become considerably colder.
The Crystal World, the third studio album from Locrian, is an epic journey. Titled after JG Ballard’s 1964 novel that tells the story of a physician who specializes in leprosy sent to a remote African outpost to discover a jungle that is slowly crystallizing and encroaching upon everything it touches. Disc one comprises six tracks while disc two consists of one extended piece, Extinction, that picks up on the intensity of disc one and sustains it for close to an hour. On The Crystal World, Terence Hannum, and André Foisy, are joined by Steven Hess (On, Pan American, Ural Umbo) on percussion and electronics. Hess’ contribution pushes Locrian deeper into the abyss of despair rendering a sound that is darker, bleaker, and engulfing than any of the group’s previous releases. Locrian continue the conceptual trajectory of blackened drone that the group initially embarked on during their first studio album Drenched Lands (2009). Masters of layering, The Crystal World finds the group manipulating tones and textures that transport the listener to an apocalyptic wasteland. At times, the layers are serene and somber, at other times they are chaotic.
The Crystal World is Locrian's essential release, finding the band creating a sound all of their own. A sound that evades simplistic analogies to black metal, power-electronics, noise, or other categories. This is the album that will stun fans of the bands previous works with how far the group has come from their early releases. Presented in a Stoughton gatefold sleeve with art by Vberkvlt.
Vinyl edition out on Utech Records in 2011." [label info]
www.utechrecords.com |
2010 |
€19.00 |
|
| |
Return to Annihilation |
CD |
"Ein Kapitel wird geschlossen – ein neues Kapitel aufgeschlagen. Nur wenig scheint so reichhaltig wie die Chroniken LOCRIANs. Nach “The Clearing“ und den Split-Alben mit MAMIFFER und Christoph Heemann folgt nun also “Return To Annihilation“. Eine Herausforderung dieses Albums bestand für die Band darin, dass Terence Hannum mittlerweile viele Kilometer von André Foisy und Steven Hess entfernt wohnt. So tauschte die Band zunächst Ideen via Email aus, bevor sie sich für drei Tage ins Studio einschloss, um das Album aufzunehmen.
Entlang des ersten Durchlaufs fällt auf, dass die Musiker auf “Return To Annihilation“ noch fokussierter gearbeitet haben. Die große räumliche Distanz, mit der die Bandmitglieder umzugehen lernen mussten, scheint doch eher eine nahe Ferne gewesen zu sein. Das Zusammenspiel ist noch konzentrierter, die Improvisationen sind noch besser abgestimmt. Zudem hat man das Gefühl, dass LOCRIAN durch ihre verschiedenen Kollaborationen und Tätigkeiten in den diversen Nebenprojekten Facetten freigelegt und entdeckt haben, die gleichzeitig als eine Art Türöffner für ihre neuen Ideen fungieren. Ihre schöpferischen Ressourcen zeigen sich ideenprall und die Frische sowie die Freude beim Kreieren von Musik sind dem Album deutlich anzuhören.
Das erste Stück “Eternal Return“ eröffnet hymnisch. Verschachtelte Synthesizerspuren, krachendes Schlagwerk, vorpreschende Gitarrensounds und ein bis in die tiefste Innerwelt berührender, fauchender Schreigesang lassen den Kurs des Albums erahnen. Doch jene Richtung führt nicht über vorgebahnte Wege. Es werden Schneisen ins Unterholz geschlagen, die Pfade ins Unbegangene oder hier konkret ins Ungehörte eröffnen. Im Fortlauf folgt “A Visitation From The Wrath Of Heaven“. Mächtige Electronics verrätseln diesen nächsten Gang, dazu rummst Steven Hess mit seiner Herzschlagtrommel, bevor der Gesang das Stück zu einem choralartigen Wunderwerk aufbaut, um kurze Zeit später abrupt abzubrechen. Und bereits hier lässt sich vermuten, dass sich LOCRIAN bei den Aufnahmen gegenseitig noch stärker angetrieben zu haben scheinen als auf den Vorgängerveröffentlichungen. Bei “Two Moons“ werden von Sekunde zu Sekunde andere Aspekte in den Vordergrund gerückt, dadurch entsteht ein dröhnendes Gebilde, welches sich von allen Stücken wohl am stärksten Einhegungsversuchen entzieht. Die Besonderheit dieses Albums liegt neben der Unvorhersehbarkeit auch darin, dass die Amerikaner ihrer Impulsfülle nachgeben, jedoch dabei niemals ihren Wiedererkennungswert verlieren. Der Wechsel von stürmischen und ruhigen Passagen wirkt nicht konstruiert, sondern entwickelt sich natürlich. Das Titelstück “Return To Annihilation“ führt den choralartigen Gesang fort, dazu hämmert ein Bolz-Drum, die Gitarren krachen Gewitter ähnlich. Ein orchestrales, dröhnendes Brausen zeigt dessen Entladung. Das Ambient lastige, rauschhaltige “Exiting The Hall Of Vapor And Light“ zieht hinter diesen Gewitterwolken auf und beruhigt das vorher Aufgewühlte. Dem schließt sich kontrastierend die Krachsinfonie “Panorama Of Mirrors“ an. Den Abschluss bildet das 15minütige “Obsolete Elegies“, welches alle Weggabelungen und Wetterlagen des Albums vereint und final den tiefsten, sich selbst beschleunigenden Wirbel in die eingeschlagene Schneise bricht.
“Return To Annihilation“ ist durchwirkt vom Überraschenden aus dem Dunklen. Es umgürtet die Arbeit der Amerikaner. Hervorgerufen wurde es durch wahre Passion, die sich in der dem Album inhärenten Wucht offenbart. Viele Bands verlieren im Laufe der Jahre die Dunkelheit der Anfangstage und verwalten ihre kreative Ausbleichung. Nicht so LOCRIAN – das Dunkle wird hier nicht abgeschabt, sondern in seinen Stufungen neu ausgeleuchtet. André Foisy sprach davon, dass “Return To Annihilation“ das bisher wichtigste Album in der Bandgeschichte sei. Das schürt Erwartungen. Von einem Höhepunkt, vom Gelungenen kann immer dann gesprochen werden, wenn Erwartungen ihre Einlösung finden. Wenn das Ergebnis übergroße Schatten auf hohe Erwartungen wirft, kann vom Bleibenden gesprochen werden. Dieses Ergebnis wird sich auf die Erwartungen im Vorfeld der nächsten Veröffentlichung aufprägen. Eine Klimax gen Unendlichkeit – oder die nimmer endenden Chroniken LOCRIANs." (D.L./ Blackmagazin]
"For a band so devoted to endings, the noise metallurgists of Locrian are surprisingly keen with beginnings, too. More than a year ago, Relapse Records announced they'd signed the Chicago-and-Baltimore trio. The move seemed surprising at the time, but not because Locrian’s electronics-and-effects-driven approach was at odds with the more orthodox heavy metal roster at Relapse; in fact, the label’s two decades are dotted by momentous dalliances with experimental music. Instead, before signing to Relapse, Locrian released a lot of music, a strategy that worked for a band putting out very limited editions on rather small labels but maybe not one meant for a fringe act now signed to an imprint as large as Relapse. Just how many Locrian eight-tracks or singles could and would Relapse actually handle?
Since the deal, though, Locrian have only issued three titles-- a re-release of one such short-run record bundled with new material, a glacial collaboration with kindred lurkers Mammifer, and a beautiful piece with German sound art veteran Christopher Heemann. After many consecutive years of several albums, splits, and singles each, Locrian went almost silent-- just not behind the scenes. All along, they were sketching, building, and refining Return to Annihilation, their proper Relapse debut and step into a much bigger spotlight. It's an auspicious new phase of their existence: Return to Annihilation is the most provocative and engaging Locrian album to date, a brilliant mystery that evades simplistic definitions by turning their historical din and destruction in on itself and, sometimes, back again.
In initial interviews for Return to Annihilation, Locrian-- multi-instrumentalist André Foisy, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Terrence Hannum and drummer Steven Hess-- spoke about the influence of Genesis on their new work. It felt to some like trolling, as there was no way the intricate (and sometimes awkward) prog rock of Genesis might have a substantive pull on music so ostensibly moonless and monolithic. But Return to Annihilation is intrinsically elusive, with twists so compelling and layers so deep that each listen reveals a half-dozen new facets. The title track, for instance, is a three-part suite. Locrian begins with the primal, repetitive wallop of Swans, repurposed with industrial accessories. Despite the aggressive delivery, it feels tunefully poppy, beckoning the listener forward just before the song shifts into a cataclysmic drone. Smothering electronics battle with piercing guitars, shaping a stalemate of willpowers. Hess’ drums goad the band forward again, hitting a climax that’s dense but buoyant, like the phosphorescent coda of a melodramatic post-millenial black metal epic. Though this is a triptych of distinct sections, the parts are strangely cohesive, blending into one another as a balance of extremes.
For 50 minutes, Return to Annihilation runs like a whirlwind journey that you must mentally revisit when it’s done playing. Indeed, during the last three months, I’ve listened to this record a few dozen times, and each trip through only seems to solicit more questions about the material itself-- about its balance between corroded metal and coruscated drone, about its strange sense of enveloping atmosphere and unstoppable propulsion, about the completed puzzle and its complex constituent pieces. Sometimes its 15-minute closer, “Obsolete Elegies”, feels like an exhalation of relief, with muted piano and long-tone violin suggesting Pelt plundering the workshop of La Monte Young; other times, the quaking electronics and plodding guitar of the same piece intimate a hangman’s anthem, a steady gaze directed over and over again toward another imminent death.
What’s most rewarding about Return to Annihilation is this sense of narrative and emotional limbo, or the feeling that supposedly staunch binaries-- birth and death, beauty and brutality, triumph and defeat-- function exclusively in interrelated arcs. Sure, there are entire tracks here that feel more nihilistic or uplifting than others. The neon guitars and escalating drum patterns of “Eternal Return” are exultant enough to soundtrack an action movie’s climax, while “Exiting the Hall of Vapor and Light” fashions a great, gray canvas from static and distortion, a diorama of nothingness. But in every instance, defeat and relief seem only to be dissolving through one another, not pushing one another from the frame. The guitars in “Vapor and Light” slink into patterns that don’t resolve, but for an instant, they bubble into the sort of ebullient loop that you might hear on a Dustin Wong record; it’s like glimpsing light at the end of a tunnel that’s so big you didn’t even know you were surrounded. And “Eternal Return” takes shape around bitterly shouted imprecations and swells of background noise so strong they sometimes threaten to push the ascension off track. Return to Annihilation forever demands that you decide for yourself-- or, of course, don’t.
In the past, Locrian albums have seemed to me almost uniformly doomed, with their lyrics about industrial decay and blizzards of irascible tones creating an atmosphere of general oppression. But Return to Annihilation implicitly urged me to revisit those earlier records and to listen for, if not foreshadowing, signs that there’d been more ambiguity and complexity at work than I’d first supposed. And there is: The great Drenched Lands seems more forgiving than I’d perceievd, as if its excoriation of society is more of a way out than a mere self-excommunication. Moments of The Clearing, particularly the electrostatically foreboding “Coprolite”, sound in retrospect as if they are trying to climb out of the dark, even if they don’t succeed. Return to Annihilation, then, feels like a perfect nexus of Locrian’s past and future. This is the rare album that reveals new depth within a catalog that already seemed so deep and ruminative while proclaiming rather unlimited possibilities for a band nearing the end of its first decade. It’s a beginning refashioned from expired endings-- as it turns out, an essential Locrian idea." [Pitchfork]
www.relapse.com
www.relapse.com
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO |
Belu (Environmental sound matter from Myanmar [Burma]) |
CD |
BELU
Environmental sound matter from Myanmar (Burma)
The Epoché Collection - vol. 5
“In the representational culture the subject is in a different world than things. In the technological culture the subject is in the world with things. Previously existing transcendence and dualism is displaced by the immanence, monism. There are two dualisms at stake here. One between the subject [...] and the cultural entity s/he encounters. The other is between this cultural entity and the reality it more or less fully represents. Relationships between all three of these elements –subject, cultural object and real object– are distanciated in the representational culture. In the technological culture, all three are in the same world, in the same immanent world.”
Scott Lash – ‘Critique of Information’
Original environmental sound matter recorded in
2010 at locations in Myanmar (Burma): Ywapu,
Nyaungshwe, Sagaing, Bagan, Mount Popa
and Ngwe Saung..
Edited, composed and mastered at ‘mobile messor’
(Troy, Cape Town, Geneva, Den Haag), 2015.
Many thanks to: Dana Bar Magen, Maung Saw Tin
and Daw Mya Aye.
First published on CD ('nowhere') in November 2015 - Edition 300 copies.
(c) francisco lópez 2015 - www.franciscolopez.net
Immaterial reissue by nowhere [worldwide] 2018
https://franciscolopez.bandcamp.com/album/belu-environmental-sound-matter-from-myanmar-burma |
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO WITH VALENTINA LACMANOVIC |
With/In |
CD |
"Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. For more than thirty years he 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. He has realized hundreds of concerts, projects with field recordings, workshops and sound installations in over sixty countries of the five continents. His extensive catalog of sound pieces (with live and studio collaborations with over 150 international artists) has been released by more than 300 record labels worldwide. He has been awarded four times with honorary mentions at the competition of Ars Electronica Festival and is the recipient of the Qwartz Award 2010 for best sound anthology. Since 1999 Valentina Lacmanović has researched dances from different cultures through their ritual, folk, classic, and contemporary aspects. From 2001 onwards, her work has been focused on the creation of dance-theater and multimedia performances where Eastern and Western worlds meet. She has worked intensively on creating performances inspired by dances of trance and collaborates with artists from various disciplines. Profound research into dances of trance and ritual versus performing spaces since 2003 gave new direction to her work as an art director and performer. Her investigations into whirling dance led to insights into its origins and practice extending beyond Sufi meditation that supply an inexhaustible source of artistic inspiration and contemporary creativity, ultimately resulting in the project Shedervish, which marked an important change in her artistic development. “With/In” features one long track created by Francisco López with original sound matter recorded from body, clothes and immediate surrounding space during ritual whirling by Valentina Lacmanović. As subtle as the almost invisible image that appears on the back cover, this work translate the dancer’s breath and movements into music. One of the most interesting concepts in López later works and surely one of the best entries in his ever-growing discography." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"It's been recently slow (?) - it seems - with releases by Francisco Lopez. Here he has new work which the cover notes 'created with original sound matter recorded from body, clothes and immediate surrounding space during ritual whirling by Valentina Lacmanovic'. She is dancer, who studied in Croatia, France, Spain, Turkey, India and The Netherlands where she now lives. "Her main focus is a contemporary view of dances of trance, and research on convergences and divergences between contemporary western and oriental performing arts, in collaboration with musicians, video-artists, film-makers, dancers, and experts in fields of science, including physics, anthropology, ethnology, and psychoanalysis." The ritual aspect is important. I assume the music from Lopez here is both a musical registration of what she does - a field recording of dancing - as well as maybe a soundtrack to one of her dances? Either way. The immediate surrounding aspect is because she moves around, obviously, which makes we hear lots of aspects of her dancing. Her feet on the floor, her dress moving about or a lengthy section using her voice, breathing heavily. Lopez creates lots of loops out of this, smaller and longer and quite usually plays a lot of those at the same time. He filters them radically, occasionally, and sometimes a few drop in or out of the mix, so that quite a vibrant mix remains. The effect of swirling remains present throughout and throughout there is always 'something to hear', but that's recently with most of the Lopez CDs. It moves from the quite low end range to the very high end range and everything in between. A fine work by Lopez, and maybe the most innovative element here is the choice of sound input." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOSCIL |
Submers |
do-LP |
"Submers is the second album from the Vancouver-based Scott Morgan aka Loscil. All of the tracks are named after submarines, the final cut being a requiem for the crew of the ill fated Russian nuclear vessel Kursk. Recorded at home on computer with samples and keyboards used as sound sources, Submers is rife with source less echoes, steely surfaces and ominous melodic and rhythmic undertows. The sifted melodies are layered over muffled, clicking and pulsing rhythm tracks with an appropriately aquatic feel to the entire album." [press release]
"Peruse the ether for reviews of this album, and surely you will see writers invoking oceans and blue depths. After all, a collection whose tracks are odes to submarines straightforwardly invites such imagery. But come to think of it philosophically, submarines are also spaceships. While engaging this work I always remember a line by Poet Malena Morling. It went something like, “I always wonder about space, how it never ends.” I believe Submers comprehends “endless space” as much as it probes “oceanic depth.”
This album, and Loscil’s work, in general, has a oneiric quality, in that Mr. Morgan helps you traverse vast spaces while remaining still. The songs are impeccably organized bouquets of circulating, oscillating, chattering, hissing, placating, and agitating layers of audible vibrations, that pool, and loop together slowly, only to (slowly) wind down and die out. To one’s amusement and dismay, Submers is primarily created by complex organizations of filtered and manipulated samples from the western classical universe.
In the feel of these tracks, there is a lingering want for something intangible and more extensive than ourselves as I am propelled into the unknown unknowns by Argonaut I, and Gymnote. The space hums with deep bass. The timbre is beautifully unique and hard to find in vinyl pressings of electronic work. These two tracks could represent the last flickering lights of a submarine shining on a giant skeleton as the sailors plummet into depths that haven’t seen the light in a million years. These tracks could also represent a voyage into luminous fractal formations of constellations in uncharted galaxies.
Speaking of which, I often felt Loscil’s work has a fractal quality where same patterns repeat to infinite depths. For example, in Nautilus the beat design is enveloped by an aura of low-frequency sounds interspersed by uncanny flutes. The tracks take us to a state where everything seems vast; after all, it could also be as if we have become tiny insects looking at the magnified world with the wonder of space travel.
I find myself walking towards Loscil’s LPs in many improvisatory and premeditated mix sets. I especially love the track Resurgam, as the melodic movements could be easily harmonized and improvised with the beauty of an evening Raga like Yaman Kalyan. In the mix Rain of Rivers (@ Queitcalm Records) I especially enjoyed playing Resurgam as an accentuated bridge between Deru’s soulfully sad 1979 and the eerily beautiful melodic journeys of Everything (by Ben Lukas Boysen and Sebastian Plano). In “My Immaculate Morsels of Sadness” I could not help but allow Submers to arrive twice in the form of Triton and Gymnote, so as to converse and juxtapose with the dramatic compositional elements of Robot Koch and Cinematic Orchestra.
If you chance upon this work, be prepared to travel, inside and out, submerged, looking through a periscope or a telescope. Perhaps someday Loscil will have an album meditating on spaceships, but until then this is it." [Drastic Steps]
https://loscil.bandcamp.com/album/submers
|
2018 |
€32.50 |
|
| LOVESLIESCRUSHING |
Xuvetyn |
CD |
INK19: “Xuvetyn is glorious from start to finish, very much in a loveless-era My Bloody Valentine-gone-ethereal vein. Genius. This is some of the most amazing music ever to come off four tracks. Loveliescrushing’s music is soaked in shimmering, fuzzy, noisy brilliance. Beautiful female vocals waft through the hazy, swirling fog of layered feedback-drenched, processed guitars. This is ethereal lo-fi at its finest”
"VEILS OF GORGEOUS GUITAR WASH AND ANGELIC GOSSAMERY VOICE. BEAUTIFUL AND GRANDIOSE ORCHESTRAL SUBTLETY AND CHILDLIKE NAIVETE, BILLOWY, FUR-LINED, MILKY SOFTNESS TO A BLASTING METALLIC ROAR. 75 MINUTES OF SPACEY DRUMLESS IRIDESCENT TEXTURES AND ATMOSPHERIC SOUNDSCAPES.
MELISSA’S VOCALS ARE GLASSY SHIMMERING AND EVANESCENT LIKE SNOWFLAKES MELTING IN YOUR HAND. SCOTT’S INFAMOUS GUITAR DAMAGE CONJURES IMAGES OF AN AURORA’S PHANTASMAGORIC MAJESTY OR A JET ENGINE’S INTENSITY. GUITAR AND VOICES SCULPTED, MANIPULATED AND PROCESSED INTO BEAUTIFUL NOISE. ANOTHER GEM OF LO-FI BRILLIANCE GLEANED FROM A 4-TRACK." [label info?]
|
1996 |
€14.50 |
|
| LT. CARAMEL |
Early tape works |
do-CD |
"Pierre Blanchard aka Felipe Caramelos, der 1961 geborene Bäckersohn aus Annecy, und sein Projekt LIEUTENANT CARAMEL ist ein schönes Beispiel für einen Elektroakustiker, der trotz der Anerkennung, die er auch im Establishment der Geräuschkunst fand, seinen Reiz und seine Glaubwürdigkeit als Artiste maudit im Patchwork der Minderheiten nicht verlor. Early Tape Works (mv08, 2 x CD) greift zurück in seine Kassettentäterjahre und versammelt als ‚Après les horreurs...‘ und ‚Suit naturellement la beauté‘ Stoff, der ursprünglich bei den Tapelabels Audiofile (L‘Odyssee Du Lieutenant Caramel, 1985), SPH (Et Ca Vole!, 1993), Acteon (Du Plomp plein les siles, 1985, Je ne veux plus voir le ciel, 1988) und Old Europe Cafe (Les Bonnes archives du Dimanche, 1986) erschienen war. Die beiden Halbzeilen des Titels scheinen eine direkte Umkehrung von Rilkes Zeilen aus der Ersten Duineser Elegie zu sein: Denn das Schöne ist nichts / als des Schrecklichen Anfang, [den wir noch grade ertragen, / und wir bewundern es so, weil es gelassen verschmäht, / uns zu zerstören. Ein jeder Engel ist schrecklich.] Überhaupt scheut Blanchard nicht vor literarischen und philosophischen Bezügen zurück, stellte sich schon als Kurator des Festivals Bruit de la Neige in die Tradition Russolos und der Dadaisten, zitiert Debord, wenn er Russisches Roulette den Spektakeln des Kapitalismus vorzieht, und wenn er auf die unheilbare Freiheit ohne Gott pocht, schwingt darin das Ni Dieu ni maître sowohl des Anarchisten Auguste Blanqui wie auch des Chansoniers Leo Ferrer mit. Bereits in den 80ern inszenierte er als Ministrant der unheiligen Dreifaltigkeit Lautreamont - Jary - Breton sein Cinema pour l‘oreille als Theater der Seltsamkeit, aus Lärm- und Stimmfetzen surreal collagiert und geloopt. Hier bietet es sich dem Zahn der Zeit als harte Nuss." [Bad Alchemy]
"Lieutenant Caramel is the musician and film director at the same time, he shoot movies for ears with microphone. The continuous search for poetic images, frantic interchange of subjects, twisted and broken mosaic of fuzzy elements, the breathtaking incoherence of perception, the mark of primitive life, the total absence of organization and rational thoughts. All this breathes, moves, obtains the voice and gradually becomes meaningful. Theatrical view of musique concrète, humorous and surrealistic collection of masterpieces recorded in the ten years. Release date is 30th December 2006. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase" [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2006 |
€16.50 |
|
| LUCIER, ALVIN |
I am sitting in a Room |
CD |
"In this fascinating exploration of acoustical phenomena, Alvin Lucier slips from the domain of language to that of music in the course of 40 minutes and 32 repetitions of a simple paragraph of text. In I am sitting in a Room, several sentences of recorded speech are simultaneously played back into a Room and re-recorded there many times. As the repetitive process continues, those sounds common to the original spoken statement and those implied by the structural dimensions of the Room are reinforced. The others are gradually eliminated. The space acts as a filter; the speech is transformed into pure sound. All the recorded segments are spliced together in the order in which they were made and constitute the work. I am sitting in a Room was composed in 1970 and was first performed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City that same year. A second version was made in 1972 to accompany the dance, Dune, performed by the Viola Farber Dance Company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Since that time, numerous versions of this composition have been realized in various ways by other musicians, including a Swedish radio broadcast version. This recording was made by Alvin Lucier on October 29th and 31st, 1980, in the living Room of his home in Middletown, CT. The material was recorded on a Nagra tape recorder with an Electro-Voice 635 dynamic microphone and played back on one channel of a Revox A77 tape recorder, Dynaco amplifier and a KLH Model Six loudspeaker. It consists of thirty-two generations of Alvin Lucier's speech and was made expressly for Lovely Music, Ltd." [label notes]
www.lovely.com |
1990 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Almost New York |
do-CD |
"CD 1 - Twonings: Charles Curtis, cello; Joseph Kubera, piano; Almost New York: Robert Dick, flutes; Broken Line: Robert Dick, flute; Danny Tunick, vibraphone; Joseph Kubera, piano
CD 2 - Coda Variations: Robin Hayward, tuba
Pogus is extremely delighted to release this 2 CD set of recordings of works by Alvin Lucier.
He is one of the key experimental artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and is one of my favorite composers. A unique and individual artist: No one sounds quite like Alvin Lucier.
Lucier writes about the genesis of the works on this release:
"Since the early 1980's I have made a series of works for conventional musical instruments. Before that time I had been mainly occupied with the exploration of such phenomena as echoloca-tion, brain waves, room acoustics and the visual representation of sound. Often these works required special equipment-hand held pulse wave oscillators (Vespers), differential amplifiers (Music for Solo Performer), horseshoe magnets (Music on a Long Thin Wire). Then players began asking me for pieces. Now I needed to find a way of achieving the same poetry with acoustic instruments as I did with electronic means.
"One of the things I discovered was that players could create rhythmic patterns by closely tuning with electronically generated pure waves or with each other, producing audible beats. Often, to get continuous motion, I have one or more voices sweep up or down at various speeds against fixed sustained pitches. As a wave approaches a sustained pitch the audible beating slows down to zero when it reaches unison, then speeds up again as the wave leaves the pitch. Almost New York employs slow sweep pure wave oscillators, Broken Line, flute glissandi. In Twonings two different tuning systems collide and in Coda Variations slight variations in pitch are heard chronologically."
Recorded by Charles Curtis, Joseph Kubera, Robert Dick, Danny Tunick, and Robin Hayward - some of the leading new music performers of our era, these works are essential additions to the Alvin Lucier oeuvre, as well as satisfying anyone interested in great experimental music." [label info]
www.pogus.com
"Usually press texts say lots of things which is just the sort of thing record label use to exaggerate to drum up interest for their artist. But when Pogus writes about Alvin Lucier 'an unique and individual artist: no one sounds quite like Alvin Lucier', I can only agree. I sang praise for the work of Lucier before. His ongoing investigation into sound phenomena, with or without the use of instruments has been going on for more than forty years now, and brought him the status of a well-known composer. And when you are well-known, people will ask you for pieces, for them to perform. On 'Almost New York' we find four of those pieces, three on disc one and one on disc two. We have hear instruments we came across before in Lucier's work, such as piano, cello and flute. In 'Twonings' for cello (performed by Charles Curtis, who himself performed more work by Lucier, and released a 2CD by Antiopic - see Vital Weekly 498) and piano, we don't have any sweeping oscillations to be followed, but two closely tuned instruments, but with enough variation in pitches to clearly distinguish differences. In the title piece we have one player and five flutes, who follows two pure wave oscillators and moves between playing five flutes, not simultaneously of course. 'Broken Line' is, then again, more alike the first piece, but then staged for three instruments, flute, vibraphone and piano. The most radical work here is the piece 'Coda Variations', which takes up the entire second disc. Robin Hayward performs it on tuba. Based on eight notes from a Feldman piece, Lucier subjected them to seven sets of permutations of sixty-three notes each. No sine waves to play along, just the sound of single notes played at one time each, for almost fifty minutes. An intriguing work. Of these four pieces, there is only one which we could label as 'traditional Lucier' work, but the three others display probably just as well what Lucier, less the pure waves and all four are simply four more great pieces. Indeed: no one sounds quite like Alvin Lucier." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
Works for the Ever Present Orchestra |
do-LP |
Black Truffle’s documentation of the prolific recent work of legendary American composer Alvin Lucier continues with Works for the Ever Present Orchestra. This is a very special release for the composer, as it presents pieces written for the thirteen-member Ever Present Orchestra, formed in 2016 exclusively to perform Lucier’s works. At the heart of the ensemble are four electric guitars, an instrument Lucier began composing for in 2013 with Criss-Cross (recorded by two core members of the Ever Present Orchestra, Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O’Malley, for whom it was composed, on Black Truffle 033). Through the use of e-bows, the guitars take on a role akin to the slow sweep pure wave oscillators heard in many of Lucier’s works since the early 1980s, but with added harmonic richness. Like much of Lucier’s instrumental music, the pieces recorded here focus on acoustic phenomena, especially beating patterns, produced by the interference between closely tuned pitches. The work presented here is some of the richest and most inviting that Lucier has composed. Though all of the pieces clearly belong to the same continuing exploration of the behaviour of sound in physical space and make use of related compositional devices, each takes on a strikingly different character. Titled Arc, for the full ensemble of four guitars, four saxophones, four violins, piano and bowed glockenspiel inhabits a world of sliding, uneasy tones, punctuated by a single piano note. Where Double Helix, for four guitars, rests on a pillow of warm, low hum, EPO-5, for two guitars, saxophone, violin, and glockenspiel possess a limpid, crystalline quality. Accompanying the four new compositions are two adaptations of existing pieces for radically different instrumentation, demonstrating Lucier’s excitement about the new possibilities suggested by this dedicated ensemble. Works for the Ever Present Orchestra is an essential document of the current state of Lucier’s continuing exploration, as well as offering a seductive entry-point for anyone who might yet be unacquainted with his singular body of work.
Presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with cover artwork and liner notes from Alvin Lucier. Includes a download code featuring hi-res vesions of the LP material. The download code also includes the bonus Adaptions for the Ever Present Orchestra featuring two pieces (“Two Circles” and “Braid”) that are not included on the LP version. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Design by Lasse Marhaug.
https://blacktruffle.bandcamp.com/album/works-for-the-
ever-present-orchestra
|
2020 |
€26.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS + OGNI VIDENIJ |
Mohalociya Eroja |
CD-R |
"Continuation of the series of collaboration live recordings. This disk presents a fragment of a pu-erh session in Zanza-room on the night of December 13th, 2014 with minimal editing, in one track. The sonic flow is formed mainly of analogue modulations with hybrid processing and flavoured with strings, winds and voice. On a winter night with a teapot of pu-erh we remembered everything about mosses and lichens, night swamp fogs and former trips, and made the wishes for the future, twisting potentiometers to the beat of thoughts. 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. Recommended to listen on wideband audio systems as well as in earphones, and if there's a chance to use both at the same time - surely use both simultaneously. The disc is packed in a cardboard sleeve with a hand-made stamp, each copy is numbered." [label info]
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS / VANUM |
Ulm-Gra / Pelena Sna |
CD |
"This split-release of two Russian projects was delayed almost for two years, which makes it even more interesting. Lunar Abyss presents two tracks of solo immersions of Evgeniy S. in the droning waves, saturated by tube cascades, and the third track is recently found unreleased fragment of a concert from 25.10.1999 in the Experimental Sound Gallety - 21, the remarkable performance for the project which provided material for creating two albums: "Cosmologamma" and "Zeleznaya Voda"... Later come four pieces by Vanum from the city of Tolyatti, which continue the shamanic mood and isolationist discourse. The compositions are based on the sound of Soviet analogue synths with minimal processing which makes them airy, bright and hypnotic at the same time. This is not relax music, it mesmerizes and brings to a pleasant stupor, full of psychedelic vigor, a veil of a dream calling up visions... The CD is packed in a cardboard sleeve with a hand-made stamping, each copy is numbered." [label info]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM |
Uzor |
CD |
"The third "real" CD by LADO combines tracks recorded in 2002-2004 and due to various circumstances initially spread over various compilations and EPs ("Heilige Feuer III", "Thalamus II", "Holy Mother Russia", "Listopad Vot On", "Brusnika"). Now the circle is closed and this CD represents the pieces almost in the same order as they were created. The album reflects a certain period of creativity and especially author's interest in proto-Eurasian cultures. Sounds like the best album of the project, although it is a kaleidoscope, creating a new pattern for the hearing. The compositions are created from acoustic and electronic structures, drum and noise loops, voice samples, scientific & journalistic recordings and deep wave drones." [label info]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
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 |
|
| LUNCH, LYDIA & MARC HURTADO |
My Lover the Killer |
do-LP |
"“My Lover The Killer” is the latest collaboration between Lydia Lunch and Marc
Hurtado. They first worked together on the “Sexodrone” track of the Etant Donnés's album “Re-Up” in 1999. Featuring Terry Edwards (Gallon Drunk), Ian White (Gallon Drunk), Mark Cunningham, We Are Birds of Paradise, David
Lackner. “My Lover The Killer” is a collaborative project with Marc Hurtado.
What began as a loose musical concept in the summer of 2012 became a prophecy written in blood by November of the same year. “My Lover The Killer” is a late night noir confessional. Sinister, sexy and mysterious, the music slithers, erupts and caresses the seductive vocals as they relay twisted tales rife with innuendo, promises and threats. The text is based on the murder/suicide of an ex-lover
whom I had recently contacted for the first time in over a decade. Caught in the
early fall hurricane which leveled the East Coast of America while enroute to Los
Angeles, I had sent an invitation proposing that we meet for drinks. Two days later, during a alcohol fueled fight with his girlfriend about whether or not he should come to see me, he shot and killed her, called the police, turned the gun on himself, and died the next day on his 55th birthday. A tragic event, which “My Lover The Killer” attempts to make sense of. Each song is a rumination on the frightening effects of a mad love spun out of control and the haunting remnants of a lover who still stalks from beyond the grave."
munster-records.com
|
2016 |
€25.00 |
|
| LUNDVALL, TOR |
Yule |
LP |
"Upstate New York artist Tor Lundvall's music often evokes a sense of soft-focus autumnal melancholia but nowhere is this atmosphere more explicit and evocative than his self-released 2006 holiday album, Yule, newly reissued by Dais Records. Inspired by childhood memories of "cold, dark evenings" waiting for his mother outside shops and supermarkets while seasonal songs drifted faintly on the frozen air, the collection feels appropriately hushed and hypnagogic, half-remembered melodies heard through falling snow. Steady muted rhythmic pulses wind through wintry landscapes of icy synthetic textures, glass bells, and distant metallic echoes, occasionally framed by Lundvall's soft, dazed vocals, narrating scenes of "slushy, illuminated train stations" and "the lonely trees of January, still entangled with blue lights long after the season has ended." It's a music of barren branches, crescent moons, and willowy figures shuffling and shivering on their way somewhere, viewed from a fogged window passing by, or high above. As with Lundvall's signature oil paintings, Yule's sonic vignettes are works of observation, poetic glimpses rendered in gradients of color and quiet. He has referred to his music in the past as "ghost ambient" and, although his songwriting here skews more foreground than background, the phrase aptly captures the haunted, half-light quality of these fragile tracks. 10 miniatures of wreathed streets and silent woods, of twinkling store windows seen from a distance, the sensation of being outside of life looking in - the sentiments that seeded Lundvall's vision remain undimmed: "There was a special melancholic beauty about these moments that has never left me."
https://torlundvall.bandcamp.com/album/yule
"Das damals noch über World Serpent vertriebene Minilabel des in Neuengland ansässigen Malers und Musikers, auf dem seine frühen Aufnahmen erschienen, trug im Namen schon die Jahreszeit, die am ehesten die von Musik und Bildern Lundvalls hervorgerufene Atmosphäre zu illustrieren schien: Eternal Autumn Editions. Seine visuellen wie auch akustischen Arbeiten strahlten nämlich immer eine gewisse Melancholie aus und auch eine seltsame (un)heimliche Atmosphäre, in der Absenz und Präsenz, „the weird and the eerie“, zusammenkamen. Lundvall selbst sprach vor Jahren einmal von „Ghost Ambient“ zur Beschreibung seiner Musik.
„Yule“ erschien ursprünglich 2006 auf dem kurzlebigen nordamerikanischen Label Strange Fortune. Eigentlich eine EP, wurde diese Veröffentlichung schon damals durch die Langversion von „The Falling Snow“ (gekürzt in einer 4-minütigen Version auf dem Eisteddfod-Sampler des französischen Labels Cynfeirdd erschienen) ergänzt.
Bezogen auf „Yule“ sagt Lundvall, er habe die „special, melancholic beauty“ der Zeit abseits des Weihnachtsstresses zum Ausdruck bringen wollen (und – möchte man ergänzen – abseits des exzessiven Konsumrausches, der Batailles Überlegungen zum Potlatsch fast ad absurdum führt).
Auf „Yule“ finden sich instrumentale Tracks wie „Busy Station“ aus Rauschen, vereinzelten Pianotupfern und seltsamen Geräuschen oder „The Train Home“ mit seinem gedämpften Pulsieren. Auf „12AM“ erklingt perkussives Rasseln, „Snowy Morning“ ist eine verrauschte melodische Fläche und Glocken scheinen zu läuten. Auf „Fading Light“ meint man irgehdwo eine Stimme zu hören. „White On Grey“ klingt fast wie Radiorauschen und ist vielleicht das ambienteste Stück. Es gibt auch Stücke mit Vocals wie „Christmas Eve“: ein Pusieren wie Schritte durch den Schnee, verhallte entfernte Geräusche und eine aus ein paar Tönen bestehende Painomelodie. Dann singt Lundvall mit fragiler Stimme über ein Mädchen „staring at the moon/candle light fills her room“. Auf „Yule Song“ ist die Stadt still und leer. „January“ enthält entrückte Vocal/Choral-Samples und dann heißt es: „Darkness falls early now/The city’s tired“. Zum Schluss bietet dann “The Falling Snow” noch einmal 20 Minuten, die einen tatsächlich glauben lassen, man gehe durch eine schneebedeckte Landschaft, in der schemenhafte Entitäten irgendwo die Tasten eines einsamen Klaviers drücken." [MG/African Paper]
|
2020 |
€24.00 |
|
| |
Yule |
LP |
"Upstate New York artist Tor Lundvall's music often evokes a sense of soft-focus autumnal melancholia but nowhere is this atmosphere more explicit and evocative than his self-released 2006 holiday album, Yule, newly reissued by Dais Records. Inspired by childhood memories of "cold, dark evenings" waiting for his mother outside shops and supermarkets while seasonal songs drifted faintly on the frozen air, the collection feels appropriately hushed and hypnagogic, half-remembered melodies heard through falling snow. Steady muted rhythmic pulses wind through wintry landscapes of icy synthetic textures, glass bells, and distant metallic echoes, occasionally framed by Lundvall's soft, dazed vocals, narrating scenes of "slushy, illuminated train stations" and "the lonely trees of January, still entangled with blue lights long after the season has ended." It's a music of barren branches, crescent moons, and willowy figures shuffling and shivering on their way somewhere, viewed from a fogged window passing by, or high above. As with Lundvall's signature oil paintings, Yule's sonic vignettes are works of observation, poetic glimpses rendered in gradients of color and quiet. He has referred to his music in the past as "ghost ambient" and, although his songwriting here skews more foreground than background, the phrase aptly captures the haunted, half-light quality of these fragile tracks. 10 miniatures of wreathed streets and silent woods, of twinkling store windows seen from a distance, the sensation of being outside of life looking in - the sentiments that seeded Lundvall's vision remain undimmed: "There was a special melancholic beauty about these moments that has never left me."
https://torlundvall.bandcamp.com/album/yule
"Das damals noch über World Serpent vertriebene Minilabel des in Neuengland ansässigen Malers und Musikers, auf dem seine frühen Aufnahmen erschienen, trug im Namen schon die Jahreszeit, die am ehesten die von Musik und Bildern Lundvalls hervorgerufene Atmosphäre zu illustrieren schien: Eternal Autumn Editions. Seine visuellen wie auch akustischen Arbeiten strahlten nämlich immer eine gewisse Melancholie aus und auch eine seltsame (un)heimliche Atmosphäre, in der Absenz und Präsenz, „the weird and the eerie“, zusammenkamen. Lundvall selbst sprach vor Jahren einmal von „Ghost Ambient“ zur Beschreibung seiner Musik.
„Yule“ erschien ursprünglich 2006 auf dem kurzlebigen nordamerikanischen Label Strange Fortune. Eigentlich eine EP, wurde diese Veröffentlichung schon damals durch die Langversion von „The Falling Snow“ (gekürzt in einer 4-minütigen Version auf dem Eisteddfod-Sampler des französischen Labels Cynfeirdd erschienen) ergänzt.
Bezogen auf „Yule“ sagt Lundvall, er habe die „special, melancholic beauty“ der Zeit abseits des Weihnachtsstresses zum Ausdruck bringen wollen (und – möchte man ergänzen – abseits des exzessiven Konsumrausches, der Batailles Überlegungen zum Potlatsch fast ad absurdum führt).
Auf „Yule“ finden sich instrumentale Tracks wie „Busy Station“ aus Rauschen, vereinzelten Pianotupfern und seltsamen Geräuschen oder „The Train Home“ mit seinem gedämpften Pulsieren. Auf „12AM“ erklingt perkussives Rasseln, „Snowy Morning“ ist eine verrauschte melodische Fläche und Glocken scheinen zu läuten. Auf „Fading Light“ meint man irgehdwo eine Stimme zu hören. „White On Grey“ klingt fast wie Radiorauschen und ist vielleicht das ambienteste Stück. Es gibt auch Stücke mit Vocals wie „Christmas Eve“: ein Pusieren wie Schritte durch den Schnee, verhallte entfernte Geräusche und eine aus ein paar Tönen bestehende Painomelodie. Dann singt Lundvall mit fragiler Stimme über ein Mädchen „staring at the moon/candle light fills her room“. Auf „Yule Song“ ist die Stadt still und leer. „January“ enthält entrückte Vocal/Choral-Samples und dann heißt es: „Darkness falls early now/The city’s tired“. Zum Schluss bietet dann “The Falling Snow” noch einmal 20 Minuten, die einen tatsächlich glauben lassen, man gehe durch eine schneebedeckte Landschaft, in der schemenhafte Entitäten irgendwo die Tasten eines einsamen Klaviers drücken." [MG/African Paper]
|
2020 |
€22.00 |
|
| LUSTMORD |
[Beyond] |
CD |
Reissued! Electronic music pioneer LUSTMORD released an album titled [OTHER] in 2008, to date the only LUSTMORD album with guitars on it, performed by Adam Jones (TOOL), King Buzzo (MELVINS) and Aaron Turner (ISIS). The albums The Dark Places of the Earth and Beyond, both released in 2009, are extensions of the ideas explored in [OTHER] and are taken from the same recording sessions, but with the guitars removed and the essence of [OTHER] distilled and reduced.[OTHER] was a journey with friends, while The Dark Places of the Earth and Beyond take the concept and listener further, deeper, in-between and beyond. While is some ways [OTHER] is as close to a "rock" album as Lustmord will ever make, The Dark Places of the Earth and Beyond are pure Lustmord, a sound that many others imitate but can never equal. LUSTMORD is the artistic moniker of Brian Williams. Born in North Wales, he started his musical career in 1980 and soon became a pioneer in the early industrial music scene in the UK. He was a former member of SPK during arguably their most crucial era, and went on to work with THROBBING GRISTLE members Chris & Cosey as well as appearing on early albums by CURRENT 93, NURSE WITH WOUND and others. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1993, Williams worked on dozens of motion picture soundtracks including The Crow, Underworld and Paul Schrader's First Reformed. Additionally he created several video game soundtracks, television scores and solo albums, as well as collaborating with artists as varied as THE MELVINS, CLOCK DVA, JARBOE, John Balance of COIL, Paul Haslinger (TANGERINE DREAM), PUSCIFER, Wes Borland and more, including Grammy Award-winners TOOL on their much acclaimed effort Fear Inoculum. To this day, Lustmord is actively recording and releasing music, his latest release being the collaborative album Alter with Karin Park of A°RABROT, and he is considered to be the founding father of the dark ambient music genre.
https://lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/beyond |
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Beyond |
do-LP |
Reissued! Electronic music pioneer LUSTMORD released an album titled [OTHER] in 2008, to date the only LUSTMORD album with guitars on it, performed by Adam Jones (TOOL), King Buzzo (MELVINS) and Aaron Turner (ISIS). The albums The Dark Places of the Earth and Beyond, both released in 2009, are extensions of the ideas explored in [OTHER] and are taken from the same recording sessions, but with the guitars removed and the essence of [OTHER] distilled and reduced.[OTHER] was a journey with friends, while The Dark Places of the Earth and Beyond take the concept and listener further, deeper, in-between and beyond. While is some ways [OTHER] is as close to a "rock" album as Lustmord will ever make, The Dark Places of the Earth and Beyond are pure Lustmord, a sound that many others imitate but can never equal. LUSTMORD is the artistic moniker of Brian Williams. Born in North Wales, he started his musical career in 1980 and soon became a pioneer in the early industrial music scene in the UK. He was a former member of SPK during arguably their most crucial era, and went on to work with THROBBING GRISTLE members Chris & Cosey as well as appearing on early albums by CURRENT 93, NURSE WITH WOUND and others. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1993, Williams worked on dozens of motion picture soundtracks including The Crow, Underworld and Paul Schrader's First Reformed. Additionally he created several video game soundtracks, television scores and solo albums, as well as collaborating with artists as varied as THE MELVINS, CLOCK DVA, JARBOE, John Balance of COIL, Paul Haslinger (TANGERINE DREAM), PUSCIFER, Wes Borland and more, including Grammy Award-winners TOOL on their much acclaimed effort Fear Inoculum. To this day, Lustmord is actively recording and releasing music, his latest release being the collaborative album Alter with Karin Park of A°RABROT, and he is considered to be the founding father of the dark ambient music genre.
https://lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/beyond |
2022 |
€32.00 |
|
|
[The Dark Places of the Earth] |
do-LP |
Reissued! Electronic music pioneer LUSTMORD released an album titled [OTHER] in 2008, to date the only LUSTMORD album with guitars on it, performed by Adam Jones (TOOL), King Buzzo (MELVINS) and Aaron Turner (ISIS). The albums The Dark Places of the Earth and Beyond, both released in 2009, areextensions of the ideas explored in [OTHER] and are taken from the same recording sessions, but with the guitars removed and the essence of [OTHER] distilled and reduced.[OTHER] was a journey with friends, whileThe Dark Places of the Earth and Beyond take the concept and listener further, deeper, in-between and beyond. While is some ways [OTHER] is as close to a "rock" album as Lustmord will ever make, The Dark Places of the Earth and Beyond are pure Lustmord, a sound that many others imitate but can never equal. LUSTMORD is the artistic moniker of Brian Williams. Born in North Wales, he started his musical career in 1980 and soon became a pioneer in the early industrial music scene in the UK. He was a former member of SPK during arguably their most crucial era, and went on to work with THROBBING GRISTLE members Chris & Cosey as well as appearing on early albums by CURRENT 93, NURSE WITH WOUND and others. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1993, Williams worked on dozens of motion picture soundtracks including The Crow, Underworld and Paul Schrader's First Reformed. Additionally he created several video game soundtracks, television scores and solo albums, as well as collaborating with artists as varied as THE MELVINS, CLOCK DVA, JARBOE, John Balance of COIL, Paul Haslinger (TANGERINE DREAM), PUSCIFER, Wes Borland and more, including Grammy Award-winners TOOL on their much acclaimed effort Fear Inoculum. To this day, Lustmord is actively recording and releasing music, his latest release being the collaborative album Alter with Karin Park of A°RABROT, and he is considered to be the founding father of the dark ambient music genre.
https://lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/the-dark-places-of-the-earth
|
2022 |
€32.00 |
|
| |
[Dark Places of the Earth] |
CD |
Reissued! Electronic music pioneer LUSTMORD released an album titled [OTHER] in 2008, to date the only LUSTMORD album with guitars on it, performed by Adam Jones (TOOL), King Buzzo (MELVINS) and Aaron Turner (ISIS). The albums The Dark Places of the Earth and Beyond, both released in 2009, areextensions of the ideas explored in [OTHER] and are taken from the same recording sessions, but with the guitars removed and the essence of [OTHER] distilled and reduced.[OTHER] was a journey with friends, whileThe Dark Places of the Earth and Beyond take the concept and listener further, deeper, in-between and beyond. While is some ways [OTHER] is as close to a "rock" album as Lustmord will ever make, The Dark Places of the Earth and Beyond are pure Lustmord, a sound that many others imitate but can never equal. LUSTMORD is the artistic moniker of Brian Williams. Born in North Wales, he started his musical career in 1980 and soon became a pioneer in the early industrial music scene in the UK. He was a former member of SPK during arguably their most crucial era, and went on to work with THROBBING GRISTLE members Chris & Cosey as well as appearing on early albums by CURRENT 93, NURSE WITH WOUND and others. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1993, Williams worked on dozens of motion picture soundtracks including The Crow, Underworld and Paul Schrader's First Reformed. Additionally he created several video game soundtracks, television scores and solo albums, as well as collaborating with artists as varied as THE MELVINS, CLOCK DVA, JARBOE, John Balance of COIL, Paul Haslinger (TANGERINE DREAM), PUSCIFER, Wes Borland and more, including Grammy Award-winners TOOL on their much acclaimed effort Fear Inoculum. To this day, Lustmord is actively recording and releasing music, his latest release being the collaborative album Alter with Karin Park of A°RABROT, and he is considered to be the founding father of the dark ambient music genre.
https://lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/the-dark-places-of-the-earth |
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| LUSTMORD & VARIOUS ARTISTS |
The Others (LUSTMORD deconstructed) |
do-CD |
Over 13 years after the release of [ O T H E R ] , Pelagic Records has gathered 16 bands and solo artists to record their own unique takes on tracks from the Other-sessions. The result is an album that is more than a compilation, and more than the sum of its parts; covering a wide range of musical niches and directions, but sharing the same underlying mood and vibe defined by Lustmord's timeless soundscapes: from the ambient solo performances provided by IHSAHN, ENSLAVED or JONAS RENKSE to the subdued voice of ZOLA JESUS woven into Lustmord's sombre fabric to the industrial carnage that is GODFLESH's version of 'Ashen'.
What demonstrates the profound influence of Lustmord on this contemporary music underground showcased here is that artists from disparate ends of the sonic spectrum all feel inspired to explore the essence of his idiosyncratic sounds within their own realm: experimental electronica icons ULVER excel on a stunning, hazy rendition of ‘Godeater’, while Japanese post-rock act MONO deliver a crushing version of ‘Er Eb Os’, and THE OCEAN take us on a cathartically heavy mindtrip back to our 'Primal [State of Being]'. In the end, each of these 16 artists delivers an interpretation that pays the deepest respect to this pivotal artist, while also standing out as a new track of its own.
As Williams himself often puts it in interviews: “Copying someone you like with the right equipment isn’t going to be the least bit interesting. What matters is that you have good ideas and interesting things to say.” The Others (Lustmord Deconstructed) is not only a tribute and an excellent entry points into the discography of the founding father of dark ambient. It is also a celebration of the most accomplished visionaries in the underground music scene of today, and a manifestation of what binds them together—an undeniable devotion to attitude over ability and the courage to remain in the shadows and be The Other.
https://lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/the-others-lustmord-deconstructed
|
2022 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
The Others (LUSTMORD deconstructed) |
3 x LP |
Over 13 years after the release of [ O T H E R ] , Pelagic Records has gathered 16 bands and solo artists to record their own unique takes on tracks from the Other-sessions. The result is an album that is more than a compilation, and more than the sum of its parts; covering a wide range of musical niches and directions, but sharing the same underlying mood and vibe defined by Lustmord's timeless soundscapes: from the ambient solo performances provided by IHSAHN, ENSLAVED or JONAS RENKSE to the subdued voice of ZOLA JESUS woven into Lustmord's sombre fabric to the industrial carnage that is GODFLESH's version of 'Ashen'.
What demonstrates the profound influence of Lustmord on this contemporary music underground showcased here is that artists from disparate ends of the sonic spectrum all feel inspired to explore the essence of his idiosyncratic sounds within their own realm: experimental electronica icons ULVER excel on a stunning, hazy rendition of ‘Godeater’, while Japanese post-rock act MONO deliver a crushing version of ‘Er Eb Os’, and THE OCEAN take us on a cathartically heavy mindtrip back to our 'Primal [State of Being]'. In the end, each of these 16 artists delivers an interpretation that pays the deepest respect to this pivotal artist, while also standing out as a new track of its own.
As Williams himself often puts it in interviews: “Copying someone you like with the right equipment isn’t going to be the least bit interesting. What matters is that you have good ideas and interesting things to say.” The Others (Lustmord Deconstructed) is not only a tribute and an excellent entry points into the discography of the founding father of dark ambient. It is also a celebration of the most accomplished visionaries in the underground music scene of today, and a manifestation of what binds them together—an undeniable devotion to attitude over ability and the courage to remain in the shadows and be The Other.
https://lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/the-others-lustmord-deconstructed
|
2022 |
€52.00 |
|
| 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) |
Weltanschauung |
LP |
"At the beginning of 1981 Maurizio Bianchi sent some demo tapes to the Come Organisation in England; after that, they extracted and blended together the sounds to get the final work.
The title « Under The Victory Banner », an anachronistic and detrimental track for the rest of the album has been replaced by the title of the same set « Plutoniumetrio » edited in 1982 by the Come Organisation for the compilation « Für Ilse Koch », which fits much better with the other tracks.
The Come Organisation was a record label founded in London in 1979 by William Bennett, initially as a vehicle for his group Come, and later to specialise in extreme electronic or controversial music, in particular for his subsequent group Whitehouse, but also for other groups including Maurizio Bianchi, Nurse with wound or Charles Manson. When Whitehouse went on hiatus at the end of 1985, Come Organisation was dissolved." [label info]
www.rotorelief.com
Weltanschauung was first released by William Bennett's Come Organisation in 1982, with Bennett changing MB's nom de plume to Leibstandarte SS MB. These recordings have long been controversial, given that one of the tracks overlayed Third Reich speeches on top of Bianchi's wall of noise, although both Bennett and Bianchi denied responsibility for having done so. Bianchi's frigid electronic orchestrations drip with sinister echoes of bone-chilling vibrations, throbbing rhythms, deranged anti-melodies, and horrifying atmospheres. For this reissue on Rotorelief, Bianchi has replaced the offending track from the Come Organisation original with the thoroughly grim track "Plutometrio" recorded during the same sessions, sans the Nazi speechifying. Such additions were unnecessary in the first place (whoever was to blame), and Weltanschauung is much better off without them.
(Aquarius Rec.) |
2013 |
€23.00 |
|
| M.B. / COALMINER + ALLIES |
Antimateria |
LP |
Allies:
GNAW THEIR TONGUES (Netherlands);
RICHARD RAMIREZ (USA, founder of Black Leather Jesus); TORTURING NURSE (China)
ZENABI (Philippines);
GRODOCK (Germany);
TOSHIJI MIKAWA (Japan, founder of Incapacitants);
MANY BLESSINGS (USA; with Ethan Lee of Primitive Man);
UNSIGNIFIED DEATH (Thailand)
MAURIZIO BIANCHI is one of the founders of early industrial and noise music and should be familiar to the most. For ANTIMATERIA he contributed two brand new, merging pieces in which he approaches the theme through sounds of iluminescent and rushing keyboard clusters. COALMINER establishes several harshnoise tracks, for which they collaborated with the most diverse artists of the genre, from different countries. in the next few days, the various supporters will be presented here.
Art by: Paul van Trigt, M.B. and Bruno Erber
https://grubenwehrfreiburg.bandcamp.com/album/antimateria
"Schon vor etlichen Jahren haben Kernphysiker verschiedene Untersuchungen zu den Klängen von Antimaterieteilchen durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse sind mittlerweile vermutlich Legion und mir weitgehend unbekannt. Wenn im Zuge dessen allerdings so etwas wie der Sound auf der vor einigen Monaten erschienenen Compilation “Antimateria” möglich ist, dann wäre ich prinzipiell dafür.
Auf der LP “Antimateria”, die wenn man genau sein will ein zwischen Kollaboration, Compilation und Split-Release angesideltes Objekt darstellt, arbeitet auf der ersten Seite das hierzulande hoffentlich bald wesentlich bekanntere philippinische Harsh Noise-Duo Coalminer mit einer Reihe an Acts zusammen, die trivial formuliert fast wie ein Who is Who internationaler Lärmkünste anmuten. Die Resultate offenbaren einen starken verbindenden Rahmen, unterscheiden sich aber im Detail sowohl in der klanglichen Beschaffenheit (Rauheit versus relativ glatte Politur, oder besser leicht abgemilderte Rauheit) als auch in der Struktur (Fluss versus Stakkato und alle Zwischenstufen).
Den Auftakt bildet ein Track, den die beiden (wie vermutlich in fast allen Stücken) in Mail Art-Manier zusammen mit der ursprünglich mal als Band gegründeten und heute von Junkie im Alleingang betriebenen Shanghaier Institution Torturing Nurse und dem deutschen Noise- und Experimental-Act Grodock aufgenommen haben. Nach wenigen brummenden Sekunden bricht eine Lawine aus Schutt und Geschrei auf die Ohren nieder, und was anfangs noch eher wie im Fluss wirkt, in welchem man die Schreie von Kindern und Schmerzgeplagten hört, wird irgendwann von einem ohrenbetäubenden Donnern und Rattern und Rumpeln zerstampft. Anschließend geht es in Zusammenarbeit mit Richard Ramirez und dem Landsmann Zenabi zunächst etwas zurückgenommener zur Sache, man hört verhaltenes Brodeln und Kratzen, bei dem sich zum einen die vielzitierte Noise-Wall mit rauer Tapete abzeichnet, aber auch das, was ungeübte Ohren gerne einen “Kaputte Boxen-Effekt” nennen. Das ist aber nur die Kulisse, auf der sich viele andere zum Teil entgrenzte Dinge wie schwindelerregender Drehungen oder höllisches Gekeife aus einem riesigen Mund ereignen.
Die qualvollen Schreie zeigen sich am eindrücklichsten in dem Track, den Coalminer zusammen mit dem aus dem experimentellen Black Metal stammenden niederländischen Projekt Gnaw Their Tongues und dem Amerikaner Ethan Lee McCarthy alias Many Blessings aufgenommen hat. Hier mischen sich die Todesschreie in ein furioses ambientes Rauschen, das mit der Zeit immer mehr zu einem kleinteiligen, schnellen Flickerbild mutiert. Zusammen mit Toshiji Mikawa (seines Zeichens Mitgründer der Incapacitants) und dem von Bangkok aus operierenden Polwach Beokhaimook alias Unsignified Death schließt die erste Seite mit einem Track, in welchem eine anfangs fast noch angenehm klingende Wall durch hochtönendes Feedback, beängstigendes Lachen und herausgekotzte Vocals zum Einsturz gebracht wird. So wird Antimaterie zu einem Fest für die Ohren.
Zu einem kompletten Tapetenwechsel (ohne Raufaser, pun intended) kommt es beim Auflegen der zweiten Seite, denn die beiden jeweils rund zehnminütigen Stücke, die Maurizio Bianchi hier unter seinem Kürzel M.B. abliefert, könnten zum bisher gehörten kaum eindrucksvoller kontrastieren. Was vom Label als “sounds of iluminescent and rushing keyboard clusters” beschrieben wird, erweist sich als Labsal von flirrender ambienter Struktur, deren helle, obertonreiche Gestalt immer in Bewegung bleibt. Im Verlauf der beiden Stücke entfalten sich – beim zweiten “Yangnay” mehr noch als beim eröffnenden “Gnayang” – leisere und lautere Abschnitte, in denen kleine Unregelmäßigkeiten, die manchmal wie Tonstörungen anmuten, für eine im besten Sinne unspektakuläre Dynamik sorgen. Und durchgehend sorgt eine sonnengeblendete Flimmerästhetik für ein fast nostalgisches Deja-Vu zu klassischen Synthesizer-Kompositionen besserer Zeiten.
Weit davon entfernt den Veröffentlichungsturnus v.a. im Harsh Noise zu überblicken schätze ich, dass “Antimateria” zu den herausragenden Releases in diesem Bereich zählt. Das betrifft natürlich primär die Coalminer und seinen Kollegen gewidmete Seite, aber auch in dem hier adressierte Dunstkreis tut ein Blick über den Tellerrand, hinter dem Bianchi seine sanften Keyboardsounds spielt, sicher ganz gut. Tolle Platte, die hoffentlich nochmal neu aufgelegt werden wird." [U.S./African Paper]
"First off, this album has six different vinyl versions, ranging from 10 copies in pristine white to 90 copies in red/brown flamed. Some are with additional CDs, some without, but Grubenwehr really put some effort into this release. I give compliments to you guys; your effort and energy paid off.
The two sides of this album are unrelated to each other. With this, I mean, it's not artists remixing each other or collaborative work using each other's sounds or so. It's 20 minutes per artist, and I think I have never had a better opportunity to present two fully different definitions of noise music in the same review to you, the reader. First of all, Side A: Coalminer. A duo from Manilla. Philippines, on their four tracks, work together with friends from all over the world. How about (and it's just half of them) Torturing Nurse, Richard Ramirez, Gnaw Their Tongues and Unsignified Death? And the music
is so intense!!! I couldn't tell you the content of the lyrics, but the titles kinda imply it. "Dissection", "Gaping Crevice", "Decomposition" and "Electrocution". I mean ... It's probably all lullabies for the sick and twisted (pun intended).
The reverse side contains two 10-minute pieces by M.B., a.k .a. Maurizio Bianchi. M.B. started working on his art in 1979 using pre-recorded sounds and, in 1980, worked more with the generation of his own sounds. He is absolutely one of the pioneers of early industrial and noise, and on the two pieces presented here - "Gnayang" and "Yangnay" - he approaches the theme of "Antimateria" through sounds of luminescent and rushing keyboard clusters. How does that translate to sound? Two lengthy pieces in which not much happens but where a lot happens. It sounded like a combination of organs and vocoders and was never-ending, always moving. I had a few moments where I was drawn into the atmosphere of Wendy Carlos works, but then more of a static/non-static drone. IF M.B.'s interpretation of the subject was that while nothing happens, a lot happens, and at the same time, because a lot happens, nothing happens, then he succeeded cum laude. Beautiful works, but in all honesty, It's an acquired taste." [BW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€20.00 |
|
| M.B. / FRAG |
Psychation |
CD |
An overwhelming collaboration between the legendary Maurizio Bianchi and FRAG recorded in early 2020.
4ib Records.
MB & FRAG - Psychation ( 4IB Records )
"Any work of architecture that does not express serenity is a mistake."
LUIS BARRAGAN
What is serenity?
To some; serenity is a tranquil, sequestered, fulfilled state of existence. A wilful pause of the modern consumer existence that pollutes and perverts our lives. A cessation of the demands modernity forces so brutally upon our febrile short lives.
To others serenity exists within scripture, tomes and ritualistic expressions of the divine. The devout seek a glimpse of this divinity, through the serenity they seek whilst shackled to the cold clay of this mortal coil.
Stephen Burroughs is FRAG and FRAG is a project that has found serenity in the brutalist architecture of the Midlands of Britain. In seeking to express in sound; the collapse of the industrial heartlands of the United Kingdom he has created through his FRAG project; a collection of audio sculptures that evoke the concrete isolation of his claustrophobic environment.
FRAG is the soundtrack to a mankind that is alienated completely from the natural order of life. His compositions are not warm but cold, angular and granular. Huge slabs of desolate anguish that despite their sterile inhumanity pulse and seethe with submerged longing. The sound of FRAG is that of a lone human hand extending skywards from a collapsed building. That hand pointing accusingly, cursing the heavens for that fate that has befallen it. Beneath that dead mortar is humanity slowly expiring under the cold dead weight.
It is entirely logical that FRAG and Maurizio Bianchi would collaborate together. In his early Archeo years Mr Bianchi explored the themes of isolated consciousness in the industrialised environment. The stark truth of the industrial age was explored by MB as he sought his own solace to the decaying soulless hell that surrounded him. Alienated by the inhumanity of his existence he sought to hold a mirror up to the crushing weight that sought to crush any and all resistance to its dehumanizing nature. Whilst MB sought to escape this brutalism of the soul by seeking an eremite like existence within the works of faith, FRAG became the lone wolf operative working behind enemy lines to fight a rearguard war of attrition against this inhuman leviathan. Both MB & FRAG have and are fighting the same war, against the same foe , using the same weaponry; the medium of sound.
Psychation despite containing three lengthy tracks really needs to be listened to as a whole. Despite the tracks being individual entities with quite different atmosphere they are best appreciated as a thematic progression across the entire album. These tracks are constantly evolving and mutating pieces of angular geometry. A cascade of electronic shapes that fluctuate and shift in a metamorphosis of Musique Concrete tonal expressionism. At times the unrelenting nature of the album is just about to break your endurance before a snatch of melodic ambience breaks through the tumult and disarray.
Where Psychation differs from most 'noise' based albums is that it retains its granite density without descending into chaotic nonsensicality. Despite the at times abrasive incisive attack of sound it retains a sense of weight. Almost as if the sound is being layered as one would layer asphalt, layer after layer added and poured. Over and over again in ceaseless repetition. The sound of humanity as it is drowned beneath the post human neo liberal order. Psychation is the sound of humanity as it thrashes and drowns beneath the technologic order that it has birthed into being.
Psychation is a warning to us all. A warning of the world we will inherit if we forgo our humanity and spirituality. If we throw all caution to the wind and embrace the technologic future.
Psychation is a window into that world. The post serenity, post human world of concrete, zero & ones and mindless consumerism.
MB & FRAG are pointing at the inevitable conclusion of our existence if we as humans choose to venture any further.
[Kristian Carter]
M.B. - PSYCHELECTRONICS, SEGREGATED NOISES, NUCLEAR PICTURES.
FRAG - PSYCHELECTRONIC SURGERISM.
ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY - KRISTIAN R. CARTER.
https://tunnelsofh.bandcamp.com/album/psychation
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| |
TSE-K |
LP |
Nach der schönen "Psychoneurose" schon die zweite Zusammenarbeit von LAND USE mit BIANCHI. Zwei lange dark-drone Stücke, sanft walllende sub-marine akustische Massen in denen sich alles verliert: Stimmen, Sirentöne, Klackern, tauchen am Rande der Wahrnehmung auf um in endlosen Weiten wieder zu verschwinden...
"Maurizio Bianchi is back on vinyl! A new special limited edition from Small Voices and the father of Italian industrial music, together with Land Use from Holland in this new chapter of his legendary career. An oppressive meditative obscure early-industrial symphony based on two monolithic pieces of thick throbbing stuff. A long deep trip into the darker meanderings of the human mind... good luck!" [label notes]
"...Let's be honest, we have no idea what any of that means, but it is clouded in mystery, and in that way definitely represents the sounds contained on TSE-K, which at its very core is a minimal drone record, a gorgeous one at that. nothing really harsh or heavy, more dark and soothing and dreamy, but within the swirling low end tones and softly whirring rumbles lurk all manner of melody, and of texture, overtones create strange rhythmic pulses, the sounds occasionally coalesce into
thick shimmering throbs, before slipping back into the drifting blackness below. In the case of TSE-K, headphones are most definitely like a diving bell, letting the listener sink into the inky blackness, and observe the various sonic elements and subtle melodic activities that are all tangled up in the blackened layers of warm ominous murk. The flip side offers up more of the same, but the drone element is a bit more subtle, more of a backdrop for slivers of feedback, and grinding bits of textural buzz, more colors, the shades of black bleeding into browns and reds, not quite as abject and cold, streaks of glowing warmth shooting through a wide open expanse of greyed ambience and abstract post industrial minimalist drift." [Aquarius Records]
www.smallvoices.it
|
2007 |
€14.50 |
|
| M.B.[MAURIZIO BIANCHI] + [P. ANDERSSON / NORDVARGR / JARL] |
S.F.A.G. / S.F.A.G. - De-Composed |
do-CD |
"ANTE-FACTS : after the disintegrative period of my production (from “Symphony for a Genocide” to “Das Testament”), the purchase of a misanthropic echo-machine and the consequent decay of the electric-analogue machinery, my efforts was redirected to a pre-recording sound sublimation, so I started to re-compose the electronic metastasis of early times, filtering through dehumanizing effects of the echo-machine, keeping attention particularly to the explanatory process of my ancestral subjectivism.
FACTS : the modulatory shaking of S.F.A.G is the oxygenating prelude to the irradiating bionic music later developed through levigating works such as “Endometrio” and “Carcinosi” and represents a milestone in my pre-apocalyptic production which later will culminate into the horrid of “Armaghedon”. The exegesis of this work reflects a strong attachment to smooth and round effects of the roughness of the frantic early days, but with a constant preference for the symbiosis between well pre-ordered sound masses and not well defined radio broadcasts, like nebulae drifting in a space in trembling condensation.
POST-FACTS: The interest of Gary Mundy of the British “Broken Flag” label (who later would have released the esoteric "The Plain Truth")
gave me the incentive to make him listen to the demo tape which was of his liking so that in January 1983 he decided to publish the album as a tape with the title "SFAG 1981" (the year relates to the link with the date of the beginning of my vinyl production). In the early 90's Tegal Records was releasing a non-authorised "truncated" version on CD,
but this new version of OEC maintains the integrity of the entire work and was completely digitally remastered by Peter Andersson (Raison D’être) [Maurizio Bianchi].
The Original album is accompanied by a second CD with 3 de-compositions using extracts of the original S.F.A.G. recordings done by 3 well knows Nordic industrial artists :
Peter Andersson [Raison D'Être]
Henrik Nordvargr Björkk [MZ.412]
Erik Jarl [IRM]
For same samples go here :
http://www.oldeuropacafe.com/main.php?nav=pd&prdct=10261" [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| MACHINE LISTENER |
Sentient System |
CD-R |
Machine Listener began with such a name, due to a project that is based on exploring and exploiting inherent characteristics from machines, and making compositions from them. In the beginning, it seems that everything from home printers to huge factory generators were used as sources. Their electromagnetic signals or the frequencies they emitted, or simply the noises they make, were the basis of compositions by sound artist Matthew Gallagher. Eventually, of course, Gallagher moved into sourcing the potential of synthesizers, both as machines and as instruments.
It can be assumed that Machine Listener's pure synth LP ("Endless Coil"), now out on Tusco Embassy, where we can guess that machines were used for their proper intention, came after "Sentient System", released in extremely limited quantities by filth-noise veteran Wyatt Howland (Skin Graft) on his own SK SK label in 2014. It is not up to us to say how "Sentient System" was created, but it is safe to assume that a little of both of these approaches were traversed, and as a result, "Sentient System" could be considered the apex of Machine Listener's adventures with mechanical, aleatoric components of industry.
Whatever the case may be, "Sentient System" is unlike any other recording you'll ever hear. It is both excellent in terms of composition and also permeated with a conceptually sound "hands off" approach, with caterwauling animal behavior, screeching panic signals and pervasive cicada hum. Some segments of these soundscapes could fit perfectly as cerebral, revelatory moments in a particularly head-fucked horror film, hewn with a certain feeling for a desolate science fiction future, or simply in mindscapes where pure noise is the end and the means. The release stands on its own, and apart from the rest, but at the same time is extremely important in adding to the legacy of industrial noise.
Originally limited to a criminally low quantity of copies, we here at NO PART OF IT are extremely excited to bring this release to a wider audience.
https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/sentient-system |
2016 |
€9.00 |
|
| MACHINEFABRIEK |
Veldwerk |
CD |
"Sublime drone music and field recordings by Rutger Zuydervelt. 'Slovensko I & II' are best seen as a travel diary, recorded in Slovakia. RZ made 'sound snapshots' with a small digital recorder. A major influence both while recording and assembling the tracks was Chinese sound artist Yan Jun. 'Rusland' is a sound collage comprising field recordings and sections of live performances made in Russia. An incredible adventure and culture shock with long train journeys, bizarre venues and amazing people. 'The Breaking Water' can be heard as a sonic portrait of Rotterdam's famous Erasmus bridge. It includes recordings taken from both on and beneath the bridge, along with further sounds from the river that it crosses, the Nieuwe Maas. 'Floor & Radio' is a contrast to the outdoor pieces recorded for the the installation 'Licthung' in Radolfzell, Germany. Contrasted against the outdoor silence was the squeaking floor in the guest house and the distorted signal and static from the radio. Sometimes there's music in everything. Makino Takashi asked RZ to perform a score for his film 'In Your Star'. After a screening in Tokyo, a studio version was recorded. The result is 'Apollo', a sonic journey to space and beyond. Digipak." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
" 'Field work' is the translation of this 'new' CD by Machinefabriek. It has pieces of music that deal, one way or another, with field recordings from various travels Machinefabriek made and I put the word new between '' because all but one of this pieces were released before, mostly by Rutger Zuydervelt himself as 3"CDRs but 'Slovensko' as a 7" by Champion Version. I am not sure, but I seem to have reviewed them all, so in the same spirit of this CD, I'll re-run my reviews.
(Vital Weekly 651): Recently Machinefabriek played in Russia four concerts as part of the Dutch Punch festival. Everything was duly recorded, but not released as such. The 3"CDR 'Rusland' is an extensive re-edit of all the concerts plus some additional home recording. The guitar plays the all important role here, like in more of Machinefabriek's recent work Soft tinkling, with slowly enveloping pedal work. On top there is a bit of cracks and pops and with sparsely orchestrated field recordings. A thoroughly relaxing piece of music, but one in which there is more sound than in 'Drawn'. Nice release and on the website there is another twenty-five minute piece waiting for you.
(Vital Weekly 714): For 'The Breathing Bridge' he uses sounds taped at the Erasmus Bridge and the river Nieuwe Maas, both in Rotterdam and creates two pieces of music with that, although it wasn't easy to see the distinction between both. As with many of his recent outings, Zuydervelt is all about atmospheric music, but arrives there from different ends. Sometimes with musical instruments and sometimes with field recordings, such as in this case. For the most part the music humms at a low, bass end level, until it bursts out somewhere halfway through the second piece, after which things die out again.
(Vital Weekly 709): Despite a plethora of releases, Rutger Zuydervelt never ceases to surprise. Not always I must admit, as there is a distinct style of his own, but sometimes he does something out of the ordinary. 'Slovensko' is such a thing. In September 2010 he went on holiday to Slovakia, armed with his camera (he is a designer after all) and these days also with a digital recorder. He collected a bunch of field recordings which he, back home, edited into the two parts of 'Slovensko'. No guitars this time here, but pure field recordings, edited, cut, mixed together into two lovely collages of sound. Motor sounds, dogs, voices, fences and metal gates and some more obscured sounds are put together in quite a cinematic manner. Not just a continuing ambient sound but a wonderful play of various sounds. This may very well be the first time that Zuydervelt worked so solely with field recordings. And with some fine result.
(Vital Weekly 756): This work contains excerpts of an audio-visual installation which you can actually still visit, up to December 5th at the Galerie Vayhinger, Radolfzeil, Germany. The work is a collaborative effort of Rutger Zuydervelt and Steve Roden, both responsible for the music an Sabina Burger, who did the visual component for this work. The later shows reflection of trees in water, or rain drops falling in water. The music is a duet between Roden and Zuydervelt and seems to be combining the best of both ends: the acoustic sounds of Roden (chimes, bells, cups) and Zuydervelt's careful electronic manipulation thereof. The music and film go together really well, I'd say. Poetic, silent and light. An excellent three way combination. (FdW)
(Vital Weekly 768): When I opened this up in Itunes it gave the correct title and as 'genre' it read 'soundtrack', which is quite funny. Apollo and soundtrack: how can be not avoid thinking of Brian Eno? Rutger Zuydervelt is not Brian Eno, simply because the theory side of things lack in his work (so far!), but music wise he is probably quite close to the work of the master of ambient. In this case he presents an 'alternate' edit of the soundtrack for Makino Takashi's film 'In Your Star', which I haven't seen, but its based on the Nasa flight control samples at the beginning and some highly atmospheric music, but with a slight edge to it. There are at times some piercing sounds, a glitch like rhythm here and there and it is strong atmospheric music of great stellar quality. Spacious, to stick with the theme of space travel, like the processed sound of a rocket flying over low. A particular strong work with a slight change of sound, which proofs that Zuydervelt is on the move again.
Great package too.
For all of you who missed out on these limited releases or who think CDRs suck (or vinyl for that matter) now in glorious 'ever-lasting' CD format. An excellent choice of pieces that really fit together very well." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Vergezichten |
10inch |
"Musicians like Rutger Zuydervelt have a special relationship with presets - sounds, rhythms and samples that are inbuilt to keyboards or synthesizers. Presets are the opposite of individualism in music, they are commodities, sounds off the peg. Self-respecting musicians never use them, or perhaps use them precisely because they shouldn't. Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek is a master of self-made sound and time-stretching, sensitively handling organic recordings and samples on countless releases, and regards preset sounds in an organ or a cheap keyboard as a tonal find, as a part of the cacophony of every day life. He uses the chugging of a Bontempi rhythm box or preset strings like field recordings, with the same calm and matter-of-factness as the murmur of ventilation or the hum of a refrigerator.
These Bontempi-rhythms plus the computer-stretched sounds of saxophone (Espen Reinertsen) and voice (Mariska Baars) are the base elements of Vergezicht 1 & 2. It is stunning how Zuydervelt manages to produce depth and meditative calm with this supposedly soulless material. Never-ending expanses and the mechanic rhythms overlap and start shifting, slowly and imperceptibly before the beat gets nervous, starts to stumble to finally come to a standstill with the slowly swelling bass. The track is held in suspense, rattling and rustling. Ghostly squeaking breezes in, then another stop with a soft beat of the drum. Slowly, the track builds itself up again with filtered grooves and prolonged notes.
On Vergezicht 2, the Bontempi-rhythm sets in again, after seven minutes of rising and subsiding expanses and the breezy, ethereal soprano, this time slowed down alongside warm basses and single notes from the piano. Then a momentary halt, almost too beautiful and too clean for this track. Soon an ominous siren call floats above the euphony and restores order by friction. This subtle irritation is part of a complete acoustic pattern. It is not possible to imagine Machinefabriek's music without the irritiating moment, the doubt turned into sound.
The Dutch word 'Vergezicht' means view or panorama. And it is a wide acoustic panorama opened by Zuydervelt here that reveal presets in new light." [label info]
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
With Voices |
CD |
With Voices is the newest recording by Dutch composer Rutger Zuydervelt under the moniker Machinefabriek. True to its title, the album’s eight pieces exhibit Zuydervelt’s use of cassette recorders, tone generators, radios, synths, and other hifi curio to construct bewildering aural architecture around vocal work from Peter Broderick, Marissa Nadler, Richard Youngs, Chantal Acda, Terence Hannum (of Locrian) and others. These human voices are featured as musical instruments rather than mere vehicles of lyrical content, resulting in a sub-linguistic mosaic of primordially stirring moods.
The initial spark of With Voices was kindled while Zuydervelt was in Taipei creating music for a dance company. In the final days of his trip, a dancer named Wei-Yun Chen caught Zuydervelt’s ear with an instagram video featuring a voice that turned out to be Wei-Yun’s own (she would end up on the album’s seventh movement, a piece that features dissected bits of Taiwanese poetry amid low-pitched murmurs and whispering fogbanks of static). The encounter stirred Zuydervelt to create a single 35 minute soundscape upon which each vocalist on With Voices was encouraged to improvise, be it talking, reading, singing, or wordless, guttural intoning. Such vocal smatterings were then used to determine how the other tonal elements should be arranged, dictating where each musical passage would ultimately lead. “The idea was for everyone to just do what came naturally” he recalls, “the element of unpredictability was important to me.”
Indicative of this approach “III” (the tracks are simply titled with Roman numerals) slowly winds like ivy through staccato phrases spoken by Zuydervelt’s peer Peter Broderick, whose micro-incantations skip along mechanically only to telescope into monastic grandeur at the track’s midpoint; the vibrations of vocal cords are often stretched to a seismic hum to form the heavy implements in Zuydervelt’s toolkit. On “V”, tape recordings of Zero Years Kid (aka Joachim Badenhorst) sputter with their own apparent intelligence like a faulty AI attempting to interpret reels of human speech in some ruinous library of the distant future. Finally, a siren-like Marissa Nadler leads the suite to its lullabic endpoint with overlapping wisps of harmony devoid of accompaniment ending the album on an angelic note.
In these moments, like much of With Voices, warm-blooded arteries seem to have grown around bits of well-designed artifice to form something warmly alien, soberly futuristic, and inherently satisfying. More than simply an album of collaborative features, With Voices is a mutating collage of modern minimalism that challenges as often as it comforts. There is an alchemical, metallurgical quality that arises from Zuydervelt’s unique way of merging humanness with abstraction, harshness with beauty, and unintelligibility with familiarity on what may be the most affecting Machinefabriek release to date.
Each vocalist recorded a reaction to the same base track.
Their parts became the starting points for the pieces on this album.
Constructed by Rutger Zuydervelt, Rotterdam, March-June 2018
https://machinefabriek.bandcamp.com/album/with-voices-2
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
With Voices (col. vinyl) |
LP |
With Voices is the newest recording by Dutch composer Rutger Zuydervelt under the moniker Machinefabriek. True to its title, the album’s eight pieces exhibit Zuydervelt’s use of cassette recorders, tone generators, radios, synths, and other hifi curio to construct bewildering aural architecture around vocal work from Peter Broderick, Marissa Nadler, Richard Youngs, Chantal Acda, Terence Hannum (of Locrian) and others. These human voices are featured as musical instruments rather than mere vehicles of lyrical content, resulting in a sub-linguistic mosaic of primordially stirring moods.
The initial spark of With Voices was kindled while Zuydervelt was in Taipei creating music for a dance company. In the final days of his trip, a dancer named Wei-Yun Chen caught Zuydervelt’s ear with an instagram video featuring a voice that turned out to be Wei-Yun’s own (she would end up on the album’s seventh movement, a piece that features dissected bits of Taiwanese poetry amid low-pitched murmurs and whispering fogbanks of static). The encounter stirred Zuydervelt to create a single 35 minute soundscape upon which each vocalist on With Voices was encouraged to improvise, be it talking, reading, singing, or wordless, guttural intoning. Such vocal smatterings were then used to determine how the other tonal elements should be arranged, dictating where each musical passage would ultimately lead. “The idea was for everyone to just do what came naturally” he recalls, “the element of unpredictability was important to me.”
Indicative of this approach “III” (the tracks are simply titled with Roman numerals) slowly winds like ivy through staccato phrases spoken by Zuydervelt’s peer Peter Broderick, whose micro-incantations skip along mechanically only to telescope into monastic grandeur at the track’s midpoint; the vibrations of vocal cords are often stretched to a seismic hum to form the heavy implements in Zuydervelt’s toolkit. On “V”, tape recordings of Zero Years Kid (aka Joachim Badenhorst) sputter with their own apparent intelligence like a faulty AI attempting to interpret reels of human speech in some ruinous library of the distant future. Finally, a siren-like Marissa Nadler leads the suite to its lullabic endpoint with overlapping wisps of harmony devoid of accompaniment ending the album on an angelic note.
In these moments, like much of With Voices, warm-blooded arteries seem to have grown around bits of well-designed artifice to form something warmly alien, soberly futuristic, and inherently satisfying. More than simply an album of collaborative features, With Voices is a mutating collage of modern minimalism that challenges as often as it comforts. There is an alchemical, metallurgical quality that arises from Zuydervelt’s unique way of merging humanness with abstraction, harshness with beauty, and unintelligibility with familiarity on what may be the most affecting Machinefabriek release to date.
Each vocalist recorded a reaction to the same base track.
Their parts became the starting points for the pieces on this album.
Constructed by Rutger Zuydervelt, Rotterdam, March-June 2018
|
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
| MACHINERY DIRECTIVE / HYPNOSKULL |
Lobotomy Springs / Vier Geschichten |
CD |
Limited split-release on EE Tapes: cassette EE43CS / CD EE43.
A collaboration between 3 gents residing in the same (home) town of Sint-Niklaas (Saint-Nix), representing 3 different generations!
From old to young:
EE TAPES - curator / editor
HYPNOSKULL - a veteran that needs no introduction after nearly 30 years of media terror!
MACHINERY DIRECTIVE - a brand new noise project by our youngest comrade who prefers to remain anonymous! so be it, but we know who UR!
Physical release comes packaged very oldschoolish and is quite limited! Moreover, please welcome the first cassette on EE Tapes since 22 years!
Available for sale as:
- cassette => pro-copied C54 with on-body print (100 copies) EE43CS
- CD => fabric-pressed CD (100 copies) EE43
- DL
contact: info@eetapes.be
May the noise be with you!
video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKsuvBgzhqg |
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Lobotomy Springs / Vier Geschichten |
MC |
Limited split-release on EE Tapes: cassette EE43CS / CD EE43.
A collaboration between 3 gents residing in the same (home) town of Sint-Niklaas (Saint-Nix), representing 3 different generations!
From old to young:
EE TAPES - curator / editor
HYPNOSKULL - a veteran that needs no introduction after nearly 30 years of media terror!
MACHINERY DIRECTIVE - a brand new noise project by our youngest comrade who prefers to remain anonymous! so be it, but we know who UR!
Physical release comes packaged very oldschoolish and is quite limited! Moreover, please welcome the first cassette on EE Tapes since 22 years!
Available for sale as:
- cassette => pro-copied C54 with on-body print (100 copies) EE43CS
- CD => fabric-pressed CD (100 copies) EE43
- DL
contact: info@eetapes.be
May the noise be with you!
video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKsuvBgzhqg
https://eetapes.bandcamp.com/album/lobotomy-springs-vier-geschichten-split-release
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| MAEDER, MARCUS |
Annex |
mCD |
"In architecture, an annex is an extension to a main building. Likewise, the pieces on this mini CD complement and supplement the approaches that Marcus Maeder presented in his latest work titled subsegmental. Here, too, the musical pieces are composed of very short sound segments reproduced at such low speed as to stretch out and form vast soundscapes. Maeder processes and shapes this acoustic topography, giving it a distinctive, surreal quality and populating it with strange beings and events. Those who enter the annex are confronted with highly suggestive soundscapes featuring objects springing out of the inaudible realm of darkness to form a cosmos of micro-events, only to escape perception again, like a ghostly presence brushing past in the dark. Marcus Maeder is a sound artist and composer. He studied Art at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Lucerne and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Philosophy at the University of Hagen. Maeder runs the music label domizil, which he co-founded in 1996 with Bernd Schurer. He has worked as an editor and producer for the Swiss radio station DRS and has been working as a curator at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology of the Zurich University of the Arts since 2005. His artistic work focuses mainly on computer music and the artistic and media extensions of the term. As an author, Maeder has written on a number of topics in the fields of sound art and digital media." [label info]
www.domizil.ch
"Earlier today I was not at home, but in a friends house waiting for something. The weather was hot, and I lay down on his couch. In my bag was ‘Annex’ by Marcus Maeder, and I decided to play it. Around the house there was a lot of activity of people constructing a new house on one side (or perhaps putting an annex to it?) and on the other side motorized objects doing gardening work. Maeder’s music wasn’t very loud on, but it merged wonderful with the sounds coming from outside, even with all the windows closed. I fell asleep. Later on, now, I am at home again, listening again to ‘Annex’ in a more quiet surrounding of early evening (windows open). I am to understand that this work is an extension (for that is what an ‘annex’ is, in an architectural sense) of ‘Subsegmental’ (see Vital Weekly 702). I am not sure if Maeder draws from the same sounds as on ‘Subsegmental’, but he uses ‘very short sound segments reproduced at such low speed as to stretch out and form vast soundscapes’ – I
couldn’t have this any better myself. The four pieces (sixteen minutes in total) emerge on the near silence, especially ‘Plateau’ is very quiet, much alike the eleven pieces on ‘Subsegmental’. Perhaps without many differences between this one and that one, but its simply beautiful stuff. Maybe its too early to play this music and I should wait until full darkness has set in, but its tranquility is simply great as it is." [FdW, Vital Weekly] |
2010 |
€8.00 |
|
| MAEROR TRI |
Multiple Personality Disorder |
CD |
"... this debut CD by the German trio Maeror Tri is a devastating experience in sonic art. In the realm of Soviet France, Cranioclast or The Hafler Trio, its's hard to call such constructed wedges of noise music, this is something else. In fact I think it just scared four people who entered the Ultima Thule shop, leaving with bewildered and perplexed looks on their faces! Be they atmospheric or intensive, Maeror Tri offer a challenging sound that defies description." [Alan Freeman, AUDIO, 1993]
"Maeror Tri als der J.G. BALLARD der Musik." [Vi-Va-Vogel, Auf Abwegen]
"Some music is related to a period, because of the sound of the amplifiers, recording possibilities, effects and synthesizers. The technic colors the sound during that period and gives is that time limit. I cannot say that about the re-release of the timeless sounds at the CD "Multiple Personality Disorder" (MPD) of the not anymore existing German group Maeror Tri. The groups existed from 1998 - 1996 and has the following members Stefan "Baraka [H]" Knappe, Martin "GLIT[s]CH" Gitschel and Helge Siehl. Stefan Knappe and Martin Gitschel continues to make music with the group Troum and releases music with the vinyllabel Drone Records. From 1998 - 1993 Maeror Tri released a lot of tapes. The music for the first CD Multiply Personality Disorder was recorded in 1991 and released in 1993 by Korm Plastics as a limited edition of 600 in the serial Introductionaire to promote the music of new musical artists. For now the re-release has been done by the Purplesoil from the Czech Republic. During the musical project the group examined the different states of mind and characters by means of music and they want to confront the listener with the totally different states of mind and feeling of people with MPD. The CD exist of five compositions, with different moods, from ambient and atmospheric to aggressive and anxious. And really I was confronted with the different moods some with MPD. The meaning of the album has been successful. During that same period I was working in a psychiatric hospital with people with so-called personality diseases. I worked also with people with MPD and they presented themselves with totally different characters, behaviour, clothing, sexual preference and sound of the voice. I was really very difficult to work with these people because I had to deal with one person, but sometimes during daytime with three or four different persons. Most of these people had very bad childhood experiences and they try to deal with the some treating or stressful reality with different personalities. For now MPD has become more on the background but this release is really a good flashback of that period and a successful experiment of Maeror Tri." [JKH / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Emotional Engramm |
CD |
"The reissue of a long-forgotten classic MAEROR TRI album with stunning new artwork and newly remastered sound. Back in 1997, it turned out to be the last album by this experimental trio of German droners composed of Stefan ‘Barakah’ Knappe, Martin ‘GLIT[s]CH’ Gitschel and Helge Siehl. The former two later formed TROUM (Zoharum releases: “Autopoiesis / Nahtscato” and “Seeing-Ear Gods” (A Continuous Journey
in Six Parts) and the latter 1000SCHOEN. During their nine-year existence, they recorded a handful of albums and cassettes with their unique mixture of minimalism, industrial, ambient and drone, exploring the brains of potential listeners. „Emotional Engramm” is MAEROR TRI's most refined effort to date. After years of experimenting, the group came to a characteristic sound composed of layers of
electrically/electronically-treated acoustic instruments. Their organic sound achieved the most accessible form on „Emotional Engramm”;. Clocking in at just under 80 minutes, the seven tracks presented here show Maeror Tri at its best.
The reissue is presented in a lavish 6-panel digipak designed by Marcin Lojek (Ibsen Design, New Nihilism label, Mantichora and Schmerz bands) with a foreword by Martyn Bates (EYELESS IN GAZA).
The album has been faithfully remastered by Lukasz Miernik (Dead Cat Mastering)." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Originally released in 1997 on the now defunct Iris Light imprint out of England, Emotion Engramm was the final album from Maeror Tri - the haunting, post-industrial drone trio that was the precursor to the equally haunting, post-industrial drone DUO Troum. This record - more so than any of the other Maeror Tri albums - engaged the complex structures that Troum would later push through their interlocking, shadowy melodies and slow-motion, effects-heavy drone. At the same time, the concepts that went into Emotional Engramm are more closely related to the clinical psychological themes of the Maeror Tri albums Multiple Personality Disorder or Language Of Flames & Sound, as referenced by the titular engram (purposefully misspelled in the title), a Scientology term for a mental image embedded into the brain by any type of trauma - physical, emotional, psychic, or otherwise. Far from prescribing the teachings of Scientology, Maeror Tri uses that concept as a jumping off point in conjuring "resonance of control, impact, fortuity, the randomly instigated yet inedibly etched emotional memory: Kodak ghosts." It's easy to read particular passages within the frozen din of washed-out guitar noise, spectral melodies, tectonic bass rumblings, and metallic slashes of grim electronics as the seizures within the psyche that might get caught in an infinite loop for the inner-mind. Some of those images provide an emotional resonance that's deeply sad and full of despair, while others are enraged with a blackened hostility. As we mentioned, many of the ideas and strategies that went into this album continued to develop through Troum; but even so, this stands as one of the best albums that either Maeror Tri or Troum had produced." [Aquarius Records]
"Recorded between 1993 and 1996, this is the final release of MAEROR TRI - packaged to suggest that this music is a kind of empty canvas for engrams, for letters, words, scribblings (both significant and insignificant) to emerge upon. "Engrams" somehow brings to mind Scientology; resonances of Control, Impact, Fortuity, the randomly instigated yet indelibly etched emotional memory: Kodak Ghosts...
The pure idea of Scientology is that of a beautiful catharsis; a steering thru the engrams, the 'de-control' of the mind and the re-acquisition of it's disparate componants...an insight...tools for your own endevour....for self-development......access towards some kind of re-affirmation of scattered aspects of being.
MAEROR TRI here paint an expanse of (admittedly low-fi) sheets of sound; abstraction that is only truly completed by the sensitized listener, adrift, in darkness, volume filling/consuming the room (it doesn't function as ambience, I found...), waver of rain in radioactivity, ether tears of trains of thought, the long forever letters of minutia that you hand-write to dear friends half a world away all flooding back now, into your mind's ear; books - someone else's thoughts.....worlds that consume, yet are mere cyphers, scribbles that are understood somewhere in an unthinking space within the mechanism of each individual's fleeting moment upon the 'wheel of the quivering meat conception'. This MAEROR TRI CD; non-representational, perhaps easily dismissed by anyone who has no time to 'stand and stare'..... ... .... well, for God's sake, stop ... and stand and stare ... put your ear to the world, and listen to the song of the nightingale ..... .. no; listen to all the birdsong .. ... know that words, and sounds, are but tokens."
[MARTYN BATES for SOFT WATCH for the 1st ed.]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| MALDUR ATAI |
Borgata |
CD |
"A brutal murder was committed in Ostia beach near Rome on 2 November 1975. A car ran over a man, turned around and repeated the act. Pier Paolo Pasolini was the victim. The murderer was found and confessed to murdering Pasolini. However, later on, he claimed he was forced to do it. They threatened they would kill his family otherwise. Them naturally being the cops. Since the truth emerged only several years after closing the case, the majority linked the death of the famous society figure, poet, essayist and filmmaker with his outrageous movie “Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom”.
A friend of Pier Paolo stated that Paolo had been going to Ostia beach to meet some strangers who had stolen some rolls of “Salò”. A few bloodied fragments of the script were found in the pocket of Paolo’s jacket. More specifically, this was a leather folder containing a few bloodied pages. The murder case was investigated by a team of three detectives. And a strange thing happened then. One of the detectives stuck to a completely different version of the murder than the rest. He blurted it out to the media saying that “everything is much more complicated than someone’s trying to make it appear”. He was removed from the case by the authorities and subsequently disappeared. After a while the case was forgotten by the media.
However, fifteen years later, Sergio Citti, the aforementioned friend of Paolo, told Paolo’s biographer, a journalist, that he was the only one who could actually disclose the actual circumstances of Paolo’s death. He recalled that a stranger came to his door introducing himself as a detective on Paolo’s case. The man looked deeply stressed, handed Sergio some pages of notes pointing out that they contained information on the cause of Paolo’s violent death. Without saying a further word the man left. Later Sergio saw the man’s photo on TV news. They announced that a police officer was missing. Sergio was shocked by this and threw himself into reading the notes. These were pages torn out from the diary, indicating that the writer was the officer of the special commission investigating the circumstances of Paolo’s death. He was called to recognise the body in the site of crime. He found a leather folder in the pocket of Paolo’s jacket. Some of the pages were missing, others were sunken with blood. The words in capitals on the folder said “The Third Secret of Fatima”. In the middle of the folder there was a clear text fragment with words “Bring me some wine, La Popessa. In a second, Sir”. The following text was illegible because of the blood stain half page large. Then one could read “Pope Pius XII feels sick. He is short of breath. He attempts to sit down, lowers his feet from the bed onto the floor but lacks any strength to stand up. La Popessa blows out the candles and leaving the Pope’s bedroom closes the door behind her”. The next pages were evidently torn out. The following page contained Scene No. 57, “A horrible stench pervaded the Pope’s death venue, while his face was morbidly pallid. As a doctor, I recognised the classic aftermath of tasting the cup of the Borgia”. No more text ensued. All the following pages, except the last one, were torn out. And THE LAST one was empty. The diary-author recollected that standing in this murder site he came to realise that someone in an awful hurry was terribly reluctant to let anyone see the content of the folder.
Sergio read the entire diary of the detective. He had a clear idea what folder was meant. Once Paolo had mentioned to him that the shock caused by “Salò” was nothing in comparison to the fiery response his next film “The Third Secret of Fatima” would receive. He also hinted that the script covered not only the past, but also the future. The events shown in the film had indeed taken place in the past, and were meant to make the audience realise the horrible things awaiting them in the future. During their last meeting, Paolo hinted he was meeting someone important and, before closing the door, winked saying a strange thing – “Just remember the Satan entered Vatican in 1972”. The next day Sergio received a call from the police and leant the horrible news that Paolo had been brutally murdered. Sergio was invited to recognise the body. It was Paolo. Later on, Sergio was questioned about his last meeting with Paolo and the details he could remember.
Sergio provided Paolo’s biographer with more details of the diary of the missing detective and the information that he remembered from the TV reports. They said nothing unusual had been found at the detective’s place. All things were where they belonged. The detective’s garments were lying nicely folded in wardrobes and drawers. The money found in the place made the police think the detective could not have been gone away. The only suspicious thing was the diary put open on the desk. All pages were missing, except the last one. And that was empty. A glass of water knocked down next to the diary perhaps implied a scene of rush or drama.
Sergio then assumed that the stranger and the missing detective were one and the same person and the pages came from that same diary. The torn out pages contained the detective’s notes and assumptions, as well as other interesting and important details of the investigated case. The detective wrote that the name of the script found in the pocket of the filmmaker’s jacket - “The Third Secret of Fatima” - caught his attention. He did some investigation whether the murder was somehow connected to the script. He turned for help to the Vatican Curia. In the extensive official letter the detective asked for more information on the third secret of Fatima, for he had suspicions this could have been connected to the murder of the famous filmmaker. The official response was short. It read: “We sincerely regret the demise of the famous filmmaker. However, it is not in our competency to explicate the secrets of the Divine. This is a higher reality that is not subject to the mortals”. It was signed by Paul Marcinkus, the head of the Vatican Curia and the third most powerful person in Vatican.
Later on, the detective received an anonymous letter from Vatican. The letterhead contained Vatican water marks. It read: “I am aware of your document. If you wish to find out more, please come to the specified derelict church at the given time”. The detective went to the meeting place in the dark rural site in the midst of the vineyards. The church had no doors. There was only a stone arch that looked either neglected or under reconstruction. Upon silently approaching the pulpit covered by a thick layer of dust the detective called out. He heard a hushed invitation from the pulpit to come closer. The voice agreed to reveal all known information on the condition that he will stay unknown. The detective concurred.
Then the voice told him quite a number of interesting things about the third secret of Fatima. There exists a great power, a group of interests, aware of the ancient prophecy of Tibet predicting the recurrence of maldur atai cult. They seek to prevent the said return so that the truth is not revealed. They elaborated the plan of taking over Vatican and impeding the advent of the Messiah. This long-term strategy included such tasks as replacing the white popes with the black ones from the ranks of the Jesuit Order generals. The secret document in particular stressed that a very powerful element in the form of a child had been sent to the Earth, and would play a vital role in all spheres of influence as well as coordinate and rule all political, military and shadow forces resisting the advent of the redeeming Messiah. The agents of these spheres of influence suspect that Messiah is the maldur atai cult predicted by the legend of Nepal. It is believed that a man wearing a white long robe of the Pope was seen in the third apparition in Fatima. The children who witnessed the Marian apparition were scared to death. They recounted they had seen one more man in black, huge as a gorilla. The face of the man in a white robe was deadly pallid. He said nothing. He was foaming at the mouth. The man in black uttered the following words to the children: “I will make an entrance as a child exactly five years from now, I will break all the holy seals and make the world ready for the advent of the beast. And upon my arrival I will gain confidence of the most powerful in the world”. The children were frightened to death seeing the dreary face of the tall man. They named him a “Gorilla”. For many years afterwards the appalling man stayed in the children’s dreams and they screamed “Gorilla”, “Gorilla”, “Gorilla” in their sleep. The man in the pulpit suggested the adepts of maldur atai cult had sent a sign of warning from another dimension. The third secret of Fatima might have warned the humankind about the upcoming dreadful scenario. The man also said that the events of Vatican in the last decades implied a quite a number of parallels with what was revealed in the apparition in Fatima. The year 1972 was crucial for the Holy throne. The mysterious man did provide further explanations but suggested the detective read the press. The media was brimming with the coverage of these events. They concerned a few persons associated with the illuminati, Vatican, NATO, Zionists, cocaine and banks.
The biographer asked Sergio whether he suspected that Paolo had been murdered for he had received information from unknown sources about the global conspiracy predicted by unnatural powers and had based his film script on this information? Sergio replied that Paolo had always liked to keep to himself both his creative ideas and his lovers, who might have included the members of clergy from Vatican. However, it was obvious that these events had nothing to do with “Salò”, while – to Sergio’s regret - Paolo was not completely open. All this was somehow connected to the filmmaker’s new film titled “The Third Secret of Fatima”. It has never been made. Only after reading the fragments of the detective’s diary, Sergio drew attention to this and realised what was happening in the head of Paolo when he was leaving to meet the strangers. Furthermore, why did they try to hide so much that the Pope’s life was threatened in Fatima and that the man who disclosed the attempt was named “Gorilla”? The biographer of Paolo’s life told Sergio that he had investigated the subject of the maldur atai cult and he found it strange - or perhaps it was only a coincidence - that both the last page found in Paolo’s jacket and the last page of the diary found in detective’s house were empty. Just like the pages found in the cells of the missing maldur atai adepts in Nepal. Or at least that’s what the local legends told. Sergio replied: “It is true that the coincidence is indeed weird”.
Later the Paolo’s biography was published in small run. It contained all collected information about the death of Pier Paolo Pasolini, the filmmaker. The book titled “Borgata” did not receive a wide acclaim, although the promotion campaign and its headings loudly claimed that the book reveals the hitherto unknown circumstances of the murder of the filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, that the cause of the death is not “Salò”, but “The Third Secret of Fatima”, that the unshot movie was suppressed by reality and who killed Pier Paolo Pasolini. All these revelations made way to this book.
“Borgata”, the forth full-length album by Maldur Atai, centres on the events described in this unpopular book." [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| MALONE, KALI |
All Life Long |
do-LP |
Kali Malones mit Spannung erwartetes neues Album »All Life Long« ist eine Sammlung von Musik für Pfeifenorgel, Chor und Blechbläserquintett, komponiert von Kali Malone zwischen 2020 und 2023.
Chormusik, aufgeführt vom Macadam Ensemble unter der Leitung von Etienne Ferschaud in der Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-L'Immaculée-Conception in Nantes. Musik für Blechbläserquintett, aufgeführt von Anima Brass im Bunker Studio in New York City. Die Orgelmusik wurde gespielt von Kali Malone und Stephen O'Malley auf den historischen, temperierten Pfeifenorgeln der Église Saint-François in Lausanne, des Orgelparks in Amsterdam und des Malmö Konstmuseums in Schweden.
Kali Malone komponiert mit einer seltenen Klarheit. Ihre Musik ist geduldig und fokussiert und baut auf einem Fundament sich entwickelnder harmonischer Zyklen auf, die verborgene emotionale Resonanzen hervorrufen.
Kali Malone's anticipated new album "All Life Long" is a collection of music for pipe organ, choir, and brass quintet composed by Kali Malone, 2020 - 2023. Choral music performed by Macadam Ensemble and conducted by Etienne Ferschaud at Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-L'Immaculée-Conception in Nantes. Brass quintet music performed by Anima Brass at The Bunker Studio in New York City. Organ music performed by Kali Malone and Stephen O’Malley on the historical meantone tempered pipe organs at Église Saint-François in Lausanne, Orgelpark in Amsterdam, and Malmö Konstmuseum in Sweden.
Kali Malone composes with a rare clarity of vision. Her music is patient and focused, built on a foundation of evolving harmonic cycles that draw out latent emotional resonances. Time is a crucial factor: letting go of expectations of duration and breadth offers a chance to find a space of reflection and contemplation. In her hands, experimental reinterpretations of centuries-old polyphonic compositional methods become portals to new ways of perceiving sound, structure, and introspection. Though awe-inspiring in scope, the most remarkable thing about Malone’s music is the intimacy stirred by the close listening it encourages.
Malone’s new album All Life Long, created between 2020 - 2023, presents her first compositions for organ since 2019’s breakthrough album The Sacrificial Code alongside interrelated pieces for voice and brass performed by Macadam Ensemble and Anima Brass. Over the course of twelve pieces, harmonic themes and patterns recur, presented in altered forms and for varied instrumentation. They emerge and reemerge like echoes of their former selves, making the familiar uncanny. Propelled by lungs and breath rather than bellows and oscillators, Malone’s compositions for choir and brass take on expressive qualities that complicate the austerity that has defined her work, introducing lyricism and the beauty of human fallibility into music that has been driven by mechanical processes. At the same time, the works for organ, performed by Malone with additional accompaniment by Stephen O’Malley on four different organs dating from the 15th to 17th centuries, underscore the mighty, spectral power that those rigorous operations can achieve.
All Life Long simmers in an ever-shifting tension between repetition and variation. The pieces for brass, organ, and voice are alternated asymmetrically, providing nearly continuous timbral fluctuation across its 78-minute runtime even as thematic material reiterates. Each composition’s internal framework of fractal pattern permutations has the paradoxical effect of creating anticipated keystone moments of dramatic reverie and lulling the listener into believing in an illusory endlessness. On an even more granular level, the historical meantone tuning systems of each organ used, and the variable intonation of brass and voice, provide further points of emotional excavation within the harmony.
The titular composition “All Life Long” appears twice on the album, first as an extended canon for organ and again in the final quarter, compactly arranged for voice. In the latter, Malone pairs the music with “The Crying Water” by Arthur Symons, a poem steeped in language of mourning and eternity. For organ, “All Life Long” moves with a patient stateliness, the drama concentrated in moments when shifting tonalities generate and release dissonance and ecstasy. For voice, each word is saturated with feeling, the singers swooping gracefully downward to capture the melancholy of the narrator’s relationship to the timeless tears of the sea. “Passage Through The Spheres,” the album’s opening piece, contains lyrics in Italian pulled from Giorgio Agamben’s essay In Praise of Profanation. In it, Agamben defines profanation as, in part, the act of bringing back to communal, secular use that which has been segregated to the realm of the sacred, a process Malone enacts each time she performs on church organs.
This is not music of praise, or of spiritual revelation, but it is an artistic enactment of translating the indescribable. It carries the gravity of liturgical chant, and its fixation on the infinite, but draws its weight from the earthly realm of human experience. A music that draws the listener into the present moment where they can discover themselves within the interwoven musical patterns that can come to resemble the passage of days, weeks, years, a lifetime.
https://kalimalone.bandcamp.com/album/all-life-long
|
2024 |
€32.50 |
|
| |
All Life Long |
CD |
Kali Malones mit Spannung erwartetes neues Album »All Life Long« ist eine Sammlung von Musik für Pfeifenorgel, Chor und Blechbläserquintett, komponiert von Kali Malone zwischen 2020 und 2023.
Chormusik, aufgeführt vom Macadam Ensemble unter der Leitung von Etienne Ferschaud in der Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-L'Immaculée-Conception in Nantes. Musik für Blechbläserquintett, aufgeführt von Anima Brass im Bunker Studio in New York City. Die Orgelmusik wurde gespielt von Kali Malone und Stephen O'Malley auf den historischen, temperierten Pfeifenorgeln der Église Saint-François in Lausanne, des Orgelparks in Amsterdam und des Malmö Konstmuseums in Schweden.
Kali Malone komponiert mit einer seltenen Klarheit. Ihre Musik ist geduldig und fokussiert und baut auf einem Fundament sich entwickelnder harmonischer Zyklen auf, die verborgene emotionale Resonanzen hervorrufen.
Kali Malone's anticipated new album "All Life Long" is a collection of music for pipe organ, choir, and brass quintet composed by Kali Malone, 2020 - 2023. Choral music performed by Macadam Ensemble and conducted by Etienne Ferschaud at Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-L'Immaculée-Conception in Nantes. Brass quintet music performed by Anima Brass at The Bunker Studio in New York City. Organ music performed by Kali Malone and Stephen O’Malley on the historical meantone tempered pipe organs at Église Saint-François in Lausanne, Orgelpark in Amsterdam, and Malmö Konstmuseum in Sweden.
Kali Malone composes with a rare clarity of vision. Her music is patient and focused, built on a foundation of evolving harmonic cycles that draw out latent emotional resonances. Time is a crucial factor: letting go of expectations of duration and breadth offers a chance to find a space of reflection and contemplation. In her hands, experimental reinterpretations of centuries-old polyphonic compositional methods become portals to new ways of perceiving sound, structure, and introspection. Though awe-inspiring in scope, the most remarkable thing about Malone’s music is the intimacy stirred by the close listening it encourages.
Malone’s new album All Life Long, created between 2020 - 2023, presents her first compositions for organ since 2019’s breakthrough album The Sacrificial Code alongside interrelated pieces for voice and brass performed by Macadam Ensemble and Anima Brass. Over the course of twelve pieces, harmonic themes and patterns recur, presented in altered forms and for varied instrumentation. They emerge and reemerge like echoes of their former selves, making the familiar uncanny. Propelled by lungs and breath rather than bellows and oscillators, Malone’s compositions for choir and brass take on expressive qualities that complicate the austerity that has defined her work, introducing lyricism and the beauty of human fallibility into music that has been driven by mechanical processes. At the same time, the works for organ, performed by Malone with additional accompaniment by Stephen O’Malley on four different organs dating from the 15th to 17th centuries, underscore the mighty, spectral power that those rigorous operations can achieve.
All Life Long simmers in an ever-shifting tension between repetition and variation. The pieces for brass, organ, and voice are alternated asymmetrically, providing nearly continuous timbral fluctuation across its 78-minute runtime even as thematic material reiterates. Each composition’s internal framework of fractal pattern permutations has the paradoxical effect of creating anticipated keystone moments of dramatic reverie and lulling the listener into believing in an illusory endlessness. On an even more granular level, the historical meantone tuning systems of each organ used, and the variable intonation of brass and voice, provide further points of emotional excavation within the harmony.
The titular composition “All Life Long” appears twice on the album, first as an extended canon for organ and again in the final quarter, compactly arranged for voice. In the latter, Malone pairs the music with “The Crying Water” by Arthur Symons, a poem steeped in language of mourning and eternity. For organ, “All Life Long” moves with a patient stateliness, the drama concentrated in moments when shifting tonalities generate and release dissonance and ecstasy. For voice, each word is saturated with feeling, the singers swooping gracefully downward to capture the melancholy of the narrator’s relationship to the timeless tears of the sea. “Passage Through The Spheres,” the album’s opening piece, contains lyrics in Italian pulled from Giorgio Agamben’s essay In Praise of Profanation. In it, Agamben defines profanation as, in part, the act of bringing back to communal, secular use that which has been segregated to the realm of the sacred, a process Malone enacts each time she performs on church organs.
This is not music of praise, or of spiritual revelation, but it is an artistic enactment of translating the indescribable. It carries the gravity of liturgical chant, and its fixation on the infinite, but draws its weight from the earthly realm of human experience. A music that draws the listener into the present moment where they can discover themselves within the interwoven musical patterns that can come to resemble the passage of days, weeks, years, a lifetime.
https://kalimalone.bandcamp.com/album/all-life-long
|
2024 |
€16.00 |
|
| 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 |
Le Diable avec ses Chevaux |
do-CD |
"... Klanglich schwer einzuordnen und zu definieren, schaffen es die beiden Brüder, ausdruckstarke, cineastische Musik zu schaffen, die man irgendwo in einer epischen Post-Rock Welt mit etwas Jazz Einflüssen einordnen kann. Oft sind die Melodien quirlig, unruhig und tantrisch verspielt. Rhythmen bauen sich spiralartig über Minuten auf, unter dem Einsatz von fernöstlichen Instrumenten, wie Cymbalom und Santoor. Die nervösen Violinen- Vibratos erzeugen immer wieder hypnotische,wie verschreckende Momente, man fühlt sich wieder an Kino Filme erinnert. Am meisten beeindruckt die unkonventionelle, ja fast besondere Herangehensweise der Brüder, um Stücke von seltsamer Schönheit zu erschaffen..." [Creative-Eclipse]
"Maninkari's' first full release is no less then a gorgeous soft cacophony of epic post rock drift and minimal jazzy shuffle. Using light tribal percussion clouds and swirling melodies songs subtly and dynamically build, flow and spiral. Maninkari manages to add more textures and tonalities with various middle eastern origined instruments like Cymbalom and Santoor, resulting in adventurous and exploring new soundscapes. This is truly something unforeseen and thoroughly special." [label info]
https://maninkari2.bandcamp.com/album/le-diable-avec-ses-chevaux
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
|
Un Phénomène De Reliance |
CD |
After a few years, Maninkari returns to Zoharum with a new, already third studio album for the label. "Un Phenomene De Reliance" is a kind of concept album, it's something like a suite, consisting of four separate compositions. There are no spectacular twists or unexpected musical revolts here. The duo of Charlot brothers continues to follow the path chosen by them, masterfully developing the formula they developed years ago. We are dealing here with illustrative music, extremely vivid, strongly influencing the imagination of the audience.Certainly, it could serve as the soundtrack to an unspecified movie based on a somewhat dreamlike plot. It would be great as a sound for a performance or ballet. The French use classical instruments with quite a lot of freedom, and at the same time with impeccable virtuosity, to create a rather peculiar musical abstract, based on compositions that are characterized by incredible lightness, harmony and melodic beauty, at the same time giving the impression of fleetin, airy miniatures. where each note seems to sound only for a moment before disappearing into a huge space, filled with silence. Trying to properly describe what "Un Phenomene De Reliance" is, we can use the terms "ambient" or "chamber music". However, neither of these expressions will fully represent what is contained in this publication. At the same time, it is worth devoting special time to, somewhere in the privacy of your home, to be able to concentrate on the pleasure of listening and exploring this very intimate, personal and captivating music.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/un-phenomene-de-reliance
######################
"Genre/Influences: Experimental, Ritual, Cinematic.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Frédéric and Olivier Charlot -who are also involved with other projects like Sphyxion, are back on track unleashing a new opus of Maninkari.They already released several albums but this is their third one on Zoharum.
Content: The work features 4 songs which have been progressively built up by the mix of authentic instruments and electronic treatments. The viola injects a deeply, atmospheric, darkness to the work while the rhythmic make it all sound Ritual.
+ + + : I like Maninkari for their authenticity, the use of acoustic instruments not only adding an artistic touch to the work but also a poignant, atmospheric, touch. The title song is a true masterpiece whereon the Charlot brothers have found a perfect balance between the different instruments. The viola is absolutely terrific here. You also can notice improvised passages but the work remains constantly accessible.
– – – : It needs a few minutes before you totally get into the poignant sonic universe of Maninkari. So you better be a little bit patient.
Conclusion: Subtle improvisation with a styled, acoustic, touch on top." [Side-Line]
|
2022 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Un Phenomene De Reliance |
LP |
After a few years, Maninkari returns to Zoharum with a new, already third studio album for the label. "Un Phenomene De Reliance" is a kind of concept album, it's something like a suite, consisting of four separate compositions. There are no spectacular twists or unexpected musical revolts here. The duo of Charlot brothers continues to follow the path chosen by them, masterfully developing the formula they developed years ago. We are dealing here with illustrative music, extremely vivid, strongly influencing the imagination of the audience.Certainly, it could serve as the soundtrack to an unspecified movie based on a somewhat dreamlike plot. It would be great as a sound for a performance or ballet. The French use classical instruments with quite a lot of freedom, and at the same time with impeccable virtuosity, to create a rather peculiar musical abstract, based on compositions that are characterized by incredible lightness, harmony and melodic beauty, at the same time giving the impression of fleetin, airy miniatures. where each note seems to sound only for a moment before disappearing into a huge space, filled with silence. Trying to properly describe what "Un Phenomene De Reliance" is, we can use the terms "ambient" or "chamber music". However, neither of these expressions will fully represent what is contained in this publication. At the same time, it is worth devoting special time to, somewhere in the privacy of your home, to be able to concentrate on the pleasure of listening and exploring this very intimate, personal and captivating music.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/un-phenomene-de-reliance
######################
"Genre/Influences: Experimental, Ritual, Cinematic.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Frédéric and Olivier Charlot -who are also involved with other projects like Sphyxion, are back on track unleashing a new opus of Maninkari.They already released several albums but this is their third one on Zoharum.
Content: The work features 4 songs which have been progressively built up by the mix of authentic instruments and electronic treatments. The viola injects a deeply, atmospheric, darkness to the work while the rhythmic make it all sound Ritual.
+ + + : I like Maninkari for their authenticity, the use of acoustic instruments not only adding an artistic touch to the work but also a poignant, atmospheric, touch. The title song is a true masterpiece whereon the Charlot brothers have found a perfect balance between the different instruments. The viola is absolutely terrific here. You also can notice improvised passages but the work remains constantly accessible.
– – – : It needs a few minutes before you totally get into the poignant sonic universe of Maninkari. So you better be a little bit patient.
Conclusion: Subtle improvisation with a styled, acoustic, touch on top." [Side-Line]
|
2022 |
€18.00 |
|
| MARCHETTI, LIONEL & JEAN-BAPTISTE FAVORY |
100 000 Annees |
do-CD |
"Lionel Marchetti (France, 1967) is a composer of musique concrete. First self-taught, he discovered the catalogue of Musique Concrète with Xavier Garcia. He has composed in the CFMI of Lyon 2 University between 1989 and 2002, where he still organizes workshops focused on the loudspeaker, the recorded sound and
Musique Concrète, both on practical and theoretical levels. He has built his own recording studio, and composes also in the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris since 1993. Lionel Marchetti also performs improvisation using microphones and loudspeakers, as a duo with Jérôme Noetinger, with the collective Le Cube with (Christophe Auger, Étienne Caire, Christophe Cardoen, Xavier Quérel, Jérôme Noetinger, Gaëlle
Rouard) that performs live music and where films are shown and worked on interactively, and with the collective Archipel: Emmanuel Petit, Mathieu Werchowski, Sophie Agnel, Fabrice Charles, Pascal Battus. Since 1992, he organizes regular workshops centered on Radio and creation together with Olivier Capparos for France Culture. At the same time, he writes
poetry, and develops theoretical thoughts on Musique concrète and the art of the loudspeaker
About the pieces: “Kitnabudja Town is a fascinating and abounding composition, a colossal encyclopaedia to dissect with
patience, an unseen sound collage that revives with the beloved techniques of the surrealists to reach a kind of automatic writing, a flux of thinking that is nor music, neither science, philosophy, neither eastern, nor western, at
the same time electronic and shamanic... using studio techniques that we can discern as archaic, lionel marchetti bends and pummels his sources until their last death rattle, being not afraid of distractions and collisions. A dense, visceral and generous work.”
“Comprising seven electronic improvisations, this piece is inspired by the movement of the seven celestial bodies closest to the earth with the sun as a central axis. Each planet is represented by two sounds: one concrete, the
other synthetic. The concrete sound is not audible but modulates the synthetic sound in amplitude and frequency. The result is then processed using several effects to obtain a
sound in constant evolution and partly random.
Without seeking to reproduce an existing astronomic model whitch is taken for reality, the piece proposes a quasiorganic vision of what in former times was named «The spheres» wherein the forces were realeased by the
movements of celestial bodies, acted directly on mankind.” Jean-Baptiste Favory "
[from the press release]
www.monotyperecords.com
|
2009 |
€17.50 |
|
| MARCHETTI, WALTER |
Antibarbarus |
do-LP |
"A reissue of Antibarbarus, issued as a compact disc in 1998, was the first edition Walter Marchetti released on Alga Marghen. The Antibarbarus cycle of five pieces makes use of original tapes coming from the same recording sessions that originated some of Marchetti's major musical works realized in the '80s. This former series of works presented some homogeneous and untouched sound sources in the "concrete" status of their inner - and necessarily chaotic - level of entropy. Nevertheless this operative and only in appearance "neutral" premise introduces an implicit mimetic transposition. This link between the "iconic" threshold of the acoustical material and its transposition literally deconstructs the prerogatives and the ideological categories of music composition. In Antibarbarus, the temporal continuum restores the mimesis of the phenomenal regression of musical time, crystallized in a framed-length which gets estranged from subjective domain.
But the transfiguration of sound sources now deliberately intends to de-signify the analytical prerogatives of hearing. The sensorial perception is in such a way inhibited from an immediate comprehension of the acoustic reality so reproduced: canis reversus ad vomitum suum. In the late 1950s, Marchetti was able both to formalize a more critical aim towards the established lingua franca and absolutist ideology of musical avant-gardism and to expand the sense of artistic praxis, in line with an ethical and subtly political evaluation of aesthetic experience. Marchetti was inspired by Cage's poetics of indeterminacy and subsequently created, through a close and indissoluble association with Juan Hidalgo and José Luis Castillejo, an original and de-ritualized form of action-music which led in 1964 to the birth of ZAJ group.
Marchetti's work relays, in its procedural level, upon a resolute de-functioning of the musical codes and impose this act as a reversed mimesis of the methodological statute of music composing. Namely, not a "degré zero de l'écriture", but its "reversal"; not a "denial of style", but "style of denial". In this perspective, Walter Marchetti's oeuvre condenses one of the rare examples of aesthetic radicalism consciously extended to music poetics. Comes in full color gatefold sleeve; Includes printed inner sleeves (with photos of "Musica da camera n. 182", London, Raven Row, 1989/2011 and "Music in secca", Milano, Fondazione Mudima, 2003); Liner notes by Gabriele Bonomo in English and Italian."
|
2017 |
€39.50 |
|
| MARSEN JULES |
Golden |
CD |
"Den Sommer begrüßt das Genesungswerk friedlich mit diesem Album von Marsen Jules. Auf GOLDEN treffen sich Gitarre, Piano und Elektronik zu einer harmonischen ménage à trois. Gelegentlich unterstützt von Ziehharmonika, Flöte und Geige finden sie sich nach einer Winterwanderung vor dem Kamin ein. Leise knisternd entzündet sich ein Feuer und vertreibt die Kälte aus unseren Gehörgängen. Akustikgitarre und Piano zeichnen die melodischen Linien, während sich die Elektronik einfühlend der Klangfarbe des Interieurs annimmt. GOLDEN ist wahrlich ein treffender Titel , funkeln und glimmen doch bei allen sieben Stücken die Klänge, ohne ihre Hörer je zu blenden. Sehr intim, sehr nah, zugleich klar und transparent taucht die Schönheit der Instrumente den Sommer in ein neues Licht." [label info]
Electronica-Ambience reminding at times of newer ULTRA MILKMAIDS or a more poppy WILLIAM BASINSKI...
"Close followers of these pages will already be intimately familiar with the work of Marsen Jules, responsible as he is for two of the loveliest albums we've had the pleasure of stocking these last few years. His debut album "Herbstlaub" strolled into an autumnal tundra of layered strings and neo-classical arrangements that best brought to mind the work of Arvo Part, attaining both critical and commercial acclaim from all quarters of the music scene. His dense follow-up "Les Fleurs" approached similar terrain but with a more colourful sound-pallette, creating an aural bloom of dense orchestral reductions that kept the minimal composure intact despite the rays of aural sunlight allowed to seep into Jules' unique, inspiring studio. This long awaited new album "Golden" takes little time in declaring its place as a worthy successor to both its predecessors - it's a breathtaking collection of pieces that begin from the same neo-classical starting point and unfurl in different directions, taking in acoustic guitar, barely audible electronic pulses, dense orchestral reductions and heavy filtering along the way. You'd find it difficult to get past the album's incredible opening track "Birkengefluster" without finding yourself incredibly moved by what's in front of you - another shimmering weave of elongated midnight strings and subliminal melodies consorting to force you to abandon all resistance in the face of its relentless beauty. By the time second track "Wharend" wheezes into life with its prepared piano passages and other-worldly washes of sound, you'll be unable to acknowledge anything else in your surroundings bar the music. Marsen Jules is just one of those rare artists who manages to achieve so much with such limited material at his disposal - it's both the simplicity and timeless quality of the 7 long tracks here that make "Golden" not only one of the most beautiful albums you'll hear this summer, but also one that you'll find hard to let go of come autumn. Sublime music - essential listening.'' [Boomkat]
www.genesungswerk.de
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| MARTINIS, SOCRATES |
Au Seuil de la Liberte |
7 |
"field recordings & objects composed by Socrates Martinis, 2009. title refers to the same painting by René Magritte, 1937. on gorgeous coloured vinyl." [label info]
http://absurd.noise-below.org/
"The same person who is working as Nixilx.nijilx, Blanco Estira Nuestro and Helice Peid is working as Socrates Martins and for his 7" he took the title of a painting by Rene Margritte from 1937. On these pieces he plays 'field recordings and objects', but all of this highly obscured through extremely lo-fi transformations. It seems like captured on a cassette (or perhaps a whole bunch of cassettes), which add a low resolution to the material. It moves low over the surface of sound and is truly obscure record, but also a captivating one, I think. Maybe because one doesn't have a clue what's going on here, it leaves lots of space to contemplate about that. A record that poses more questions then the answer it gives. Which I guess if you call yourself Socrates Martins is the whole idea. Beautiful obscurity." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€6.00 |
|
| MARTUSCIELLO, ELIO |
Unoccupied Areas |
CD |
Grossartige neue Experimentalmusik von diesem italienischen Komponisten (auch mit OSSATURA aktiv), die noch am ehesten der Elektro-Akustik zuzurechnen ist. Soundschnipsel z.B. von der „answering machine Solution“ CD (Staalplaat) und von vielen anderen kontemporären Musike(r)n werden von ihm äusserst sorgfältig und so gut wie ohne Wiedererkennungswert der Originalquellen neu bearbeitet und zusammengesetzt, so dass hochdynamische, klanglich perfekt aufeinander abgestimmte Collagen entstehen. Es gibt absolut keine Wiederholungen, jeder auftauchende Klang ist „neu“, jede Sekunde für eine Überraschung gut. Das Zuhören erfordert ein wachsames, aufmerksames Bewusstsein, das Gegenteil von meditativer Musik ! TIP!
"This is a quiet masterpiece. Five tightly focused electroacoustic compositions that are austere, rich, strange and brilliantly executed. Elio has an ear like a bat and a serious antipathy toward cliché, and he never relies on repetition for structure; these pieces seem rather to grow out of themselves in surprising but somehow logical ways like perfect exotic blooms. His is also a music of extremes, never theoretical but always grounded in the grain of the sounds themselves. Working with sounds taken directly from the world -- in 'A@travero', the electronic world: disembodied voices from answering machines, radio, Television, CDs, cinema and the internet; in 'Proiezioni', the cinematic world of machines: cameras, projectors, empty film spools, and so on for each piece which starts with the collection of similarly connected materials. The final track, a hommage to Pierre Schaeffer, draws directly on Schaeffer's own captured recordings, taking, as concrete music does, already cooked materials as just another kind of raw ingredient. The sources may be quotidian, but they are not mundane. And they have been refined and polished and stretched and squashed and buffed and etherised to the point where they are like polished steel, reflecting something in a distorted plane, resembling something as a Brancusi might, but unfamiliar, transfigured." [press release]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| MARUTTI, ANDREA |
Sleepless Nights / Lysergic Mornings |
mCD-R |
we welcome back the italian artist ANDREA MARUTTI (also known under the Amon or Never Known aliases, head of the sadly defunct Afe Records label too). andrea was the very first artist to have a 3" on taâlem, and that was exactly 18 years ago!
andrea proposes here a rather psychedelic yet dark and ambient journey in 2 parts...
notes by andrea marutti:
“Sleepless Nights | Lysergic Mornings” is particularly important both for taâlem and me, because it comes exactly 18 years after my “Traces 94-95“, which on December 3, 2001, inaugurated the now incredibly long series of the label’s publications, and also because it represents my first proper release since I re-built my studio and started working on new music during the recent years.
“A Cypher For Glitchbusters” and “Peter’s Psychedelic Breakfast”, the two tracks featured on the EP in a seamless sequence, were created on purpose of a release on taâlem and were especially designed to fit the 3″ MiniCDr format.
In January 2019, as a sort of ‘personal experiment’ on myself, I worked on this music exclusively by night. For about one week I decided to sleep no more than a few hours each day during the late afternoon, and stayed awake all night to work with my synthesizers, sampler, effects and so on.
The resulting lack of rest put me in a particular state of mind, where I was less focused on the search of an ‘audiophile’ quality to the music, suggesting me to experiment with, and concentrate on, what would be usually considered ‘errors’. I intentionally included some glitches, tape hiss and various defects, and also used field recordings and other sounds which I originally recorded on cheap cassettes during the early ’90s, when I had an habit to slow down sounds with two tape decks and I usually re-recorded the same cassettes hundreds of times.
Both titles are inspired by this ‘experience’, and the tracks have a sort of ‘psychedelic quality’, or at least that is the impression they still give me months after their creation.
“A Cypher For Glitchbusters” is an attempt to describe with just a few words the practice I mentioned a few lines above, while “Peter’s Psychedelic Breakfast” is both an hommage to a quite more famous sonic breakfast – which I guess needs no further explanation – and a personal dedication to my closest friend who has been supporting and helping me ever since my memory can remember.
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/sleepless-nights-lysergic-mornings-alm-131
"The first disc is by the Italian artist Andrea Marutti, who used to run a label called Afe
Records and also records as Amon, Spiral, Never Known and Lips Vago. His latest 3” for Taâlem
is, as the title implies, a hallucinogenic drone that throws in some weird wrenches as it gets closer to the end. Marutti works in the post-Lustmord “dark ambient” mode here, starting out with ominous blankets with low throb and slow-motion watery threat. After several minutes, the curtains lift and with cleansing light comes children talking and roughly-recorded scrape that seems like it jumped in from a different record. It’s a neat tonal shift, one that continues into Marutti’s second track,
“Peter’s Psychedelic Breakfast”. That title is, of course, a nod towards Pink Floyd, though its
unclear who Peter is or what the Floyd connection is. This track is another drone, though lighter in mood than the opener. The strangest part os the very end, in which the sound fades and dissipates, leaving a coda of digital glitches as if someone accidentally bumped the microphone or a cord went bad… and then abruptly hits an “off” switch. Weird." [HS/VITAL WEEKLY]
"Abnormal mind expanding landscapes
Andrea Marutti is one pioneering sound art and ambient drone music producer with a large catalogue of recordings published on his own indie label (AFE — Another Friendly Edition) and well noted niche publishers such as Eibon and Nextera.
Part of his new efforts are welcomed by the Belgium based label Taâlem (whose production is mostly devoted to experimental and underground electronic music with a fancy for droney artefacts). Among those last offerings sleepless nights | lysergic mornings plays with convincing technical abilities and inspirational inclinations on the wave of radical minimalism and eerily moving vaporous soundscapes—with Vance Orchestra and Quest. As stated in the press release the psych-out and extra-sensorial dimension is put to the front in those dense, ominous clouds of sounds and sustained electronic chords. The ensemble has a beautiful and striking vintage organic feel which give a heart ahead of the electronic curves. Repetition of phrases, looped textures are subtly punctuated by abstract micro-noises and musique concrète sounds. Somewhere between Deathprod, early Cluster I & II, Folk Rabe, and early Vidna Obmana." [Igloo Mag] |
2019 |
€5.50 |
|
| MASIN, GIGI |
Plays Venezia |
LP |
LP black vinyl // LP gold vinyl ltd. 106 hand-numbered copies // CD // Tape ltd. 100 copies
Five years ago, back in September 2016, Stefano Gentile published a photographic book entitled IL SILENZIO DEI TUOI PASSI (The Silence of Your Steps), which collected a series of 56 pictures, both in b/w and colour, dedicated to the nights in Venice. The book was a journey through the most remote "calli" and "campi" (streets, alleys and squares, as they're called in Venice) in search of the true 'breath' of the city, far away from the hordes of tourists who 'attack' it every day during daylight hours.
On such occasion, renowned musician Gigi Masin composed a 30 minutes epic ambient track entitled VENEZIA 2016 which was the perfect soundtrack to the images included in the book. The track was published on CD and released bounded with the book itself in a limited edition of 480 copies only, and has been unavailable for years now.
In 2021 Gigi Masin returned to that great piece of music and to its timeless sounds. Finally, Silentes can now offer PLAYS VENEZIA, Masin's latest work contanining a re-edited version of that 'pearl', accompanied by two unreleased tracks composed and recorded in the same period.
Once again inspired by the city, Masin created an enduring and wonderful ambient masterpiece, a sort of return to the origins, to his home. Adding to the intrinsic quality of the originals, the tracks were beautifully mastered by Brandenburg Mastering in Amsterdam.
PLAYS VENEZIA is simply an unmissable release and one of Masin's greatest accomplishment in a long carrier that never ceases to amaze us.
13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2143_gigi_masin_plays_venezia.htm
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| MASSTHISHADDHU |
Shekinah |
CD |
Re-Edition of a rare cult album first out on Steven Stapleton's (NWW) own label UNITED DAIRIES in 1988. Plus as bonus for this special re-issue, a never heard, unreleased track of 30 minutes!
Masstishaddhu members were Sean Breadin, Mike Watson and Richard Rupenus, all of whom were also members of METGUMBNERBONE; Richard is also a member of TNB...
Tribal & Droning Psychedelia from over three decades ago - a very special album to be re-discovered.
Mastered from the original tapes by Colin Potter (NWW).
Shekinah comprises two side-long slabs of highly experimental music in the early Coil / Current 93 / Organum vein with touches of Eastern (or is it North American?) mysticism thrown in for good measure.
‘For The Dead & Unborn’ is a wild, chilling and uninhibited chant-cum-invocation featuring wordless vocals set against a hypnotic backdrop of percussion and bowed instruments.
‘Angels Gather Here Between Purity Of Heart and Hopeless Despair’ is taken at a much slower pace with far less accent on the chanting and more emphasis on the bowed strings and singing / ringing percussion and at times had me glancing nervously over my shoulder!
- AUDION
Shekinah could be described as very dark Gothic Ritual Folk with a sprinkling of occult allure.
The title, cover and music all suggest bloodied altars, unfathomable rituals and mystical learning.
The low and buzzing drone underscores a lava flow of chants, cellos and percussion.
Whatever words are spoken during this procession of yearning melodies and utterly ethereal voices is perhaps best left for the Gods.
Whatever secrets the music holds, they are simultaneously a fountain of spiritual beauty and unknowable terror.
It's as if its character changed with my dispositions: if I was feeling fear then fear is what I heard.
If I was feeling joyous, then the joy of the Gods shone down upon me and relaxed every fibre of my being.
- BRAINWASHED
In the ‘80s underground, Ritual Ambient and Tribal Ambient were both coming to fruition and although they had a rough framework there wasn't yet a concrete basis for how the genres were set to develop.
Masstishaddhu exploited this potential to create a music that sounds like a well-executed modern Free Folk album - in 1988, a good decade before the New Weird America scene (spearheaded by the likes of Sunburned Hand Of The Man) began revolutionizing the idea of Folk music operating under rhythmic constraints.
In this sense Shekinah is undoubtedly unique, perpetuating the 'ritual' side of ambient through disconcerting vocalizations and chants.
It is deeply embedded within the Folk influence that uses atmosphere to sculpt instrumental improvisations, again, much like well-executed modern Free Folk does.
- A TERTIARY SOURCE
"Wiederveröffentlichung des Masstishaddhu-Albums Shekinah auf Old Europa Café
Veröffentlicht am 11. Januar 2021 von Michael
Old Europa Cafe bringt das ursprünglich auf Steven Stapletons Label United Dairies 1988 veröffentlichte Album „Shekinah“ von dem Metgumbnerbone-Seitenprojekt Masstishaddhu, bei dem auch Richard Rupenus von den New Blockaders mitwirkte, auf CD neu heraus. Mit den teils perkussiv-tribalen Momenten, seltsamen Blasinstrumenten und merkwürdigen Stimmen, die zwischen Kehlkopfgesang und Delirium changieren, lässt sich das Album in die Tradition industrieller Ritual-Musik einordnen.
Shekinah“ klingt in Passagen, als sei der Nekrophile-Records Backkatalog (der im Laufe des Jahres von Vinyl-On-Demand wiederveröffentlicht werden wird) von David Jackman neu abgemischt worden. Neben den zwei ursprünglich enthaltenen je eine Albenseite füllenden Tracks enthält die CD ein bisher unveröffentlichtes 30-minütiges Bonusstück, das einen stärkeren Free Folk-Charakter zu haben scheint." [African Paper] |
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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
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"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 |
|
| MAUTHAUSEN ORCHESTRA |
Private Thoughts Recordings |
CD |
Nine years after the death of Pierpaolo Zoppo, an unforgettable artist and a forerunner of Industrial Music with his Mauthausen Orchestra 'cult' project, this new CD of completely unreleased material - containing tracks he composed between 2009 and 2012 - is finally released by Standa.
The album - a release which has been officially authorised by his family - shows us Pierpaolo Zoppo at the peak of his artistic maturity: after investigating the most extreme and intransigent sounds for years with impetus, he finds a moment of reflection and some quietness, without completely abandoning its original instinctive and 'wild' nature, he knocks corners and softens forms, giving us ten tracks of music/non-music as 'strong' as ever, but at the same time touching and 'poetic' as never before.
"Private Thoughts Recordings" (the title of the album was taken from notes that Pierpaolo himself had pinned with a felt-tip pen on a few home-burned discs containing his original recordings) is perhaps the best gift that the artist could have letft us before departing for his long journey, and the most intense proof of his deep sensitivity and his incredible avant-garde 'sound visions'. A final chapter absolutely not to be missed.
store.silentes.it/catalogue/standa2133.htm
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| MAXWELL, JULES |
Cycles / Nocturnes |
do-LP |
"Cycles is the latest album of work by Irish composer Jules Maxwell whose music has featured at London's National Theatre, The Royal Opera House, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and The Roundhouse. Most recently he has been working with the band Dead Can Dance and in 2021 he released an album entitled Burn with singer Lisa Gerrard. Cycles is an exquisite album of meditative instrumental music. It is quiet and circular in nature but deeply atmospheric and dramatic at moments. Cycles will be released on Friday 25th March on Berlin based label Ghost Palace. A limited double vinyl edition will also be available featuring the Cycles album and its predecessor Nocturnes."
"Heute morgen, kurz nach fünf, kurz nach Wecker klingeln. Noch ist es verdächtig ruhig und entgegen meiner Gewohnheit, eines jahrelang antrainierten Automatismus folgend, schalte ich nicht erst den Wasserkocher und dann Deutschlandfunk ein. Sondern ich lege, während der Tee vor sich hin zieht, „Cycles“ von Jules Maxwell auf. Genauer gesagt, die erste der Doppel-LPs.
Mit dem Opener „Deeper Sleeper“ in den Tag zu starten ist ungewohnt entspannt, denn sogar noisy Kinder und Jugendliche verstummen mit einem „Ohhh“ und bewegen sich auf einmal fast lautlos. Wer hätte das gedacht. Warum ich das jetzt in einer Review erwähne? Weil diese Szene vermutlich am besten beschreibt, was Jules Maxwell auf dieser Platte für eine Stimmung erzeugt. „Cycles“ ist ein ruhiges, meditatives Instrumental-Album, welches mit den ersten Tönen den Pulsschlag entschleunigt. Dennoch schafft es Maxwell Spannung aufzubauen. So, dass der*die Hörer*in ganz bei und in der Musik bleibt.
In „A Rose On The Road“ führt ein Klavier, wie ein langsamer, rhythmischer Glockenschlag in den Song ein, im Hintergrund bauen sich sphärische Klänge auf, werden intensiver, dringlicher und bauen eine Dramatik auf, die ab rund dreieinhalb Minuten von einer Geige (oder ist es eine Bratsche, ich tue mich schwer damit das rauszuhören) aufgenommen wird. Nach rund fünfeinhalb Minuten haben sich die Klänge, die Töne, vereint und lösen sich auf, so dass ein sanfter Übergang zum nächsten Song geschaffen wurde.
Und das, was ich hier für diesen Song beschrieben und versucht habe in Worte zu fassen, ist exemplarisch und findet auch in den anderen Songs statt. Immer anders, aber dennoch ist das Album eine Einheit und als solches zu hören. Zu hören ist Jules Maxwell zur Zeit auch Live. Er tourt mit Dead Can Dance. Termine findet ihr hier.
Doch kommen wir zur zweiten LP, die sich im Gatefoldcover befindet. Hierbei handelt es sich um die, digital schon im März vergangenen Jahres erschienene LP „Nocturnes“. Jetzt auf Vinyl sind „Nocturnes“ und „Cycles“ vereint und auch musikalisch bilden sie eine Einheit. Eventuell ist „Nocturnes“ stellenweise ein wenig verspielter, zum Beispiel in „April 1964“ oder auch „Virgin Territory“ wird im Laufe des Songs verspielter. Grundsätzlich wird aber die Stimmung, die Jules Maxwell auf „Nocturnes“ kreiert hat, in „Cycles“ aufgenommen und intensiviert.
Und wer jetzt bei den Stichwörtern meditativ und ruhig denkt, es wäre sicherlich nicht so seine*ihre Musik, dem*der empfehle ich mal reinzuhören. Denn die Platte berührt, egal ob man jetzt vorwiegend Progressiv Rock, Metal oder Radio-Pop hört. Wer’s nicht glaubt, spule nochmal zurück zum zweiten Absatz, oder hört halt mal rein.
Erschienen ist das Vinyl auf dem Label Ghost Palace und liegt mir als Testpressung in schwarzem Vinyl vor. [Vinyl Keks]
|
2022 |
€26.50 |
|
| MCDOUGALL, JAMES & HIROKI SASAJIMA |
Injya |
CD |
" “Sometimes, the impossible is a basket of new unlikely seeds – realizing the geographical difficulty of working in unison on the same site, we opted for using at least common geologic context, not knowing where this could lead us…
What could come indeed out of distance, sensory communion, a mutual love for depicting the relief of things, its tactility ?…perhaps as with the best abstraction, a fertilizing stream, something perhaps larger than what the initial elements could have implied…something surprising even to us…
“Injya” is the encounter of our combined wanderings, and most probably the emergence of an imaginary entity powerful enough to engage us in a strange way…”(James McDougall/layout by Daniel Crokaert)" [label info]
www.unfathomless.net
"Both of these artists can be regarded as 'new kids' on the block of field recordings, coming to the foreground in recent years with a plethora of releases on labels as Sentient Recognition Archive, U-Cover, Dataobscura, Test Tube, Resting Bell and Mystery Sea - the latter doing a solo release by both of them. On their subdivision Unfathomless they have a collaborative disc of music, based on field recordings made in their own locale (the Akigawa Valley/Otake Limestone Caves, Japan in Sasajima's case and The D'Aguilar Mountain Range, North West of Brisbane, Australia in McDougall's case) and then 'equally developed'. 'The sensitive issue of not occupying the same token sites was acknowledged and it was opted instead for a common geologic context' - whatever that means. Its a release that has some questions: for instance: is there any processing and if so to which extent? How does this collaboration work anyway? Are recordings from both locations simply played together, or has there been any kind of mixing going on? Its all not easy to say. I think there has been some form of processing, mainly just EQ-ing, bringing out more high or low end frequencies, especially in the third and fourth pieces. Also I think that in all four pieces they have searched for specific characteristics of the provided sounds and set them together, with some extent of mixing. I also kept thinking: why should I bother thinking of what they did or didn't do: these four pieces are very good, a culmination of field recordings that, once together, make great sense. Not minimal, hardly changing music, but vibrant, always on the move, full of tension, evocative and beautiful. Excellent, if not always the most original, but that is perhaps quite hard." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| MCGUIRE, JOHN |
Works for Instruments |
do-CD |
Fünf Stücke des US-Komponisten (der Schüler von PENDERECKI und STOCKHAUSEN war) aus verschiedenen Perioden (das älteste, DECAY entstand 1967-1970) in neuen Einspielungen. Klassisch instrumentierte Minimal-Music, die interessante strukturelle Merkmale aufweist (Überlagerungen, Verdichtungen und Wellenbewegungen von Tönen, Akkorden & musikalischen Themen) und entsprechende psychoakustische Wirkungen (mehrdeutiges Hören, unendliche Kreis- und Zirkelbewegungen...). CADENCE MUSIC, EXCHANGES, DECAY, FRIEZE, und MUSIC FOR HORNS, PIANOS & CYMBALS.
" 1. Composer:
John McGuire
2. Title:
Works for Instruments
3. Performers:
Ensemble Modern • Julia Rempe Sopran • Pellegrini-Quartett:
Antonio Pellegrini, Thomas Hofer Violine • Fabio Marano Viola •
Helmut Menzler Violoncello
musikFabrik: Hermann Kretzschmar, Paulo Alvarez, Irmela
Roelcke, Eun-Ju Kim,
Ulrich Löffler, Jürgen Kruse Klaviere • Christine Chapman,
Jodie Lawson, Charles Putnam,
Rohan Richards Hörner • Dirk Rothbrust, Carlos Tarcha Schlagzeug
4. Format:
Audio CD, Digisleeve, Booklet German/English
5. Total time:
CD1 44:33 • CD2 58:46 • T: 103:20
6. Catalogue #:
ed. RZ 20003¬4
7. EAN Code:
4029455200038
8. Release date:
December 4, 2008
9. Information / Press Release:
Jede der Kompositionen des amerikanischen Komponisten John McGuire beschreibt auf ihre Weise einen mehrdimensionalen Klangraum, in dem der Hörer verschiedene Blickwinkel einnehmen,
mithin ein und denselben Klang in verschiedenen Gestalten wahrnehmen kann.
Each of the compositions of American composer John McGuire describes, in its own way,
a multi-dimensional sonic space which the listener can take in from various vantage points and, in so doing, experience the very same sound in different guises." [label info]
www.edition-rz.de
|
2008 |
€21.50 |
|
| MEELKOP, ROEL |
5[zwischenfälle] |
CD |
"5(zwischenfaelle) is the latest release by dutch electronic musician ROEL MELLKOP. It is a special release in Meelkop’s catalogue because it is consist of five piece that were originally used in the context of sound installations running over a certain period of time in specific special surroundings. For 5(zwischenfaelle) Meelkop has set himself the task to compress these soundscapes into five dense and still minimal audio pieces that could work outside the context of the original installations. 5(zwischenfaelle) is focussed on single sound events and stark beautiful dynamic movements in a certain area of sound and does not have the bruitistic research-like feel of other solo works by Meelkop. 5(zwischenfaelle) makes for concentrated unpolished ultra minimal listening with maximum effect. For all friends of Bernhard Günter, Francisco Lopez, Joe Colley/Crawl Unit or Marc Behrens this is a definite work!
Roel Meelkop (Tegelen, NL, 1963) studied sculpture and painting at Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Rotterdam, NL. He graduated in 1990 and in the years after that he concentrated mainly on painting. Five years later, he decided to expand his views on art and philosophy and applied for a postgraduate course at the same academy. He graduated from this course in 1997. By then, Meelkop had abandoned painting altogether in favour of working with sound. Before this he had already been working with THU20 on experimental sound collages and electronic music. This practice was extended and now includes sound installations and performances as well.
Nowadays, Meelkop regularly plays live performances around the world, either solo, or with one of the three musical projects he is involved with: THU20 (musique concrete), Kapotte Muziek (electro-acoustic music) or GOEM (electronic music). His solo music is a unique combination of the aforementioned styles. Besides his live activities, Meelkop has a long list of releases to show for his creativity and productivity in the studio. Another area of interest for Meelkop is sound in space. The relation between space and sound and the unique artistic possibilities this offers have urged him to create several installations, not only in exhibition spaces, but also in public spaces. Most of these installations are created specifically for the spaces that will hold them and are based on Meelkop’s impressions from these spaces. In most cases the work is not visual but auditory, thus expanding the existing space in a way that visual art will never achieve. Central issue in these installations is the experience of space and time at a specific place and time. Aside from his artistic activities, Meelkop is also active as organiser, curator and programmer of contemporary sound art and electronic music in Rotterdam, NL and as a reviewer for the email magazine Vital Weerkly." [label info]
"ROEL MEELKOP ist als Soundtüftler und inzwischen auch Kurator für zeitgenössische
elektronische Musik in Rotterdam nicht ohne
Vergangenheit in der niederländischen Szene.
Seit 1986 arbeitet er in dem Audio-Art-Kollektiv
THU 20, seit 1995 tritt er regelmäßgig mit Kapotte Muziek auf und veröffentlicht desweiteren seit 1997 mit Frans de Waard und Peter Duimelinks als GOEM sowie Arbeiten unter seinem Namen und seinem dubbigen minimalacid-
elektro Alter Ego slo-fi. Zu 5 (Zwischenfälle)
(AATP18, digipak ltd. 500) selbst ist zu
sagen, dass er hier Stücke aus spezifischen
Soundinstallationen aus dem Zeitraum 2005-
2006 überarbeitet und damit aus dem eigentlichen
Kontext gerissen hat. Allesamt unbetitelt,
werden 4 längere Tracks jeweils von einer
kleinen Präambel ein- und ausgeläutet. Das
räumliche Element fließt hier dennoch erfolgreich ein, durch Pausen wie auch durch überraschende Klangkontraste. Die Abstraktion
des eigentlichen Ausgangspunktes nimmt
fluchtartig zu, aber so, dass die Statik des Raumes nicht gefährdet wird. Verhallende Geräusche vielschichtig arrangiert, unerwartete
Klänge, undurchsichtige Hintergrund-lautmalereien. "Zwischenfälle" ist hier ein sehr gut gewählter Untertitel, da eine beruhigende Wirkung nicht von diesen Aufnahmen ausgeht." [cs / Bad Alchemy]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| MEELKOP, ROEL & MECHA/ORGA |
Rotterdam 54:21 |
CD |
"This first collaboration between Roel Meelkop and Yiorgis Sakellariou consists of three pieces, two solos and one duet. Unusual and groundbreaking combination of modified field recordings and twisted sound of old analogue synths shows the distinct and personal approach to the electronic composition, shaped throughout the years of studio practice. Release date is 29th December 2012. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
"Roel Meelkop may not have been born in the city of Rotterdam, he's been there for more than half his life now, so he probably knows every in and out, and is a perfect guide for the city and the extended harbor. He toured the city, armed with a tape recorder and with Yiorgis Sakellariou, also known as Mecha/orga to tape the beauty and the ugliness of the big city. Afterwards they went down to Worm, Rotterdam's finest when it comes to staging experimental music, or more in particular to their in-door CEM studio (who moved since 1959 all over the country, Hilversum, Arnhem, Amsterdam and now Rotterdam), where we have some vintage synth modules. Here the sound was treated further and then stuck together as a collage of electronic music. Then it was played live a couple of times and ended up on a silver shiny disc. Thirty minutes together and then fifteen Meelkop solo and nine minutes Mecha/orga solo. Probably I am not the right person to shed any light on this release - too close involved and all that. But this is one damn fine release. The collaborative piece flows all into eachother with the solo ones. Whereas in the collaboration they use the collage form, setting field recordings aside from the electronics at one point, mixing and filtering them together at another point, making an intense, rich form of collage. In his solo piece, Meelkop seems to be concentrating on sustaining sounds from motorized objects, slowly filtering and fading several together, while Mecha/orga is more on the field recordings side of this matter, which is no doubt more his line of business. An excellent collaborative work and a story that will continue this year, not with the same line-up, but from these fruitful weeks in The Netherlands in April 2012." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| MEESE X HELL |
Hab keine Angst, hab keine Angst, ich bin Deine Angst |
do-LP |
STANDARD 2LP VINYL EDITION - LIMITIERT
"Geboren 1970 in Tokio, verbrachte Jonathan Meese seine frühe Kindheit in Japan, und kam mit drei Jahren 1973 gemeinsam mit seiner Mutter zurück nach Deutschland. Als Kind sprach er nur japanisch und englisch. 1995-1998 Studium an der HfbK in Hamburg, 1998 Durchbruch als bildender Künstler auf der Berlin Biennale. In seinen Gemälden, Performances und Aktionen thematisiert Meese immer wieder die Rolle Deutschlands und deutsche Mythen. Eine ursprünglich beauftragte Meese-Inszenierung des Parsifal 2016 in Bayreuth wurde 2014 wegen angeblicher Unfinanzierbarkeit gekündigt. Der Münchener Techno- und House-Produzent Hell ist seit zwei Jahrzehnten ein Bewunderer Meeses. Als Hell vor zwei Jahren bei Jonathan Meese anfragte, ob dieser das Cover für Hells neues, kürzlich erschienenes Album House Music Box gestalten wolle, sagte dieser sofort zu. Die Wertschätzung entpuppte sich als gegenseitig. Man verabredete eine experimentelle Studiosession, um auszuloten, ob die polarisierenden Sprachperformances von Jonathan Meese in Verbindung mit Musik von Hell eine eigene Qualität entwickeln würden. 2019 nahmen Hell und Meese zum ersten Mal gemeinsam auf. Meese steuerte Textideen auf Papier bei, Hell hatte Instrumentals vorbereitet, die sowohl Hells stilistische Interessen, als auch Meeses musikalische Vorbilder - von DAF über Sisters of Mercy bis hin zu Kraftwerk - berücksichtigten. Hell: Mir wurde in vielen gemeinsamen Gesprächen klar, wie musikaffin er eigentlich ist und wie viel unterschiedliche Musik er kennt. Und vor allem: Wie sehr die Musik ihm auch in seiner Kunst als Inspirationsquelle dient. Die Sessions - insgesamt drei, davon zwei gemeinsam mit Meeses 91-jähriger Mutter Brigitte - fanden im Trixx-Studio am Berliner Moritzplatz statt. Meese assoziierte Freestyle über Beats und Loops von Hell. Hell: Ich bewundere Jonathan Meese nicht zuletzt als performativen Künstler - und gerade auch seinen stimmlichen Vortrag. Im Studio sang, sprach oder flüsterte er dann seine improvisierten Texte über die Tracks, die ich vorbereitet hatte.
https://meesexhell.bandcamp.com |
2021 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
Hab keine Angst, hab keine Angst, ich bin Deine Angst (special edition) |
do-LP & BOOK |
Limitiertes Hardcoverbook + 2 LP + 24-Seiten Künstlerbuch und Poster! Geboren 1970 in Tokio, verbrachte Jonathan Meese seine frühe Kindheit in Japan, und kam mit drei Jahren 1973 gemeinsam mit seiner Mutter zurück nach Deutschland. Als Kind sprach er nur japanisch und englisch. 1995-1998 Studium an der HfbK in Hamburg, 1998 Durchbruch als bildender Künstler auf der Berlin Biennale. In seinen Gemälden, Performances und Aktionen thematisiert Meese immer wieder die Rolle Deutschlands und deutsche Mythen. Eine ursprünglich beauftragte Meese-Inszenierung des "Parsifal" 2016 in Bayreuth wurde 2014 wegen angeblicher Unfinanzierbarkeit gekündigt. Der Münchener Techno- und House-Produzent Hell ist seit zwei Jahrzehnten ein Bewunderer Meeses. Als Hell vor zwei Jahren bei Jonathan Meese anfragte, ob dieser das Cover für Hells neues, kürzlich erschienenes Album "House Music Box" gestalten wolle, sagte dieser sofort zu. Die Wertschätzung entpuppte sich als gegenseitig. Man verabredete eine experimentelle Studiosession, um auszuloten, ob die polarisierenden Sprachperformances von Jonathan Meese in Verbindung mit Musik von Hell eine eigene Qualität entwickeln würden. 2019 nahmen Hell und Meese zum ersten Mal gemeinsam auf. Meese steuerte Textideen auf Papier bei, Hell hatte Instrumentals vorbereitet, die sowohl Hells stilistische Interessen, als auch Meeses musikalische Vorbilder - von DAF über Sisters of Mercy bis hin zu Kraftwerk - berücksichtigten. Hell: "Mir wurde in vielen gemeinsamen Gesprächen klar, wie musikaffin er eigentlich ist und wie viel unterschiedliche Musik er kennt. Und vor allem: Wie sehr die Musik ihm auch in seiner Kunst als Inspirationsquelle dient." Die Sessions - insgesamt drei, davon zwei gemeinsam mit Meeses 91-jähriger Mutter Brigitte - fanden im Trixx-Studio am Berliner Moritzplatz statt. Meese assoziierte Freestyle über Beats und Loops von Hell. Hell: "Ich bewundere Jonathan Meese nicht zuletzt als performativen Künstler - und gerade auch seinen stimmlichen Vortrag. Im Studio sang, sprach oder flüsterte er dann seine improvisierten Texte über die Tracks, die ich vorbereitet hatte." |
2021 |
€40.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| |
'Masking my Monkeys' motive |
T-SHIRT |
Brown T-Shirt with "Masking My Monkeys" - same Design as the Drone Records 7" EP release by Manuel Strixner.
Heavyweight 100% cotton T-Shirt. Brand: Promodoro. High Quality print lasting many washings.
Available sizes: XL, L, M.
www.melanchoholics.de |
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| MENACE RUINE |
Alight in Ashes |
CD |
"The Canadian duo Menace Ruine began in 2006 by S. De La Moth and Genevieve. The Montreal entity create music of a very harsh and hypnotizing blend of martial ambient and neo-folk mixed with elements of experimental music and black metal.
The music would then be laced with the enchanting and mesmerizing vocals of Genevieve which would make Menace Ruine a band unlike anything in the genre.
Alight In Ashes is MENACE RUINEs fourth album. Having already worked with such labels as the respected Canadian experimental label Alien8 and experimental UK label Aurora Borealis, and having played live with such artists as Nadja, Daniel Menche, Wolf Eyes, Watain, along with doing a European tour with Frances Aluk Todolo which led MENACE RUINE in playing the prestigious Roadburn Festival where they were personally invited by Sunn 0))) to play on said bands curated day, the duo decided it was time to take it to the next level by working with Profound Lore Records.
With Alight In Ashes, MENACE RUINE have returned to their more melodic side that was found on their second album The Die Is Cast, and in turn have delivered their most intriguing, unnerving, and most beautifully crafted album to date.
With the constructed and meticulously crafted music (think Burzums Filosofem meets Merzbow, Nico, and The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud) that compliments Genevieves powerful vocals, Alight In Ashes is a trance-like masterpiece that will ultimately cast a spell that grabs you by the throat while at the same time envelopes you.
The band also have touring plans in the works, by doing some U.S. touring with their now label-mates ASH BORER and planning tour jaunts with MAMIFFER likewise ++ MENACE RUINE are known as one of the more respected dark ambient/experimental bands today.
The duo combine a mesmerizing trance-enducing mix of martial ambient, industrial, noise, neo folk, and black metal into their entrancing mix.
For fans of Nico, Merzbow, Death In June, The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud, and Burzum.
MENACE RUINE plan on hitting the live circuit in support of Alight In Ashes, first off with label-mates ASH BORER and plan on touring Europe with MAMIFFER likewise.
The duo of MENACE RUINE have had some notable live experiences throughout the course of their career, most notably the band being invited by Sunn 0))) to play their curated day of 2011s Roadburn Festival." [label info]
www.profoundlorerecords.com
"Dass wir MENACE RUINE hier schon vorgestellt haben, ist untertrieben. 'Gefeiert' wäre treffender. Nur wenige Projekte haben einen so einzigartigen, sofort wieder erkennbaren Sound, der zugleich so schwer zu definieren ist. Black Metal-Wurzeln sind spürbar, allerdings mehr atmosphärisch denn klanglich. Das Zerren erinnert an Noise, die Stimme (mich) an eine weniger ätherische Version von DEAD CAN DANCE und und und. Mit "Alight In Ashes" ist nun das vierte offizielle Album des seit 2007 bestehenden Duos erschienen, wie auch alle anderen Werke der beiden Frankokanadier in ihrer Heimat Montreal komponiert und eingespielt. GENEVIÈVE ist die Stimme, SERPENT DE LA MOTH der Mann an den Tasten. Diese 'Tasten' sind umso erstaunlicher, weil die Klangwand sehr stark nach E-Gitarren tönt, aber angeblich ohne eine einzige echte Gitarre entsteht.
Für mich persönlich kamen die Alben nach "The Die Is Cast" (2008, Besprechung) nie ganz an diesen großen, riesigen Wurf heran, was aber sicher auch mit der Wucht des Erstkontaktes zu tun hat. "Alight In Ashes" ist allerdings nah dran. Generell scheint das neue Album nicht ganz so wütend zu sein wie die Vorgänger, (noch) mehr nach innen gerichtet, dabei auch weniger verzerrt und sehr melodiös.
Sofort ist er da, dieser sägende, in der Luft stehende, vibrierende Sound, der dieses Mal tatsächlich etwas weniger nach Gitarre klingt. Eine an- und absteigende, orgelnde Melodie bestimmt "Set Water To Flames" (01), die Percussion ist überraschend deutlich vernehmbar. Dann setzt die einzigartige, einschneidende Stimme von GENEVIÈVE ein, entrückt, nicht von dieser Welt. Sie offenbart ihr Innenleben, singt ihre eigene Beschwörung. Im Einklang mit der sich immer wiederholenden Hintergrundmelodie tönt die Stimme ungeheuer hypnotisch. Der Gesang ist klarer als früher, deutlicher und wesentlich ausgereifter. Zwischendrin stehen krachende, wühlende Instrumentalpassagen, und wirklich auffällig bleiben die Drums, teilweise fast militärisch getaktet. Ein Mahlstrom aus Emotionen und Sound.
Auch "Salamandra" (02) weist sehr differenzierte Klänge auf, wirklich nah an DEAD CAN DANCE. Wie die Strukturen aller Songs setzt auch dieser auf die Wiederholung von wenigen Tönen, was besonders beschwörend wirkt. Die Vocals kommen auf diesem Album eindeutig am besten zur Geltung, wirken sicher und umfassen mehrere Oktaven, wie klassisch ausgebildet. Eine sägende, kurbelnde Melodie, darin perfekt eingebettet die Stimme, begleitet von einer dunklen Trommel.
"Burnt Offerings" (03) klingt nach mehreren verzerrten Gitarren, die versuchen, in Einklang zu kommen und eine Bestattungshymne zu spielen. Verschiedene Lagen mischen sich dazu, das Stück bleibt rein instrumental.
Im Verlauf von "Arsenikon" (04) bekommt die Stimme Hall, wird spaciger, die Musik dazu noch 'gitarriger' und verzerrter. Sehr reduziert, ein Anschlagen von einzelnen Tönen, so dass erneut GENEVIÈVE im Vordergrund steht, gedoppelt mit sich selbst. Ein sakrales, persönliches Duett, berührend und verzweifelt, weil (für MENACE RUINE-Verhältnisse) zurückhaltend. Ab der Mitte scheint das Stück durch Verzerrung und schräge Töne, durch industrielles Scheppern aus dem Ruder zu laufen, bleibt aber immer noch melodisch.
"Disease Of Fear" (05) beginnt wie die "Toccata" von BACH, gespielt auf einer singenden Säge. Wiederum eine sehr einfache, sich wiederholende Melodie, zu der spät und überraschend das klare Organ einsetzt, welches die Lücken dieser ineinander walzenden Zahnräder ausfüllt, dabei die Töne mit einem Vibrato versieht und unglaublich lange hält. Auf einem Scheiterhaufen aus Klängen singt die Frankokanadierin unbeeindruckt um ihr Leben. Aufgrund der Intensität ist die Länge der Songs übrigens trotz der sich wiederholenden Strukturen nie spürbar.
"Cup Of Oblivion" (06) erweckt ganz besonders den Eindruck eines Kirchenliedes, unterstützt von mahlenden, schweren Trommeln. Sehr majestätisch und der mächtigste der sechs Songs, der lange ohne Vocals auskommt, bis diese nach vier Minuten dann doch hymnisch, schmetternd dazustoßen und bis an die Grenze zur Verzerrung gehen.
MENACE RUINE ruhen sich auf ihrem Sound nicht aus, sondern entwickeln ihn weiter. Sie bleiben erdig, dröhnen etwas dezenter als früher, wirken häufig sehr andächtig und sakral; rituelle Lieder zu einer virtuellen Beerdigung. Viele Melodien scheinen aus klassischen Epochen abgeleitet zu sein. Überraschend ist die Varianz der Percussion, aber überstrahlt wird ohnehin alles vom gewaltigen und kosmischen Gesang. Mit Abstand das vielfältigste und kompletteste Album der beiden Kanadier, die übrigens momentan auf Tour durch Europa sind. Termine siehe News und Konzertdatenbank. CD kaufen, Konzert besuchen!" [Michael We. /NON-POP]
|
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
| MENCHE, DANIEL |
Jugularis |
CD |
Die JUGULARIS-Venen sind zwei Adern im Halsbereich, die bis in den Schädel laufen... und klingt nach tiefgestimmten Trommeln & Becken-Kaskaden und hellen Gläser- & Glocken-Pulsationen, wobei das Ganze irgendwann eine ritualistisch-schamanistische Komponente bekommt, als wenn sich die Sounds in Stammestrommeln & Grillenzirpen verwandeln, und sich alles in hypnotischen Klangblöcken auflöst...
Great stuff again vom Power-Drone Magier !!
"Imagine yourself riding on cells coasting through your body's veins. The sound of the heart grows stronger like a beating drum as you're pulled closer. Suddenly, you're embraced by this giant pulsating muscle and when you're finally released back into the veins you can hear it's sound fading slowly, but still growling with the same intensity that it has beat with for eternity. Jugularis is the soundtrack to this ride and like your heart it's packaged in blood: the ultimate symbol of life and intensity. Recently Daniel Menche has embraced more percussion based sound to create music that manipulates the listeners blood flow and intensifies the listening experience. Jugularis still contains a distinctly Menche sound yet being that it's intensely rhythm and percussion based it's extremely different from anything that he has created prior. Never before has Daniel Menche's mantra of "If Music is like blood then make the speakers bleed" been so appropriate." [press release]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Radiant Blood (SOLD OUT) |
10inch |
SUBSTANTIA INNOMINATA ist eine neue 10”-Vinyl-Serie von Drone Records mit neuem Konzept. Mit “Unbenannter Substanz” ist das “Unbekannte, Un-erkennbare, Unergründliche, Un-Identifizierbare“ gemeint, das hier als Inspiration und Themenfokus für die Künstler (akustisch wie visuell) dienen soll. Das, was über unsere Wahrnehmung hinausgeht oder vielleicht nur unbewusst wahrgenommen werden kann. Das was man nicht denken kann. Das Unbekannte in uns und ausserhalb unser erkennbaren, gewohnten Welt.
DANIEL MENCHE macht den Anfang mit zwei Stücken: Komprimierte Energie. Dichte. Antreibende Kraft. Spannung. Pulsierendes Blut. Das Unbekannte als Teil einer grossen Energie, die auch in der Musik steckt?
Die grossartige ARTWORK für die SUB-01 stammt von ROBERT SCHALINSKI (COLUMN ONE). Braun-schwarz marmoriertes Vinyl in einer Erstauflage von 500 Stück.
“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.” [Basic Concept]
DANIEL MENCHE begins the series with two pieces: Compressed energy. Density. Driving force. Tension. Pulsating Blood. The Unknown as part of a bigger energy, that is also part of the music?
The great artwork for SUB-01 was made by ROBERT SCHALINSK (COLUMN ONE). Brown-black marmorized vinyl in a first ed. of 500 copies.
OUT 15. DECEMBER 2005 !
Note: this 10" plays on 45 rpm !
|
2005 |
€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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| MERZBOW |
Zara |
10inch |
"... Its been some time since I last heard Merzbow too actually, and perhaps for the very same reason as I didn't hear post rock or ambient house: maybe after a while you heard it. And believe me, I heard a lot of Merzbow. Now that hear this 10", I realize I missed that too, but perhaps that is due to the fact that there is something about this record which reminded me of some older Merzbow, the 'SCUM' double LP. On that LP Masami Akita cuts up his own old work and re-assembles it. The a-side starts out with similar cut-ups, before going into what seems to be an improvised guitar recording, filtered through the EMS Synthi-A. On the b-side drumming pops up, reminding the listener of the fact that Akita started out as a drummer, and did also play the drums on his 'Live In Khabarovsk' LP. Akita is on both sides in a totally free improvisation mode, and his tools of the trade - noise - is apparent, but not the main driving force of this record. It appears here, in the middle of his free play of improvised playing. Here too its a call out to play more, old, Merzbow. Said records for instance, and then 'Zara' again." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.licht-ung.de
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Cloud Cock OO Grand |
do-LP |
"Merzbow came roaring onto the Tokyo scene in 1979. To this day, the project remains one of the most prolific and aggressively forward-thinking acts in experimental music. Initially a duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani, before settling as the moniker of Akita alone, the project took its name from German artist Kurt Schwitters' pre-war architectural assemblage, The Cathedral of Erotic Misery or Merzbau, and quickly set out to challenge entrenched notions of what music could be. Embracing technology and the machine, even in its earliest iterations, Merzbow broke boundaries and pushed toward new territories of the extreme, arriving at an unadulterated manifestation of sonic expression that has continued across the last 40 years, setting the pace for the entire genre of noise along the way. Few projects have pushed boundaries, risen to a more iconic status, or been as influential over the same period of time.
Recorded in Holland during the autumn of 1989 and originally issued as an highly limited edition CD by ZSF Produkt in 1990, “Cloud Cock OO Grand” was the first of a series of albums to indicate a change in creative direction that Merzbow would following over the coming decade. During the European tour during which these recordings were laid to tape, Akita was only able to transport simple, portable gear. Rising to the challenge, these limitations led to the development of a signature form of harsh noise, heavily influenced by death metal and grindcore, that would come to define much of his early '90s sound. “Cloud Cock OO Grand” was the first of this shift to be sent into a wider realm.
Comprising five individual compositions - three being side-long - “Cloud Cock OO Grand” was composed and performed by Akita on synthesizers, metal devices, noise electronics, and string instruments, all recorded at the extreme volumes for which Merzbow has always gained a unique sense of distinction. Despite being enthralling sonic assault, driven by the frenetic presence of electronic sounds, across the length of the album’s four sides it is hard not to be captivated by a greater sense of dynamics and space within the artist’s work, resulting from sparse acoustic interjections played against Akita’s heavily processed strings. The result, while no less intense of demanding than anything before or since, reveals a surprising sense of intimacy and consideration that’s often not easily observed within the field of noise.
Easily among the most captivating gestures within Merbow’s sprawling catalog, pushing endlessly forward while subtly nodding toward historical gestures from the early years of the avant-garde, Urashima beautiful double LP edition of “Cloud Cock OO Grand” marks this seminal and long unavailable album’s first time over on vinyl.
Issued in a very limited pressing of 299 copies, with cover that faithfully reproduces the original CD artwork and an A2 poster with an original 1990 draw by Masami Akita, it’s hard to recommend enough."
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/cloud-cock-oo-grand
|
2023 |
€34.00 |
|
| MERZBOW / M.B |
Merzbow meets M.B. |
LP + 7inch |
First ever collaboration album between the two most important noise artists on the planet!
7" is a noisy split.
Xeroxed cover with numbered insert.
Lp is green/blue/yellow splatter vinyl and 7" is fuchsia.
www.menstrualrecordings.org
"Masami Akita and Maurizio Bianchi are without question amongst the pioneers of harsh, abrasive electronic music. Both of their careers began quite prolifically around the same time, and since Bianchi's return in the late 1990s have continued as such, with both producing a massive number of albums each year. These two albums act nicely as reference points on their long careers, with the 10" capturing pieces each submitted for the Mail Music Project compilation, here appearing unedited for the first time, and the LP being a recent collaborative work that stands amongst both artists' best material as of late.
The material on Merzbow Meets M.B. is recent work from both acts as a true collaboration, and the bonus included 7" makes for a nice split release to compare to the 10" as far as the individual artists' work goes. "Dissonant Abstraction" initially is all roaring, cavernous Merzbow noise, but kept restrained and under control. Low register swells and patterns make for an ersatz rhythm, with haunting passages of synthesizer clearly marking Bianchi's contributions. His work here has shades of his more recent new age material, but it works, balancing out the harsher end of Akita’s harsh noise. In some ways it sounds like each artist’s solo work mixed together, and it is rather effective.
The other half, "Surreal Distortions," is overall more in the noise spectrum of things, with muffled, bassy noises and thin analog electronics. There is not the same hints at melody as on the other side, and instead focuses on harsher textures. Bent oscillators and electronic chirps mark this a clearly analog piece, and with the occasional use of phasing and flanging it calls to mind some of CCCC and Astro's best work. Here it feels more like a collaboration between the two, with Akita’s use of chaotic mixing and Bianchi’s use of synthesizer sounds.
The 7" single included with the LP features each artist contributing their own recent solo works as well, and while both are excellent, neither are surprising. Merzbow's "Fragment B" is all scraping metal and bleeping electronics, so in some regards is a throwback to his early 1990s junk noise sound without the overly loud electronics. An occasional rhythm sneaks in here and there, but for the most part it is pure chaos. Bianchi's "28th Flux" has the bleakness of his early works, but a more modern, higher fidelity sheen covering the pained electronics and darkness.
(...)
As both artists are ridiculously prolific, and I personally have a fondness for their earliest work in both cases, I tend to only occasionally dabble in either of their new releases. In this case, the recent collaboration work is exactly what I hoped it would be, mixing the best sounds of both artists together splendidly. Coupled with the vintage material on the 10", and it makes for a pair of releases that demonstrates the best facets of these two long respected artists."
[Creaig Dunton]
"Masami Akita from Japan and Maurizio Bianchi from Italy are both active inside experimental music since roughly the same time, the late 70s. They both came from the world of cassettes and have a legendary status by now. Merzbow is probably the more well-known musician, due to the fact that he plays many concerts all over the world, and both have a ton of releases under their belt. The difference is, perhaps, that Bianchi has moved more over the musical spectrum and Akita is more a man of strict noise. There has been a split release by them on the same label earlier this, but as far as I recall not a joint release. Here we have a LP of collaborative music with a bonus 7" of solo pieces. It seems to me Merzbow is taking the lead here, as this is all more in his territory than in that of Bianchi. You can figure out what Bianchi does here, as sometimes his chilly electronics leap out of the noisy hot bed that Merzbow created. When this is less apparent, it seems like a fine Merzbow record, and not like a Merzbow plus someone else record. That perhaps is the odd thing about this record, but says nothing about the quality. If we turn to the 7", then we'll see that Bianchi can be noisy too. His solo piece is quite loud, like a power drone stuck in a high voltage charger. Organic? Organ-like! This is a fine reminder of the old M.B. from the early 80s when this sort of violence was common ground for M.B. and he was the unquestioned master of the genre. For his solo piece, Merzbow also goes back to his earlier days and comes up with something that reminded me of his days, circa S.C.U.M.: various unrelated tapes and electronic sounds are stuck together and make up a fine musique concrete tres brut. Heavily cut up and chopped up into a fine pieces, grinded together. Excellent noise music throughout." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€26.50 |
|
| MERZBOW KAPOTTE MUZIEK |
Works 1987-1993 |
Korm Plastics KP 3050 |
"Both of these projects hardly need an introduction. Merzbow is since the late ‘70s the project of Masami Akita working in the field of noise music, having released a few hundred CDs/LPs/cassettes by now.
In 1987 Kapotte Muziek was then the solo project of Frans de Waard, after Christian Nijs left the group early ’87. De Waard concentrated on working with other musicians, and started trading tapes with a few musicians he was already in contact with, and one of them was Merzbow. The first release was a cassette, which was released in two versions, one of Merzbow’s ZSF Produkt and one on Belgium’s Therapie label (although none ever showed up, so perhaps it didn’t happen). In October 1989 Merzbow was invited to play at V2 in ’s-Hertogenbosch and a subsequent small tour was done in The Netherlands, playing in Utrecht and Nijmegen. On october 3rd 1989 Merzbow played in the evening in a small student club, Diogenes, and in the late afternoon as a duo with Kapotte Muziek. The first 20 minutes were released on one side of the LP ‘Documentation/Collaboration’, whereas the second side has ‘recycled’ versions of those recordings. For their next project Merzbow Kapotte Muziek took all the recordings from that day and reworked them in an extensive process into the LP ‘Continuum’.
This 3CD set compiles all of these recordings and more. It includes (CD1) the first cassette, ZSF Produkt version, (CD2) has for the first time the complete live recording from the collaborative concert at Radio Rataplan plus two compilation pieces that were made around the same, and (CD3) the complete ‘Continuum’ LP, as well as three highly obscure compilation tracks, including the long reworked ‘Radio Rataplan’ from the very obscure ‘Dutch Tour’ double cassette by V2_Archief.
All expertly remastered by Jos Smolders at Earlabs, all lovingely designed by Meeuw, in a carton box with three CDs, poster, shrinkwrapped and sticker." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
Edition of 300 copies only
"In history, a certain type of very conservative – reactionary even - history, key moments and people are outlined, but no longer do we learn the kings and queens, we concentrate on oral histories of last week. So whilst seemingly radical in fact everything in music is still well and truly reactionary ideology. Artists still are identified with and seek to make seminal work, as our Tracey sickly maintains. So when in the late 1970s one Masami Akita stated “I threw all my past music career in the garbage. There was no longer any need for concepts like 'career' and 'skill'. I stopped playing music and went in search of an alternative.” The rest one could say really was history! Only a history that has been both ignored and wonderfully misappropriated into what is now the current noise “scene” of incompetent misfits who imagine their work to be art in the great western tradition. What this 3CD set demonstrates is the origin of this ‘scene’ or site of dissemination of the
meaningless and banal of contemporality. The ipad generation were not yet born when Akita and de Waard began a series of interchanges released originally on cassette and vinyl. The ‘history’ of this process is detailed here http://kormplastics.nl/kp3050.html. The consequences of this (and other events) of the time are in a real sense more profound. As if the ideas of a previous generation failed to generate, and how the fin de siècle became an eternal return of the (same) trivial misunderstanding, and failing to understand. The process of this collaboration is obviously a deconstructive one as any current art student would argue – though by virtue of wikipedia and a downloaded paper with Harvard references. So in fact this contemporality changes, in Damian
(Peter 1007-1072 not Hirst 1965 -?) fashion, the past to render the noise of Akita and de Waard as meaningful in its reaction to – from the past – of this future we now inhabit. The brilliance of such mutilation of past events not via some modified DeLorean but by the simple expediency of a logical inversion - the logic of the ipad’s NOT gates. (The garbage becomes art and so art becomes garbage….) One might therefore admire Akita and de Waard’s work as contributing to the current ‘scholasticism’ – or perhaps conversely to Damian’s condemnation of philosophy as the work of the Devil and the self flagellation of ‘noisers’ in small bars all over the mid-west. Either way – by not excluded middles they are genius’s. A logically non exclusive OR. And to end - by the by - I’ve been criticized for not describing the sound in a review – so what does this sound like – it sounds like the work that is yet to be produced by a sound ‘artist’ somewhere!" (jliat)
|
2012 |
€25.00 |
|
| MERZOUGA |
52°46’ North 13°29’ East – Music for Wax-Cylinders |
CD |
"The World’s Most Moveable Armchair
Erich Moritz von Hornbostel was an „armchair ethnologist“. Due to his bad health the musicologist was unable to travel to faraway countries. Instead he sat at his desk in the Dorotheenstraße in Berlin and received the world through his phonograph. On from 1900 the world’s music arrived at his office in the form of more than 16.000 wax-cylinder recordings from all over the planet. Due to an edict by the Prussian Emperor all German trading as well as scientific expeditors were bound to travel with a phonograph and send their recordings to Berlin. Today we might put it that way: Hornbostel was in charge of the biggest field-recording project of all times.
In his case being a stay-at-home was definitely an achievement. His immobility gave Hornbostel the chance to develop a completely new perspective, an unprecedented acoustical bird’s eye view, and made him the founder of a new discipline: comparative musicology’s aim was to “unveil the dark and distant past (…) and to extract the timeless and the general from the abundance of our present; in other words: We want to get to know the historic and the basic esthetic principles of musical art.” (1)
Approximately 100 years later Hornbostel’s acoustic present has itself become a dark and distant past. To our ears the 16.000 wax-cylinder recordings of the Berlin Phonogram-Archive sound like treasures from a long lost world. These treasures are not only raised by researchers but increasingly also by artists. The current archive’s management is generously granting them access to the recordings that have been digitalized over the past fifteen years.
Thus Eva Pöpplein and Janko Hanushevsky (aka Merzouga) have become fellow armchair-travelers. They bring along a lot of experience, which they collected as heavy-duty field-recordists on intensive sound-expeditions through India and South-East-Asia. („Good Morning, Rickshaw“ – Deutschlandradio Kultur 2008; „Mekong Morning Glory“ – Deutschlandradio Kultur 2009 / Gruenrekorder 2011). Now they encompass the sonic landscape of the Phonogram-Archive with the same musical sensitiveness that can be found in their previous works. Just like Hornbostel the two are genuinely interested in something timeless, something general: the uniquely beautiful human ability to play with sounds and structures. Janko Hanushevsky integrates his electric-bass improvisations into the historic wax-cylinders’ cracks and scratches. And Eva Pöpplein sparingly applies electronic effects in order to distill precious essences from the sonic material.
The result is a musical position-reckoning between the past and the future of sound-recording: Located at 52°46’ North and 13°29’ East, in the Ethnologisches Museum Dahlem, is the world’s most moveable armchair."
[Marcus Gammel, Deutschlandradio Kultur]
www.gruenrekorder.de
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| METEK (FEAT. VMOOD AND PYTHAGORA) |
Psychedelic Noise |
CD-R |
"The title of this album gives a pretty accurate description of its musical contents. Starting from a long “montage” of hissing noise textures, it very gradually unfolds into ever more diversified sounds, occassionally including voices, but only slightly brushing the boundaries of conventional musical structures. And in the end, everything dissolves again into the background noise of the universe.
What sets this album apart from most other noise music is the fact that it avoids any aggressive, confrontative, “harsh” postures. Instead, it often operates at a very quiet sound level, prompting the listener to actively listen out for signals embedded in the noisescape. This is precisely what creates the ‘psychedelic’ aspect of the music, where the listener’s brain imagines (to avoid the word: hallucinates) potential musical structures from the raw data fed into the ear by Metek and their two collaborators.
File under: noise, sound art" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"METEK konnte man in den letzten Jahren immer wieder mal am Lieferanteneingang von Shit Noise Records rumlungern sehen, entsprach aber zu wenig der dort geschätzten pupertären Pornophilie. Auch mit Psychedelic Noise (ACLE 1017, CD-R), das auch wieder Beiträge seiner alten Gesinnungsgenossen Dan Pålsson (aka PYTHAGORA) und VMOOD enthält, stillt Fredrik Nilsson einmal mehr nur bereits etwas sublimiertere Bedürfnisse. Etwa die Lust, in Noiselandschaften Abenteuerurlaub zu machen. Was eine gehörige Widerstandsfähigkeit voraussetzt hinsichtlich rauer Winde und Elektronenstürme, dröhnender Wetterumschwünge und unwegsamer Wege, die sich nur knurschend bewältigen lassen. Dazu ist garstiger Regen quasi garantiert, sonnige Idyllen dagegen fast schon ein Grund, das Reisebüro zu verklagen. Der Grund des Hierseins sind schließlich brausende Impulse und lärmige Verwerfungen, in denen Pressluftgehämmer, Sandstrahl, sausende Motoren und allerhand industrialer Ohrenfraß widerhallen, als eine Art wetterwendische Natur höherer Ordnung. In der hagelt es Katzen, knattern Nattern, plinken Bluesgitarrensaiten wie rostiger Draht, kauen Kobolde Schwedenhappen, zerreißen schartige Partikel die Luft. Als hätte unser erklärtermaßen anime- und mangabegeisterter Schwede eine japanische Gebrauchsanweisung zur Hand für seine naturburschikose Blockhüttenpercussion und vogelbezwitscherten, kochlöffelklapprigen Kochkünste." [Bad Alchemy]
|
2015 |
€7.50 |
|
| MGR (MUSTARD GAS AND ROSES) |
Nova Lux |
CD |
Wenn man MGR zuhört, weiss man wer für die melancholischen Stimmungen bei ISIS zuständig ist. Sehr reduzierte, rein instrumentelle Gitarren-Klänge, die unglaubliche Einsamkeit & Trauer ausstrahlen....
„MUSTARD GAS AND ROSES (kurz MGR) ist das Solo Projekt von ISIS Gitarrist Mike Gallagher, der sich durch den Bandnamen auf Kurt Vonneguts semiautobiographischen Roman ,Slaughterhouse Five" bezieht. Das Album umfasst fünf unbetitelte Stücke mit einer Spielzeit von 52 Minuten. Gallagher wurde bei Track#1 von Greg Burns (RED SPAROWES) am Pedal Steel und bei Track 4 von Octopus (DÄLEK) durch dessen geniale Sampletüftelei unterstützt. ,Nova Lux" schifft sich, nicht untypisch für Neurot, durch eher ruhige Ambient-Post-Rock Gewässer und steht dabei ISIS sehr nahe. Gallagher generiert majestätische Atmosphäre mit telekinetischer Kraft, die auf Gitarrenarbeit basierenden Songs lassen in Verbindung mit Homerecording-Electronica Landschaften erwachsen, die deutlich greifbar auftauchen und sich dann doch wieder in unscharfer Fomlosigkeit verlieren...“ [Cargo]
“With Mustard Gas & Roses, guitarist Mike Gallagher (of renowned dirge architects ISIS) unveils a compendium of sparse ruminations culled from years of underground musical experience. An artistic—and entirely instrumental—departure from band-based disseminations, Gallagher’s solo debut is nonetheless in accord with the general aesthetic of ISIS, exploring the same telekinetic atmosphere via more personal and austere means. “ [label info]
|
2006 |
€15.50 |
|
| |
Wavering on the Cresting Heft |
LP |
"Nach "Nova Lux" und der letztjährigen "Impromptu"-Kollaboration mit SirDSS nun das nächste Soloalbum von Michael Gallagher von Isis. Gleich vorweg, es gefällt mir ausgesprochen gut und weit besser wie das Debut-Album. Gallagher schafft es diesmal, die 6 enthaltenen Stücke homogen, kompakt und natürlich aussehen zu lassen, was sicher daran liegt, dass er nicht mehr zwanghaft versucht, die Verbindung zu Isis zu negieren bzw. ganz rauszuhalten. Klar, die Grundstruktur und Herangehensweise ist immer noch die gleiche wie auf "Nova Lux", allerdings lässt Mike Gallagher diesmal auch die Einflüsse von seiner Arbeit bei Isis zu. Auch die streckenweise härtere, direktere Gangart auf "Wavering On The Cresting Heft" tut gut. Den Grundton bilden immer noch sanfte, weit ausufernde und tragende Dronen, mit Mikes hellem, wie ein Lichtblick über der ganzen einsamen Melancholie liegenden, akustischem Gitarrenspiel. Also, insgesamt eine Weiterentwicklung zu mehr tonaler Struktur mit stärkeren Verzerrungen hin und wieder. Anstatt epischem Dauer-Ambient Geplänkel, sind die Stücke auf "Wavering On The Cresting Heft" strukturell klarer und wirken mehr wie einzelne, in sich geschlossene Songs. Das Artwork ist unspektakulär-melancholisch. Alle Fotografien stammen von Gallagher selbst." [Creative-Eclipse]
www.conspiracyrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| MICROMELANCOLIE & STROM NOIR |
49°05'19,3 |
CD |
"The album of the enigmatic title "49°05'19,3"N22°34'04,0'E" is the result of the collaboration between two artists signed to Zoharum: Emil Mat'ko aka Strom Noir from Slovakia and Robert Skrzyński aka Micromelancolié from Poland. Both have two albums and participated in several compilations released on our label on their account. Their collaborative album is a piece of work suspended between two stylistics penetrated within their own solo projects, and at the same time it is perfectly complementary. On one side we have the guitar/electronic passages so characteristic of Strom Noir, and on the other the sonic structures prepared from defects and scraps that has been explored for several years by Micromelancolié. Two untitled compositions float slowly and are contemplation of places a bit distant to urban civilization. "49°05'19,3"N22°34'04,0'E " is a sound postcard from the mysterious place hidden in the title. Where is it? The answer is in the music itself, and in the coordinates composing the title of this collaborative album." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| MIEVILLE, EMMANUEL |
Ethers |
CD |
Slowly but o-so-surely, Emmanuel Mieville is building an impressive body of work, where each new album seems to make the previous one pale in comparison. And the music press would be wise to catch on to him. The man is discreet and unassertive, so is his music, but he – like it – cannot be dismissed as just another proponent of the field recording. For Mieville, music is some of the most spellbinding art for the ear out there in the aether.
"Ethers" is Mieville's second album for Baskaru, and though the previous one certainly stands the test of time, this new opus pushes the bar higher, much higher. In the composer's own words, "Ethers is an attempt to give an earthy quality, a dense texture to drone music, to lower it from the 'skies'."
Mieville first trained as a sound engineer, and then studied musique concrète at GRM. He grew up listening to creative radio programs and embraced field recording as a form of art. His latest works fully realized a synthesis of all these elements: the attentive ear to one's surroundings, the abstract approach to sound, the sense of drama that makes a field recording composition take life.
Mieville has worked with Buto dancers, video artists, and like-minded musicians like Eric Cordier, Guido Huebner, and Benjamin Thigpen. After appearances on compilations albums, he released two CDs in Malaysia (on Herbal Records and XingWu), followed by his Western full-length debut "Four Wanderings in Tropical Lands" on Baskaru in 2011. Since then he released two thematic albums: "Buddha – Anima – Asia" (Obs*, 2012) on Buddhism, and "Concret-Sens" (Crónica, 2014), a homage to early musique concrète.
www.baskaru.com
"The last time I heard something from Emmanuel Mieville was in Vital Weekly 803, and that was his previous album for Baskaru. Mieville, a trained composer from GRM uses a lot of field recordings in his music, which he treats into music. I am not sure how Mieville works in creating his music, but it could very well be that he has many treatments of the same sound source and which are later stuck together and crafted into a piece of music, with all the subtle changes possible, which Mieville can choose from when doing this. I might very well be entirely wrong of course. His music can be compared to that of Whetham (or vice versa, but that's not the order I am hearing these releases): quite closed off blocks of sound, but somehow the work of Mieville sounds more coherent than Whetham on his new release. It also seems to be less closed off, with a bit more air in between the various treatments that he uses in his music. Whetham's music seems hermetically closed. There is fine vibrancy in the pieces by Mieville, shifting back and forth, ignoring strict classical rules of composition. Excellent release." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Jin Gang Jing |
mCD-R |
emmanuel mieville is a french sound artist dealing with musique concrète (he studied at the famous GRM in paris) and more recently field recordings. his past works include several cds on baskaru, obs, cronica, xing-wu (with éric cordier) and a 3"cd-r ten years ago on taâlem ("magnetic fields and shroud flux", still available!).
the two tracks composing "jin gang jing (le sutra du diamant)" are based upon field recordings made in buddhist temples in china.
reviews:
Vital Weekly 1150
Emmanuel Mieville closes this trilogy and his work has been reviewed before (Vital Weekly 1071 for instance) and these days his work is extensively about the use of field recordings. In the two pieces on this 3"CDR he uses sounds recorded at Buddhist temples in China. In ‘Shao Yeu Temple' voices play an important role. Whatever text is recited I have no idea, not being a Buddhist myself nor particularly interested I must admit in any form of religion organised or otherwise, but I like the rhythmic flow to the piece. It's hooky and comes with some great 'other' sounds, insects chirping and something that sounds like stick being rubbed over a floor. Should I know not any better than I would think the opening sounds of 'Chengdu' has a dark synthesizer, but it's probably something else. Here too we have the same hooky reciting of a text. I was wondering what electrical machinery sparked off that drone like sound, as it sounded deep and menacing. I liked both pieces, with a slight preference for the first one, which at times sounded like it could be an outtake of the first Dome LP. This is all a very musical form of field recordings. (FdW)
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/jin-gang-jing-le-sutra-du-diamant-alm-125 |
2018 |
€5.00 |
|
| MIKOSTERION |
Slipout |
mCD-R |
Anonymous project from Russia, creating haunting, minimally swirling, subharmonic, crystal clear ghost-ambience. We love it. From the same people that are / is HUM. |
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| MILAN SANDBLEISTIFT / AIDAN BAKER / RELAPXYCH.O |
Saite an Saite (a string based compilation) |
CD |
"MILAN SANDBLEISTIFT has a very minimal piece with feedbacks & strange sounds all over the place which is based on a guitar played as real "object". Over 16 min long.
AIDAN BAKER's piece "One step ahead, one step behind" is a very fitting continuation, experimental guitar drone more experimental & soundbased as usual (over 20 min long), the last piece by RELAPXYCH.O sound more electronic but nevertheless organic, and finishes the split / compilation with a lovely microsound piece with enough interesting sounds to get your attention while setting you in a trance at the same time.........(the healing paradox). a minimal compilation, wtih minimal credit information, and full colour booklet with lots of photos...... recommended!" [Drone Records info]
"3-artist-compilation auf licht-ung; experimentell und ruhig, angespannt entspannt, gitarre ja; aber anders.
„milan sandbleistift mit „seymour in der huette" 16.34 minuten extrem nah am instrument und mit filtern und reduzierten feedbacks über einem (grundbrumm)drone auf der suche nach dem bisher ungehörten. weniger musik (im konsumsinne), mehr experiment (dabei gut konsumierbar) mit gefühl für spannung und aufbau innerhalb eines eng gesteckten rahmens.
an zweiter stelle „one step ahead, one step behind" von dem mann der 10.000 releases, aidan baker: 20.40 minuten ein gezupftes gitarrenloop, langsam durch rauschen ergänzt, ein rauschen, das vielleicht auch irgendein tief verstecktes zer-riff ist, darüber materialisierende delayfetzen und die ahnung angedeuteter melodie. und während noch der gedanke herrscht: hier passiert doch gar nichts mehr, verfolgt herr baker längst dieses frosch-im-kochenden-wasser-prinzip, verdichtet alle ingredienzien und löst auch das rätsel um das rauschige zerren. und, ganz die ruhe selbst, verabschiedet sich dann in der dunklen, aber warmen wolke.
relapxych.0, zuletzt hier mit ihrer split mit rapoon präsent, verbinden auf dem 17.12 langen „insommniactivity (origins mix)" in ihrer art die beiden zuvor gehörten ästetiken: sehr offen und klar im hörbild und experimentell (wie die #1), aber deutlich mehr der „musik" an sich verschrieben (wie herr b.), collagierend und andeutend, kontraste und höhepunkte setzend, ein mikromotiv als aufhänger auf dem weg durch das stück und am ende das entlassen in harmonie; fast; es gibt doch noch letzte worte...
sehr stimmige, deutlich „experimental-" compilation mit schicken lich-tung cover: alles blauschwarzer wald, cd, innen, hinten, vorn, seiten... nur das booklett ein paar andere bilder mehr und die inhaltsbeschreibung auf einer fläche von 100 x 5 mm versteckt, schriftgrösse -1, so ungefähr beim dritten blick zu bemerken, empfohlener leseabstand? ...ich brauche mehr licht (-ung)." [N, Unruhr.de]
www.licht-ung.de
|
2009 |
€12.50 |
|
| MILITIA |
Ambiorix |
CD |
After releasing the MILITIA debut album into cassette (a split with CON-DOM entitled "Scorching Earth Policy") in 1995, Old Europa Cafe, 23 years later, proudly comes with the new and MILITIA album "AMBIORIX" devoted to the great Gaul King.
All sounds with the usual unmistakable MILITIA trademark, a big variety of rythms with loads of self made percussions and wind instrumets.
Songs are sung in different languages including Latin and Gaul.
The definitive MILITIA album, the album of their maturity.
Special Eco-Leather covers.
Covers available in some different brown tonalities and with 4 different logos printed on Eco-Leather Sleeves.
Also included is a 3-folded insert with cover notes.
Ambiorix, a musical story by MILITIA, based on Ceasar’s writings of “De Bello Gallico”
What happened before
When around 57 bC Julius Ceaser conquered Gaul, his troops marched into Belgica. (Belgica is more or less the state of Belgium plus a part of the Netherlands reaching to the river Rhine).
Belgica was inhabited by several tribes which were at war with each other frequently.
The tribe of the Eburons was lead by 2 kings, Ambiorix and Catuvolcus, both sharing power.
In 54 bC Ceasar had to provide his troops with fresh food and wood supplies and he ordered the tribes to cede a part of their crops to the Roman armies. Because the harvest wasn’t a good one that year and because the Eburons needed the wood from their forests for themselves for the coming winter, the Eburons refused.
Ceasar ordered his generals to built camps around the villages of the Euburon tribes, take over power and confiscate the food supplies by force.
Ambiorix and his Eburons were not to let this happen.
Music on the album and the story of Ambiorix >>
Track 1: Resistance
During the intro of the 1st track “Resistance”, you can hear “forest sounds”, like sounds of birds and insectsb and the wind blowing in the trees. The intro represents the situation of Romans entering the Eburon forest and starting to chop several trees.
The Eburons attack, the small group of Roman soldiers is taken by surprise and only a few can escape.
Track 2: Negotiation
Ambiorix and his Eburon warriors haunt the escaping Romans, but when Ambiorix reaches the Roman camp, he decides not to attack but instead he starts negotiations with the enemy.
The Eburon king explains to the Romans that he doesn’t mind their presence in the region and that he’s in fact Lucky with having them staying on his land, because their presence keeps other hostile tribes from entering Eburon territory.
Ambiorix warns both generals Sabinus and Cotta for the fact that a hughe Germanic army is crossing the Rhine and planning to attack the Roman camps.
Ambiorix advices the generals to move their troops to another Roman camp and join the troops there.
That way they would be stronger and capable of beating the Germanic warriors.
Ambiorix promisses the Romans a free passing through the Eburon lands.
Track 3: Arguing
The generals Sabinus and Cotta discuss all night long whether they should leave their camp or not.
Sabinus trusts Ambiorix and thinks it’s better to leave while Cotta prefers to stay in the camp and wait for the attack.
They cannot agree and only after Sabinus gets furious, hitting hard the table with his fist, Cotta agrees to leave the camp.
Track 4: Ambush
The decision to leave the camp has been taken and the Roman soldiers start marching.
There are two possible routes to the next Roman camp, one path was behind hilly landscape, the other through a valley.
The generals decide to go pass the valley and when descending, Ambiorix and his warriors attack, charging downhill out of the woods and straight into the indefensible flancs of the Roman army.
The Romans were slaughtered and a few were captured.
Noone could escape.
Track 5: Burning the Wicker Man
In his book “De Bello Gallico”, Ceasar described how the Gauls used to sacrifice their prisoners: the men or even women were locked up in a hughe puppet made of wood and straw, like a giant, and then this giant, called the Wicker Man, was set on fire, burning alive the prisoners inside it.
It was their way of sacrificing the captured Roman soldiers to the Gaul god of thunder, Taranis.
Track 6: Women of Gaul
Despite of Ceasar’s claims that Gaul women had nothing to say and were treated as inferior to men, we know from historical sources that some women occupied an important function in their community.
We don’t know if they were active in battle as well, but we know the story of the Celtic female warrior called Boudicca, who got beaten and witnessed her daughters being raped by the Romans.
She took revenge, lead her troops to war and burned down a few Roman cities located in Britannia.
Track 7: March on Gaul
Rome received the news about the beaten army and the resisting Eburons.
Ceasar swore to exterminate every tribe of Belgica. It was important for him to show the greatness and the power of the Roman empire, so this enormous defeat could not be left unpunished: a complete Roman legion and 5 cohorts (in all around 7200 men) was completely whiped out by just one tribe!
Ceasar sent a massive force to Belgica, a force never witnessed before.
Track 8: Calling all Gauls
At the same time Ambiorix united all other Belgian tribes to form a defending force against the Roman army that was marching to Belgica. Thousands of warriors stood behind Ambiorix.
They trained and prepared themselves for the great clash.
Track 9: War
This is the musical interpretation of the great battle between the Roman soldiers and the Gaul warriors.
You’ll hear commands in Latin and Gaul language.
Blood and mud, sufferings and death, victory and defeat.
Track 10: The Rape of Gaul
The Gauls lost the battle, whatever remained of the Belgican population was slaughtered and the Gaul villages were burned down: extermination, genocide, rape, plunder, massacres, murdering women and children, hostiges and prisoners became slaves.
It was the end of the Gaul civilisation.
Track 11: The Lost King
Ambiorix could escape and with a few warriors he succeeded in crossing the Rhine and hiding in Germania.
There’s no trace left of him and although sometimes Roman soldiers reported to have seen him, they can never catch him.
Ambiorix diappears in the dark mists of history.
We remember the great king who stood up against the Roman occupiers.
For evermore he’ll be a true Belgian hero in the hearts of all, in the hearts of Militia.
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| MINAMATA |
Niigata 2002 |
CD |
"Reissue of the third tape of this legendary French group, originally recorded in 1985 and released on the cult French label LES NOUVELLES PROPAGANDES as N.P.002 in 1986. Two tracks coming from compilations recorded at the same period "Wo sind Sie ?" und "Nacht und Nächte", plus one unreleased 17 minute-track recorded in 2002 were added to these 40 mns. Pure old-school industrial and hardcore electronics with lots of metal sounds & percussions and echoed screamings. This is truely the sound of agaony… Housed in nicely designed digipack. 9 tracks/Total length : 69’36. Release date: April 2007." [label info]
www.nuitetbrouillard.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| MIRT |
Most |
mCD-R |
In eine geheimnisvolle und melancholische Soundwelt entführt uns MIRT (Seitenprojekt von ONE INCH OF SHADOW) mit wunderbar konkreten und transparent-organischen Klängen, die auf Feldaufnahmen einer grenznahen Eisenbahnbrücke basieren, die später durch einsame Akkordeon und Klarinett-Sounds ergänzt werden... magisch emotional!
“ One Inch of Shadow leader's solo project. Fields recordings from big inactive railway bridge. The bridge is on Polish - German border. Fauna & flora of The Odra River, "industrial" echos of the bridge & sounds of accordion and clarinet recorded at studio. 24 minutes deepest experiences. Magic of place & sadness of existence.“ [label info]
|
2003 |
€6.50 |
|
| MIXED BAND PHILANTROPIST |
The impossible Humane |
LP |
"Limitiertes Vinyl-Reissue des einzigen Albums der Industrial-Kultband.
Aufgenommen in den Jahren 1984 bis 1986 ist "The Impossible Humane" das einzige Album von Mixed Band Philanthropist, einem Nebenprojekt der The New Blockaders. Ursprünglich war die Platte 1987 auf dem deutschen Label Selektion erschienen und ist natürlich längst ein begehrtes Sammlerstück. Das Label Staubgold macht dieses Juwel aus Industrial und Musique concrete in einer Kleinauflage wieder erhältlich. Das Reissue enthält zwei Bonustracks, die der 7-Zoll-Single "The Man Who Mistook A Real Woman For His Muse And Acted Accordingly" entnommen wurden. Am Album war das Who’s who der damaligen Industrial-Szene beteiligt, u. a. Nurse With Wound, Organum, Andrew Chalk, The New Blockaders, Etant Donnes, H.N.A.S., P16.D4, Asmus Tietchens, Controlled Bleeding, Smegma und Merzbow. "A totally great listening experience", meinte das Magazin "The Wire". Die Vinyl-only-Produktion ist auf 400 Platten limitiert." [label info]
www.staubgold.com
"Recorded from 1984 to 1986, "The Impossible Humane" is the sole album by The New Blockaders side project Mixed Band Philanthropist. Originally released on the German Selektion label in 1987 and impossible to find nowadays, Staubgold makes this rare gem of Industrial goes Musique Concrete available again in a strictly limited edition of 400 copies. Furthermore the reissue contains two bonus tracks taken from the 7" single "The Man Who Mistook A Real Woman For His Muse And Acted Accordingly".
The album is assembled of exclusive source material by the who's who of the Industrial music scene of the time, including contributions by Nurse With Wound, Organum, Andrew Chalk, The New Blockaders, Etant Donnes, H.N.A.S., P16.D4, Asmus Tietchens, Controlled Bleeding, Smegma, Merzbow and many more. "A classic chunk of destroyed musique concrete. Assembled from a variety of musical and spoken sources, this is a nonstop barrage of genius. Filled with headsnapping changes, sexual innuendo and general confusion, it's a totally great listening experience," said The Wire magazine.
Idwal Fisher wrote: "This car crash tape collage still stands today as one of the best examples of the genre. Its perpetual barrage of split-second samples are a dizzying mess of '60's Pop songs, scrapes, industrial whirr, uncategorizeable racket, ghostly voices, electronic beebles and burrs, sped-up records, tape whizz, machine rumble, snatches of Reggae, bucket damage, kazoo farts, Disco spots and about three-thousand or more (I'm guessing) other samples that really shouldn't work but, by some slight of hand or genius, actually do. On paper snatches of steel bands shouldn't be found on the same side of tape as Geordie MCs, Michael Jackson, pneumatic drills, early Merzbow and '50's Doo Wop but here they are and it works. Totally. Then comes the added bonus of being able to listen to this to the point of ad nauseam, mainly due to the fact that there are so few reference points that every listen brings something new." [label info]
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| MIYASHITA, YU |
Noble Niche |
CD |
"Mille Plateaux presents an album by Japanese noise/glitch artist, Yu Miyashita. By definition, Noble Niche is a glitch album. So why doesn't it sound like one? Well, this album is based on the most neglected type of glitch sound: noise. Naturally, noise is not exactly easy listening, and Noble Niche is no exception. However, it is not to be confused with rather provocative or even trashy (Japa)Noise. Instead, Yu Miyashita managed to apply the fine (glitch) aesthetics known from many classic Mille Plateaux releases to digital noise. The sounds suggest that Yu managed to make digital data audible that was never meant to be played back with an audio player. Ever listened to a CD-Rom? This music is highly abstract, with no more than traces of musical chords, not even enough to get any real world associations: a life support machine, perhaps, or a Japanese pachinko hall in hell. Often intense and powerful, sometimes delicate and fragile -- food for audio junkies desperate for the next unheard sound." [label info]
www.mille-plateaux.com
"The other release by Mille Plateaux brings back their old sub-division to mind: Ritornell. Should that still have existed then Yu Miyashita's release would have fitted perfectly here. This is music made from glitches, but unlike some of the previous Ritornell peers, these glitches are moulded into noise. However not the sort of noise we leave to Jliat these days, but noise of a more varied type. Like the fast forward speeding up of tapes, along with heavy layers of drone like sounds, like totally distorted samples of organs. Say the classic Kid 606 sound, but without any drum sounds in close range. Wall of noise, psychedelic and captivating. I think Yu Miyashita is from Japan, and his (?) music sounds like entering a pachinko hall - those Japanese entertainment/gambling centers, with lots of rambling machines with their silver balls and loud music on top. There are at times quieter moments, like the dark opening op 'Scrypt'. Yu Miyashita builds on the earlier experiences of the label, does that in a more heavy manner than the previous lot and that makes it quite a great CD. But I wonder what he would do next. More of the same seems not the right thing, I'd say, as this is a statement by itself." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| MOLJEBKA PVLSE |
Sadalsuud |
CD |
SADALSUUD ist ein fantastischer one-tracker, über 69 Minuten lang, der mit diversen Gastmusikern und einem wahren Arsenal an verschiedenen Instrumenten und Soundquellen entstanden ist. Sanfte, "erdige" Drone-scapes, aber mit sehr düsterem Unterton, eine surreale Atmosphäre heraufbeschwörend, flüsternde Stimmen aus einem Zwischenreich sind omnipräsent, immer wieder tauchen neue interesante unbekannte Klangobjekte auf, es tönt sehr lebendig & mikro-dynamisch, zum Ende hin wirds noisig & komplexer...
Ein Drone-Meisterwerk, vielleicht das bisher beste Album von M.P., unsere besondere Empfehlung !!!
"....For this album, Mathias collaborated with a number of his colleagues who provided him various source sounds to work with. The name Sadalsuud refers to a star of the same name in the constellation of Aquarius. The name comes from an Arabic phrase meaning "the luckiest of them all". Nevertheless the album is rather earthy-sounding, yet mystical and surreal, almost claustrophobic at times. The sound is vaguely reminiscent of some works by Nurse With Wound, Maeror Tri or The Halfer Trio, but carries the trademark Moljebka Pvlse feel. An unsuspecting pre-listener described Sadalsuud as "a visit to a supposedly haunted house, though only once you've entered the house you begin to grasp the real meaning of haunting." CD in matt-varnished 4-panel digipak. Playing time 70 minutes." [label info]
" Latest disc of sonic exploration from this Swedish dronescaping ensemble. With such a darkly minimal sound, it's amazing that, at least for this recording. Moljebka Pvlse included ten members! Credited, with among other things, sounds (yep, just 'sounds'), no-input mixing board, synthesizers, melodica, field recording, cymbals, guitar, voices, flute, electric piano, text, didgeridoo, mbira and supercollider(!), this expansive ensemble takes all of that and manages to distill it into the darkest and simplest of sounds. A nearly seventy minute single piece, slowly sprawling out from a stretch of barely there shimmer into gradually more and more active low end minimalism. Long drawn out tones, mysterious bits of glitch and click, haunting voices, moaning and mumbling, chanting and intoning, bits of creaking and tiny swirls of FX, deep swells of synth and barely discernible rhythms, everything constantly shifting and gradually changing shapes, some parts almost coalescing into fragmented bits of actual pop (albeit stripped down and smeared), while others are mostly melody free, remaining stretched out and abstract. Quite sinister and lovely, dark and subtly intense, not all
that far removed from the sounds of Troum and Thomas Koner and other practitioners of the drone and drift. Which as avid AQ customers
should realize, is indeed a very good thing." [Aquarius Records]
www.someplaceelse.net
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Borrowed Scenery: Appearance |
maxi-CD |
During the pandemic, many of the restrictions introduced, in particular, on movement, artists, like most of us, made their journeys mainly in their own rooms or made pilgrimages deep into each other. Mathias from MOLJEBKA PVLSE at that time uses his own studio as a vehicle he traverses through virtual field recordings, composing his own abstract environments and discovering distant lands. The map of these borrowed places is written in 3 long compositions, complementing each other like the topography of neighboring places or overlapping grids showing different properties occurring at the same latitude. It is possible to read them separately, just as it is possible to listen to only one of the three compositions and it gives some idea, allowing you to capture a selected fragment, this listening to the whole gives a deeper insight. The material from the session was divided according to a similar pattern and properly divided into two complementary releases: the album "Borrowed Scenery", which will be released next spring on vinyl, and CDEP "Borrowed Scenery: Appearance", introducing the atmosphere of the longplay, respectively. The CD containing over twenty minutes of composition folded in a 6-inch gatefold with two postcards attached is the next installment of a series of short musical forms, initiated in our catalog by the publication of the material "Klechdy" by Rigor Mortiss.
CD EP folded in 6" gatefold sleeve + 2 postcards limited to 200 copies
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/borrowed-scenery-appearance
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Borrowed Scenery |
LP |
Sweden's Moljebka Pvlse (Mathias Josefson) will be known to many for releases on labels such as Cold Meat Industry, Cyclic Law, Drone Records, and Reverse Alignment. During the pandemic, Josefson used his own studio as a vehicle to traverse through virtual field recordings, composing abstract environments and discovering distant lands. The map of these borrowed places is written in three long compositions, complementing each other like the topography of neighbouring places or overlapping grids showing different properties occurring at the same latitude. It is possible to read them separately, just as it is possible to listen to only one of the three compositions and it gives some idea, allowing you to capture a selected fragment, this listening to the whole gives a deeper insight. The material from the session was divided according to a similar pattern and properly divided into two complementary releases: the album "Borrowed Scenery", presented here (41 mins), and "Borrowed Scenery: Appearance" (21 mins), introducing the atmosphere of the longplay, respectively. Special limited edition of 150 copies, with MCD in 5" card sleeve, both editions with slightly different artwork. Comes with digital download code.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/borrowed-scenery |
2022 |
€20.00 |
|
| MONNIER, THIERRY |
Temps Espace |
LP |
Temps Espace consists of two pieces of DIY “musique concrète”.
DIY because it was made outside of any academism and done with the equipment that I own at the time of the recordings, appropriate or not.
Two tracks Inter…, in-between.
One composition (intermezzo) has been done 14 years ago and the other one (interfluve) 2 years ago. The connection between those tracks is the original sound material which has been recorded at about the same time (early two thousand).
Time and/or space are in question in the two compositions.
The first track result from the in-between of a reading of Deleuze and Guattari a thousand plateaus and the second one is taken from the space in-between two talwegs.
One were the sound has been deteriorated through the mixing process of a cassette 4 tracks tape recorder and the other one where the erosion is the central question.
But two tracks so different that they are separated on each side of the LP and with the recommendation to not listen to them one after the other.
Mastering by Giuseppe Ielasi
https://doubtful-sounds.bandcamp.com/album/temps-espace
|
2017 |
€17.00 |
|
| MONOCUBE |
The Rituals |
CD |
"Following a recent appearance on Drone Mind Vol 5, Ukrainian act Monocube makes his way into the halls of Malignant for his second, full length recording, featuring nine tracks and just over an hour worth of material ensconced in shadowy, enveloping atmospheres, intact with all the hallmarks of classic dark ambient: arcing, cinematic textures, elegiac melody, and timestretched drift. As The Rituals progresses, it becomes increasingly populated by something even more ominous and bleak; undertones of ancient tribalism and fiery invocations arise, mixed with the blackened soot of distant factory churn and the burning remnants of an ashen wasteland. Featuring collaborative tracks with Treha Sektori, Apocryphos, and Asmorod, The Rituals is an immersive and compelling work, seamlessly bound together in an embrace of darkness.
Tracklisting: Visiones III, Drowned Sun, Downwards (feat. Apocryphos), Totem Incantation, Fires Shifting - Nocturnal Motion, Through Our Blood, Father Fenris, Anthracite Glow (feat. Treha Sektori), Initiation (feat. Asmorod)." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
"Imagine a deep void, devoid of light, black to its very core, soundless, airless, empty and infinite. There’s no beginning or end, no past or future. The terms of time and space are so irrelevant here. A void that sucks you like a vacuum, and you can’t tell if that body of yours is still solid, or if you’re broken into atoms and only your consciousness remains as something that can still be described with actual words. Or perhaps even this doesn’t exist anymore.
What a cliché, huh. How many times have we dealt with such visions in the dark ambient genre. Mr Lustmord, Sir, you made a mess in many (well, ok, not so many) people’s minds and now your sons, and sons of their sons, generation after generation, paint these same visions. Very slightly changed over the years, sometimes more concrete, more cinematic, sometimes more abstract. In one occasion the music may be more melodic, while in another it may take a more droney direction. Noises, harmonies, ritual, oriental, glacial moods, it may all vary but the foundation is more or less always the same. The dark ambient community doesn’t mind being fed with more of the same though. At least I don’t. I don’t look for innovations anymore, I don’t need anything groundbreaking – that expectation ended about ten years ago. Now I just look for an atmosphere that will speak to me. For a mixture where all the ingredients are served in perfect proportions.
The reason why I write all this, is because Andrzej Gładuszewski of the Ukrainian project Monocube managed to reach a perfect balance, at least to my taste. The album doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, but it doesn’t have to. Sometimes I wonder if there are any dark ambient artists who still believe that they can create something truly “new”, something that in a few years from now will be considered a milestone. Guess not so many. This concerns most musical genres anyway. Only for dark ambient musicians things are even harder, because, contrary to pop, rock, or even neofolk if we consider the subject on a more underground level, the dark ambent genre from its definition is devoid of so-called “catchiness”. Of course I’m speaking in generalisations, because sometimes you may stumble upon a catchy ambient tune or theme. Yet even if that is the case, only us, the fans of the genre, may consider it so. For the majority of the listeners it’s still music that’s difficult to digest. By all means, I don’t mean to say that Andrzej is not an ambitious guy. I guess that his efforts are focused on something else: on capturing that very core that not many have managed to capture before. I feel like this core becomes smaller and smaller with every passing year, but he managed to reach it. Hit it like a world champion in archery or something.
It’s all because of the sound, which is of the highest quality, the feeling that Andrzej obviously has in his heart, his understanding of the genre and the potential receivers of this music. He knows exactly how to avoid boredom or irritation. The tracks differ from one another, each tells its own story and it doesn’t take much time for the listener to distinguish between them. You want some delicate darkness based on guitar sounds of a distant post-rock provenance? You got it in “Visiones III”. Deep and anxious bass drones, but still without bursting with horror? “Downwards” (composed with Apocryphos). While in “Totem Incantation” you’re dealing with strange noises, whistles and murmurs. Its chaotic, ritual character makes me think of the Aural Hypnox label, especially since my ears tell me that it was composed using solely physical objects, including the human voice. “Through Our Blood” introduces acoustic guitar and the exceptionaly eerie “Father Fenris” brings forth a crawling dread straight from the centre of the Earth. The main dish we find at the very end however. “Initiation” was made in collaboration with Asmorod, and Nicolas’ presence is very significant here. These solemn synth melodies are so specific they can’t be mistaken for anything else. After all, Asmorod is responsible for “Hysope”, one of my favourite ambient albums ever and… well, possibly the last “milestone” I was discussing above.
This mélange doesn’t seem as if made solely to put all the artist’s ideas and dark ambient influences into one recording. It forms a story, where each track is another chapter. Or it’s like different views of the same idea. Andrzej captured the essence of the genre and was able to carve in it in a very creative way, so a big applause from me for that. And “The Rituals” is a big step forward when compared to the previous “Blue Dusk /// Red Dawn”. At the moment it’s one of the best dark ambient albums of 2017." [Santa Sangre]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Substratum |
CD |
"Monocube’s new album since 2016’s “The Rituals”, a suite of wide landscapes painted in modular synth and stringed instruments.
A spellbinding new album for Cyclic Law and Malignant Records, employing eight long-form pieces for the most expansive solo release by Monocube to date. Taking into account its haunting and elegiac quality - the result of no less than two years assiduous work it is elevated to the another level, presenting an analog purification of Monocube’s overtones.
Purposefully evoking the feelings which are usually avoided in more scholastic examples of dark and drone music, Monocube voices the soul, while improvising on modular synth and stringed instruments, intimates a transcendental quality and approaches to the shape and density, delicacy and relation to transient and everlasting subjects, reaching the depth that was not present before.
The outcome is considered as a reflection of non-verbal communication: from the flowing blossoms of Sehnsucht to the palsied depth of Prima Materia to the stirring crescendo of Luft and through the burned-out distortions of Visiones V to the 10 minute+ misty-eyed panorama of The Opposite Of Nadir following the helical torques and instilled eschatological atmosphere of Opaque, tempting the longing souls to the valerian vortex of Action In Distans and consummating with ultra-wide Limen. An alchemy of mysterious spirit.
The mixed media artwork employs analog techniques, as cameraless photography and illustrations, which spawn silhouettes and haunting figures, recurring entropic motifs, a transition into worlds within worlds, coaxed out of gelatine silver prints. Enchanting, often deeply mysterious and disquieted is the visual part of Substratum created by sukkeret.og.pepper studio in Berlin."
https://monocube.bandcamp.com/album/substratum
##############################################
Neben seiner Teilnahme an der Kollaboration mit Anemone Tube und Jarl zum Jahreszeitenzyklus von Pieter Brueghel dem Älteren hat der ukrainische Ambientmusiker Andrzej Gladuszewski alias Monocube dieses Jahr gleich noch einen Nachfolger des vor drei Jahren erschienenen Debütalbums “The Rituals” herausgebracht. Atmosphärisch intensiver und kompositorisch ausgereifter wirkt das unter punktueller Unterstützung von Antti Litmanen (Arktau Eos) und Frederic Arbour (Visions) entstandene “Substratum” schon auf den ersten Eindruck, und doch knüpft das Werk stilistisch deutlich an seinen Vorgänger an, dessen Opener “Visiones” gleich in einem neuen Track fortgesetzt wird.
Modulare Synthies und an ausgesuchten Stellen einmontierte Klänge verschiedener Saiteninstrumente bilden das Fundament der acht dröhnenden Klangflächen, deren düster-harmonische Schwere zum passiven Träumen verführen kann und so ein Grund sein mag, die unterschwellige Dynamik dieser Musik erst nach und nach mitzubekommen. Doch auch nachdem man sich an die Stimmung der Musik akklimatisiert hat, bleibt diese in ihrem Wesen diffus.
Wer auf die Macht der Worte vertraut, kann durch die Tracktitel zumindest etwas Orientierung in den abstrakten Klanglandschaften bekommen. Von der Sehnsucht erzählen sie, die sich unter verhalltem Rauschen und plötzlich losbrechenden Noisebrocken etwas Schmerzhaftes offenbart und nach Veränderung schreit. Vom Element Luft und der Prima Materia, der aristotelischen Urmatierie, aus der alles Irdische hervorgegangen ist, künden sie, und lassen so einen kosmogonischen Hintergrund erahnen. Noch erhabener wirken so die Echos von angedeuteten Choralgesängen, ebenso die melodischen Synthietupfer, die irgendwann in akustische Klagelaute übergehen und an Orpheus in der Unterwelt denken lassen. Am Ende steht mit dem Limen die Schwelle, die die Grenze zum Zustand der Vollendung markiert.
Letztlich drehen sich all diese Dinge um ein Schöpferisches, um eine Welt, die im Entstehen begriffen ist und die Musik, dem Titel entsprechend, zum Substrat macht. Die oft langsame und subtile Veränderlichkeit von Klangfarben, Harmonien und dezenten Rhythmen schärfen die Wahrnehmung und lassen die Abfolge von beunruhigendem Vibrieren, entspanntem kosmischen Bimmeln, fast schrillen bläserartigen Sounds und all den anderen Gegensätzen, ohne die laut William Blake kein Vorwärtsdrang möglich ist, noch deutlicher auf dem dunklen Nährboden aufscheinen. [U.S./African Paper] |
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| MONTGOMERY, GEN KEN |
Drilling Holes in the Wall |
CD |
"Archive materials from one of the most mysterious musicians in electronic underground, dating from 1988 to 1991. Each piece composed by Gen Ken Montgomery is the result of domestic alchemy, transforming some ugliest environmental sounds into artistic images
of impressive beauty. His instruments are just prepared toy synth, but also from time to time laminator, icebreaker, radiator, film projector and so on. These recordings were made in Conrad Schnizler studio in West Berlin, and also live on stage there, in time of Germany reunion.
Gen Ken Montgomery has been active in the experimental, electronic and noise scenes since the early 80s. Montgomery was the founder of Generations Unlimited and an original co-founder of Pogus Productions, respected experimental music labels. In 1989, he founded Generator, the first sound art gallery in New York City, where he created a home for sound artists and noise makers who were part of the thriving international cassette culture of the 80s. Since 1996 he has published recordings by sound artists in collaboration with Scott Konzelmann (Chop Shop) releasing them through Generator Sound Art." [label info]
"Gen Ken Montgomery’s ‘Drilling Holes in the Wall’ is less an ambient record than it is an opus among the work of an experimental sound artist – being two divergent concepts – the latter more among artists of the ilk of Daniel Menche, who choose to create using a circus of instrumentation to perform certain plays before moving on to not just new locale, but new tools for performance sculpting. This retrospective of work is a troupe of electronic pulses, glitches, groans, explosions, susurrations, and endless other sonic perturbations.
Suppurating at first, “Drilling Holes in the Wall” bloats with unhealthy ichors pressing the sores with throbbing ululations that are lanced with synaptic lacerations of noise, using sound to sonically cut and carve away tumorous flesh. Every digital strike is never the same with each collop dissected bringing new electronic whimpers unexpected; the infinitesimal filigree of surgical strikes of sound is like the marginalia of some robotic surgeon. Sound fuses, splatters, roars, and blazes contorted shapes in a linear-spatial sculpture. There is no empathy here, nothing to relate to human experience. Gen Ken Montgomery’s first track is more Opus No. 1, a matrix of half an hour of disassembly, reassembly and alien interdiction upon frequencies we recognise. It comes as great surprise to find the liner notes disclose a recording date of 1990 as it could easily sit in this milieu.
Two years prior to that and the next two tracks – the latter of which and its two succeeding ones being unreleased - divulge more montage of digitally modelled scintilla, though here in more unified form, if only by sinewy electrical strands of frazzled computer nightmares of the surreal kind. Unidentifiable and humanly unpronounceable vespers are strobed and shuffled to the pulpit for recitation but there is no quantifiable bourn to address, only to witness and wonder.
The last two tracks are the shortest but of the familiar distortive and displacing concurrence sound forms previously expressed. They scurry and quiver across the mottled surface of Gen Ken Montgomery’s odd musical conglomerate. The incision of human vocals in the last track is a bizarre feeding of radio station into tesla coils that seems a poor accompaniment to the unearthly welding going about it, and before it.
Nonetheless, if you enjoy chewed electronics unlike anything you have previously heard, Gen Ken Montgomery is for you." [Heathen Harvest]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Postcards 1981-1986 |
do-LP |
Gen Ken Montgomery, a New York-based Visual Artist and Sound Composer is absolutely genuine; he has no training in traditional music or art. He was never a follower of any direction or school. Instead he founded his own school of off-beat DIY-electronics, driven by irresistible curiosity and ingenuous enthusiasm for sound experimentation and process-oriented performance.
His music is dense and full of polyrhythms and counter harmonies with singular control over layers of randomly pulsing, bleeping synthesizers and drum boxes. As a composer in the early eighties Ken was creating multi-channel sound works often performed in total darkness.
He began his sound explorations with electronic toys, cheap synthesizers and household gadgetry for which he had a special fascination. His ever present objects of affection are electric machines including an ice crusher (ICEBREAKER), aquarium pump, refrigerator, shoe shine machine, hand massager and a laminator (The Sound of Lamination).
Postcards has 41 (!!) tracks; 22 tracks on LP 1 compiled from his first tape Gen Ken & Equipment (1981), his second tape Collaborations (1982), his third official tape Kalkreuth Keks (1986), recorded at Conrad Schnitzler’s Studio, and several live recordings under the name KMZ with Michael Zodorozny of Crash Course in Science. Postcards LP2 includes 19 songs from the 4th official tape Beatmusik 1981-84 (SoP186) released by Sound of Pig, New York, songs from 1984 on his 5th release Room to Roam on Out Of The Blue, Berlin, plus 3 previously unreleased tracks from the same time period, one also as KMZ.
Gen Ken & Equipment was self-produced in an edition of 150 tapes in 1981 and led Montgomery to corresponding and trading tapes in the international Cassette Culture and Mail Art network, leading to relationships and collaborations with such luminaries in the underground music scene as Conrad Schnitzler, Giancarlo Tonuitti, CHOP SHOP, David Lee Myers (Arcane Device), Al Margolis, John Hudak, Francisco Lopez, AMK, Istvan Kantor (Monty Cantsin), G.X. Jupiter-Larsen (The Haters), Rod Summers (VEC), Maurizio Bianchi, Masami Akita alias Merzbow, CM von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren among others.
“Cassettes were an inexpensive and practical way of getting feedback from the developing international community of sound/noise/music experimenters. Cassettes allowed for spontaneous freedom and experimentation without the burden and commitment of releasing vinyl which was expensive to mail and costly to press in editions of less than 500”- gkm
Montgomery used the earliest Casio keyboards, self made electronic gadgets, cheap drum boxes and his favorite instrument, the Korg MS-20 synthesizer. The mixture of noise/pop/rock/electronic and soundscapes all on one cassette show how musical genres hadn’t become entrenched in the Cassette Culture scene yet. “Do it!”, “Small World” and “Treat The Hell Out of It” (released as a flexi-disc included with Onslaught Magazine (Artwerk) in 1982 are examples of the songs he composed at this time.
In the early 80s in New York City there were still small record shops such as Venus Records, Bleecker Bob’s, Soho Music Gallery and 99 Records that sold artist produced cassettes and fanzines. Independent mail order distributors like Rough Trade and Aeon Records carried Montgomery’s cassettes and On-Slaught Magazine, Option Magazine, Factsheet Five and other small DIY zines listed them or reviewed them.
Montgomery’s interest in structured improvisation and avante-garde theater theatre led to the formation of KMZ with his friend Michael Zodorozny from Crash Course in Science. KMZ performed regularly at the legendary Pyramid-Club in NYC. Tracks from KMZ and collaborations with other artists such as Stephen Spera and Stefan Tischler of Port Said can be found on his 2nd tape Collaborations.
Between 1982 and 85 Montgomery spent time in Berlin combining performance art and electronic music where he had the fortune to meet and develop a relationship with Conrad Schnitzler who has had a major impact on his life and work.
His third official Tape Kalkreuth Keks was recorded in Conrad Schnitzler’s studio during a 2-week stint in the dead of winter 1986. These 8-track recordings incorporated the violin, guitar, and keyboards with analog synthesizers, processing, voice and the “new” sounds of the Yamaha CX5M music computer. Three of the tracks on Postcards are from these sessions.
A 4th cassette Beatmusik, released on Al Margolis Sound-of-Pig-Label (SOP186) in 1988 featured a selection of tracks recorded between 1981 and 86. In 1989 Lord Litter from Berlin also released a fifth Gen Ken-tape called Room To Roam, also with recordings from 1984. A selection from these two tapes can be found on the additional accompanying 7”inch.
In 1987 Montgomery, along with David Prescott and Conrad Schnitzler started the label Generations Unlimited. Two cassettes of cassettes of minimal electronic music, Stepping Through Rooms and The One Sided Triangle were released on Generations Unlimited and in1988, GENCON, a collaboration with Conrad Schnitzler was released on vinyl.
His involvement in the late 70’s and 80’s Cassette-Culture and the Mail-Art movements led to his creation of the first and arguably still the most important Sound Art gallery in New York City in 1989: Generator. Located in the East Village, then in Chelsea, Generator’s wide scope and novel approach toward audio art made it a vector-point for some of the most interesting and important artists from around the world. Gen Ken also founded A.T.M.O.T.W.— Art is Throwing Money Out The Window — and Generator Sound Art Inc., and he co-founded the seminal experimental label Pogus Productions.
The past three decades many of Montgomery’s cassettes, records and CDs have been released in limited editions on small labels outside of mainstream distribution on such respected labels as De Fabriek (Holland), Staalplaat (Holland), Tellus, Mark Lane’s Artwerk, Banned Productions, XI Records (all USA), Firework Edition (Sweden), Old Europa Café (Italy) and Discos Esplendor Geometrico (Spain). Other recorded works are available on his own A.T.M.O.T.W. label, Generator Sound Art and on Touch Radio.
Montgomery continues to produce music and soundworks while also producing visual art, collage, bookmaking, and international correspondence art. As The Minister of Lamination (a.k.a. Egnekn) he is the world’s foremost practitioner of sonic Lamination Art and he continues to mail postcards to friends and collaborators throughout the world.
www.vinyl-on-demand.com
|
2012 |
€27.50 |
|
| MOORE, ANTHONY / THERAPEUTISCHE HÖRGRUPPE KÖLN |
Ore Talks |
do-LP |
" 'ore talks' limited edition release, gatefold sleeve with booklet. a double lp of essentially electronic and noise-based pieces paired with astonishing texts spoken by anthony moore. the concept is that objects of value, artifacts or minerals, buried deep in the ground send strange signals through the earth up to the planet's surface. they are detected by the ears and instruments of miners, explorers and archaeologists who are tuned-in to the subterranean frequencies. the album contains a large booklet explaining this idea and featuring many pages of eccentric writing about sound." [label info]
Four sides of vinyl: this has served as a time constraint from the very outset of the project. With around 18 minutes per side giving an overall run time of 72 minutes, these time slots are designed to offer recordings of four sets of historical, technical processes and their devices. Each of the four chapters is conceived in two parts and realised in a number of actual compositions.
A. VALVES / ROEHRE:
1. Their Electrons. The developement of De Forest‘s Audion.
2. Noise as signal and the power of redundancy.
B. PIEZOS:
1. Reversibility; Loudspeakers as Microphones and The Transmitting Ear.
2. Mercury Acoustic Delays Lines.
C. RECORDERS:
1. Wax Cylinders, Hill ’n Dale, Voices of the Dead.
2. Magnetic Oxide and Memory Machines, Storing Time.
D. CRYSTAL SETS:
1. Waves; The Air as One Vast (negentropic) Library.
2. Farewell to AM, Fades to Infinity.
A voice is transmitted through various materials; early microphones, the reproducer of an Edison phonograph, glass phials filled with mercury, piezo crystals, transducers, and piezo discs attached to polystyrene spheres, shortwave radios, old russian valves and the self-built circuitry of condensers and switches. What emerges are speech-driven patterns of noise, electronic music and occasional passages where the voice can be plainly heard in 14 separate pieces of widely differing durations.
ORE THOUGHTS
Galena to Stibnite, starting with lead, ending with lead; the history of soldering, cementing connections for currents of information and noise alike. In the undigital realm, noise is a context for the signal and can be information in itself. For example rotating surface noise is useful for finding the original speed at which early shellacs may have been cut. Redundancy is vital for a proper understanding of the world. So Ore Talks celebrates lead and soldering and making connections and, endotically, noise; noises at the outer ear but also of the inner ear. Perec and the Oulipians employ the term ‚endotic‘ as an antonym to ‚exotic‘ in order to focus attention on the everyday, on what might be dismissed as mere noise. The infraordinaire, as Perec calls it, is very much the subject of a historiographical approach that prefers to explore the lives and times of the distinctly unfamous; a more vivid, sensory history that concerns itself with sights and smells and sounds.
In addition, Ore Talks posits a strange attraction between the discoverer and the yet-to-be discovered; between buried artefacts and the archeologist seeking to disinter them; between prospector and rich, subterranean lodes. The ‚ground‘ in the electrical field is a conductor that reaches into the earth. Simultaneously, metalliferous ores and objects alike call out to be uncovered in an equivalent act of active perception. The only prerequisite? Keep an ear to the ground; the telluric source for chthonic voices.
Murmurings from below the surface: the call of buried things that seek to be disinterred. Anthropomorphism notwithstanding, there is something to be said for giving a voice to inanimate minerals. After all, their constituent elements come from the stars and have also given rise to us humans. Furthermore, when those same elements are alchemically transformed into compounds of metal and fillers of plastics, of quicksilver and piezo crystals, of the very air, water or copper that play host to sound in its various forms, transporting speech, then ORE TALKS emerges as a title with some resonance.
And text too can be a ground from beneath which conceptual objects stem (voices in the grey matter). Here is a list of such objects that have been disinterred in no particular order from the paragraphs above. “Active perception; superluminality in the collapse of the sender/receiver paradigm”
“A History of Simultaneity; how far back does same-timedness go?”
“Noise in History, noise as history”
“The importance of redundancy in human communication”
“Sound and the continuum are products of each other”
“What holds true for time also applies to sound; they both depend on disappearing as they come into existence.”
“The speed of sound is a good rate at which to think about a speed of time” These and related topics are expanded over the following pages. They contain the sources for all readings recorded and subsequently transformed in the ORE TALKS experiments on this double LP.
www.therapeutischehoergruppekoeln.de/ore.html
"Antimonit Bleiglanz Coelestin... Ein erzernes ABC bis hin zu Zinnober.
Verbunden mit 72 Minuten Text + Klang in vier Kapiteln / Vinyl-Seiten: a. Valves / Röhren b. Piezos c. Recorders d. Crystal Sets. Kreisend um Ore [Erz] =
Mineralgemenge, die wegen ihres Metallgehaltes abgebaut werden, um es für Werkzeuge und Ähnliches weiterzuverarbeiten.
Kreisend um L/ore, dt. Lehre -> Folklore = the knowledge and traditions, frequently passed along by word of
mouth. Merke: Transmission is a vital part of the folklore process -> 1. Orality =
Mündlichkeit -> 2. Literacy = Reeling and Writhing / Lesen & Schreiben -> 3.
Technical Devices = Aufschreibesysteme. Es geht um Medientechniken: Alphabet - Grammophon... (Friedrich Kittler), um Recording Angels' Mysteries (Klaus Theweleit), um Dead Letters (Gregory Whitehead). Bevor Moore 1996 (bis 2015) Professor an der KHM wurde, hatte er mit Slapp Happy den Mond vom Himmel gepflückt, mit Pink Floyd gearbeitet und Soundtracks für Werner Nekes kreiert.
Akademisch forschte er dann synchron mit Kittler über die Geschichte und Gesetzmäßigkeiten von Sound, über phonetische und klingende Techniken des Daseins und der Erinnerung. 2004 nahm er teil an Kittlers Sirenenexperiment, das vor Amalfi Odysseus' Affäre mit den Sirenen nachstellte. Zwischen '...and the Gods made love' und Moores 'Dogs of War' spielt sich alles ab, was es zu singen und sagen gibt. Polyphone Erkenntnis über Sound und Zeit, Noise und Information, gefiltert aus den Lebenserfahrungen von der Bronzezeit her. Darüber schreibt und spricht Moore mit medienarchäologischem Knowhow und einem Ohr für die chthonischen Stimmen. Innere Stimmen, wie sie zuerst noch bikameral fluktuierten (Julian Jaynes), dann akusmatisch, mimetisch, alphabetisch, speicherbar, decodierbar, repetierbar wurden. Die Namen Zeiss, Chladni, Tyndell und Helmholtz oszillieren steampunkabenteuerlich an den pythagoräischen Küsten wie Töne und Zahlen zwischen Rauschen und Offenbarung. Schwingquarze geben den Takt an.
Memory Machines verflüssigen Vergangenes und Kommendes, um es zu fixieren, so wie Moores Sätze zu Science Fiction verschwimmen. Er raunt von The Etherial Skin of Interference, er wird poetisch, fasziniert von den Ur-Geräuschen, die Scott de Martinvilles Schweinsborsten-Phonautograph einfing oder Rilke der Kronen- Naht des Schädels zu entlocken gedachte. Klang wurde das mit Hilfe der Therapeuten Beck, Grewenig & Hennes (von The Knob, The Finger & The It), Langguth und Specht (einst bei 40 Sekunden Ohne Gewicht und Kunstkopf). Moores Stimme wispert und fitzelt subliminal unter löchrig-perkussiver Bruitistik,
er reiht Zahlen oder verschwindet hinter sirrenden Spuren, taktilen Geräuschen,
spurenelementaren Impulsen. Silben und Satzfetzen mischen sich mit Hilfe der
Hörgruppe zu Kratzern, Partikelkollisionen, Radiowellen, Zeitrost, Reibung von
Entropie und Negentropie, sprachmelodischem Blaseton, Frequenzpingpong.
Umso überraschender daher die klaren, wenn auch für den Laien kryptischen
Sätze über Interferenz, Simultanität, die Unschärfe des Now-Space, von Senden und Empfangen. Moore meditiert über Turings ACE und die Alchemie von Quecksilber-Laufzeitspeichern, aber die Sprache wird wieder verzerrt, der Noise dafür prickelig und wohltönend. Doch dann umfängt einen wieder im ursuppig, uhrsuppig brodelnden, radiowellenberauschten Äther protologisch wummernde Sonic Fiction, die zuletzt endlosrillenstottrig ausgroovt." [Bad Alchemy] |
2017 |
€25.00 |
|
| MOORE, STEPHAN |
To build a field |
CD |
"Stephan Moore is a composer, audio artist, and sound designer in New York City. He has graduated from from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Western Michigan University, and Interlochen Arts Academy. His creative work centers around the collection and use of real-world sound, the creation and perception of sonic environments, and technological manifestations of improvisation and interactivity.
Recent performances and installation artworks make use of a large multi-channel array of his hemispherical speakers. He performs regularly as half of the electronic duo Evidence, and with a variety of musicians, live-video artists, and dancers. He has created custom music software for a number of composers and artists, and has taught courses in sound art and electronic music at Maryland Institute College of Art, Peabody Conservatory, Massachusetts College of Art, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Simon's Rock College of Bard.
He is currently the Sound Supervisor of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company." [general info about the artist / Deep Listening site]
Stephan Moore has spent the last five years touring with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a core member of their live band, alongside such notables as Christian Wolff, Takehisa Kosugi, David Behrman, John King, and William Winant. At the same time, he has been collaborating with a
number of younger choreographers to create sound scores for their performance works. To Build A Field collects the best of these pieces, drawn from six of his commissions by four very different choreographers. The CD's title refers to Moore's view of his role in these collaborations: designing and executing sonic structures that define the emotional and rhythmic topography of time. Each track negotiates a balance between acoustic sound sources and electronics, live performance and studio composition, and human vs. algorithmic control of sound materials. Time is continually bent into new
shapes, challenging the listener, and his collaborators, to think beyond the easy comforts of a regular tempo, and confront rhythm as texture instead of a reliable grid.
"Brooklyn-based sound artist Stephan Moore's recent musical work centers around the collection and use of real-world sound, the creation and perception of sonic environments, and technological manifestations of improvisation and interactivity. He develops his own performance software and builds point-source loudspeakers for use in his performances and sound installation work. His current ongoing collaborations include the Xenolinguistics performance project with visionary video artist Diana Reed Slattery, projects with choreographers Yanira Castro and Kimberly Young and performance artist Kyle DeCamp, sound design for the Nerve Tank theater collective, and the performing/recording duo Evidence with sound artist Scott Smallwood. He curates a concert series at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio called Experiments in the Studio, and co-curates an annual month-long Floating Points festival of performances and sound installations at the ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn, pairing the permanent sixteen-channel installation of his Hemisphere speakers there with diverse artists. Moore has been commissioned to create sound installations and performances for a number of dance companies and site-specific venues. He has been awarded residencies by Hunter College, the Experimental Television Center and Wave Farm for his work in music and new technology. His performance and exhibition credits include Tonic (NYC), Axiom Gallery (Boston), Zeitgeist Gallery (Boston), Deep Listening Space (Kingston, NY), ffmup (Princeton, NJ), Massachusetts College of Art (Boston), Yale University, Princeton University, The Tank (NYC), Roulette (NYC), the Music and Alternative and X-Disciplinary Approaches in Sound Festival (Sheffield, UK), Sound Practice (Dartington, UK), Music Without Walls? (Leister, UK), Disjecta (Portland, Oregon), Warehouse 23 (Boston), Issue Project Room (Brooklyn), The Chocolate Factory (Queens), ACM/Siggraph, International Conference on Musical Perception and Cognition, International Computer Music Conference, Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, the Acoustical Society of America's semiannual meetings, American Theater in Higher Education's annual conference, International Society for Electronic Arts, World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, and the Burning Man Festival, among many others. As an improviser and musician, he has appeared on stage with John Paul Jones, Pauline Oliveros, Alex Waterman, Keith Rowe, Michael Haleta, MV Carbon, Andrea Parkins, Zach Layton, Troy Pohl, Curtis Bahn, David Linton, Mikel Rouse, Maria Chavez, Newton Armstrong, Seth Cluett, Ikue Mori, Kenta Nagai, Larry Polansky, Jesse Stiles and Joan La Barbara, among others." [label info]
www.deeplistening.org
www.deeplistening.org
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| MORTIFICATION TO THE FLESH |
Le Tresor Maudit |
CD |
"First official CD-reissue, previously released in 1988 as vinyl LP on Bog-Art label (cat. # BOG 101) in an edition of 300 copies. Digi-slim sleeve, including all six tracks from the original vinyl + bonus tracks.
Even though it was released in a strictly limited edition (original copies of the LP are now sold at very high prices), "Le Trésor Maudit" reached a huge cult-status within the industrial scene. Following the best 80's German music tradition, the band put together different styles into an unique sound, strong and suggestive at the same time. Rhythmic, hypnotic “new wave” (with female vocals) meets courageous experimental music, classic industrial and art-electronics.
Mortification To The Flesh: Annett Falkenheiner, Hubert Haverkamp, Imelle Von Dohlen. Featuring, amongst others, contributions by (!) Al Margolis and Giancarlo Toniutti. An essential album for the fans of German industrial music and underground new wave." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| MOTA, MANUEL |
Leopardo |
CD |
"Leopardo is a solo recording by the Portuguese guitarist Manuel Mota, who might best be described as a somewhat more fluidly lyrical Derek Bailey. Lovingly recorded on solid body electric guitar, his improvisations have the spiky quality associated with the elder statesman of the freely improvised guitar, but Mota's lines sound as though coated in oil, possessing a slipperiness and liquidity that peeks back at Portuguese traditions. There are very few extended effects employed, the guitar strings ringing clear more often than not. The pieces scrabble around quite a bit, clawing at the periphery of melodies though never crossing the border from the abstract. Sometimes it's oddly reminiscent of the instrumental portions of "Moonchild" from the first King Crimson album, floating in a similar sound space. If there's a problem with the recording, it's that the tracks are a good deal similar to each other, exploring very much the same territory and tending to blend together. When, toward the end of the final, longest cut, Mota begins to conjure up some ultra-high crackles that sound a little like coals popping, one very much wishes to hear more in this direction. It's an attractive landscape that's being investigated (and a good jumping in point for listeners who find Bailey overly arcane), but those wishing for a tougher, deeper musical concept may find their attention wandering. Very much worth hearing, though."
|
2002 |
€6.00 |
|
| MOUTHUS & YELLOW SWANS |
Live on Conan Island |
LP |
Live-Collaboration Dokument dieser beiden US Guitar-Drone / Electronic / Free Form Noise-Duos, die zu viert ein furioses Klangfeuer entfachen, low-fi feedbackend rauschend ekstatisch, verzerrter als verzerrt.. irgendwo im Noise-Brei sind sowas wie Vocals, Percussion, und langsame elektronische Pulses auszumachen.
"An inevitable match made in Hades. Four titans workin' it out in the primordial mulch & all the gods are cowering in their presence. The dual intertwining guitarattack impacts & fragments into the dense concrete percussion forest surrounded by a shroud of pulsing caterwauling skree. A harum-scarum locomotive ride of thick, bombastic & heavy proportions." [unknown reviewer]
"The ultimate East coast/West coast soundclash as Oregon’s Yellow Swans and Brooklyn’s Mouthus present a smouldering document from their onstage interactions on their Fall 2006 US tour.
The sound of Mouthus’s splat&clatter percussion and sheets of severely altered guitar and voice noise paired with Yellow Swans’ raucous axe-mangling and sublime noise processing make for a gargantuan oil tanker of sound that can’t avoid enveloping the listener.
‘Live On Conan Island’ is a range of monstrous caverns of free electro skronk, alt-percussion and wailing guitars from live collaboration between two of Load's hottest noisemongers. Gigantic!" [label info]
www.no-fi.org.uk/label.php
|
2008 |
€17.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| MUNDAL, ARE |
Compilation Vol. 1 |
do-CD |
"I thought the name Are Mundal sounded familiar in my sometimes confused state of mind. It turns out I had him confused with somebody with an immensely different name. Maybe the name sounded too familiar with Gary Mundy of Ramleh. Never mind. Mundal released his first CD in 1996, his second as a CDR in 2007 and since 2020, two LPs and one 12". On this CD, we find those vinyl releases collected plus one 7", which isn't listed on Discogs and a bonus track. As I said, I had never heard of the man
before, and there is not a lot of information about him available, influences and instruments. I have to guess here, and I'd say this is a man armed with a sampler, electronics and a microphone, and the result is a dark soundtrack, the stuff of horror nightmares. Found voices in 'Track 1', which is the A-side of the 'Interloper' LP (the first track on the first CD), some looped, industrialized rhythm, and dark synthesizers. Gothic, perhaps, is a word that applies to this music, and usually, that's not my thing, but the more I play this, the more I like it. As I was way deep into doing other stuff at the same, these two CDs were kept in rotation for quite some time, and with every new play, I heard something new. There are long pieces on these CDs, as each LP had one track per side, and within each track, Mundal moves from one section to the next. From dark ambience to orchestral to a bit of rhythm, all along keeping the end on the ball, and that is to keep everything dark and atmospheric. Maybe at times a bit too tacky (as in: too gothic) for my taste, but throughout this dark trip was an excellent listening experience." [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| MURAYAMA, SEIJIRO & TOSHIYA TSUNODA |
Snared 60 Cuts |
CD |
"One clear day in spring, the two of us, Seijiro Murayama and Toshiya Tsunoda, went out to a park on the outskirts of the city of Yokohama. It was just like a picnic, but what we carried with us was a snare drum, not a lunch basket. We settled in a wide open space in the park and took a look through the inside of the snare drum, just for fun, to see how the world looked in that peaceful spring sunlight. That day Seijiro didn't play his instrument. We placed a pair of microphone inside the snare drum and tried to catch its sound under various conditions. He loosened the drumhead, took off the rim, put a heavy stone on it, hung it from a tree branch, and even cut the drum skin with a knife After two days of this strange picnic, we had gathered a total of 80 sound recordings. None of them includes a familiar snare drum sound. In fact, the sounds of these recordings are not generated with an ordinary 'musical' instrument, but result from the same instrument regarded merely as an object and perhaps also the act of breaking down the instrument into its physical pieces. Hopefully, still, another of our actions (the act of recording) reminded us of its nature as a musical instrument. Because of our general indifference to audio-technical details, we didn't take notes on the individual recordings. In our point of view, the differences among the takes are not important for the sake of the sound itself, or to the purpose of discerning them. On the contrary, the differences are only significant to the differences themselves. When you listen to these sounds coming to you in the stream of similarity, you'll find yourself listening to the threshold of yourself. It was just these differences that amazed us. What we offer here is not so-called 'beautiful' sounds. As for us, it is something more, chaotic, primal, and abundant." [credits/ label info]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| MURCOF |
The Versailles Sessions |
do-LP |
"Vom Barock zur Elektronik: Wassermusik des mexikanischen Elektronikers:
Seinen Titel verdankt das Album dem Ort, wo alljährlich "Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes" stattfindet: das Sound-, Licht- und Wasser-Festival im wohl berühmtesten Schloss der Welt, dem Château de Versailles bei Paris. Der mexikanische Elektroniker Fernando Corona alias Murcof hat für den großen Fontänenabend im Jardin de Roi extra eine Suite geschrieben, "The Versailles Sessions" dokumentiert das Ereignis. Die sechs Kompositionen für das Projekt stammen alle aus dem 17. Jahrhundert (u. a. von Jean-Baptiste Lully, François Couperin) und wurden für das Projekt von Barockmusikern auf Originalinstrumenten eingespielt. Was wie eine Verabschiedung von elektronischer Musik klingt, ist in Wahrheit eine Fortführung von Techniken, die Corona über die Jahre entwickelt hat: die Verarbeitung bestehenden Materials - nur, dass dies jetzt aus dem 17. Jahrhundert stammt. "The Versailles Sessions" sollen dennoch nicht als Nachfolger des Albums "Cosmos" (2007) gesehen werden, eher als Zwischenprojekt zum 2009er-Werk "Océano". Das Album erscheint auf CD sowie als Doppel-LP in limitierter Edition." [label info / Indigo]
"In the summer of 2007, Fernando Corona completed a site-specific commission for Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes, an annual festival of sound, light and water at Château de Versailles in France. A suite of music was composed specifically for the grand evening fountain display in the Jardin du Roi. The Versailles Sessions is an aural document of the event, to be released this winter on specially priced CD and limited edition double vinyl.
The six compositions prepared for the project derive entirely from recordings of 17th century baroque instruments (including harpsichord, viola da gamba, flute and violin) and a mezzo soprano. GetSound, who commissioned the project, hired musicians specialized in baroque music in Paris.
“We recorded pieces by Lully, Couperin and others,” says Corona of the sessions. “They were played traditionally, but we also experimented quite a bit with the music and instruments. It was a great learning experience - the musicians were amazing - very open minded and willing to have fun.”
The recording process may appear to be a departure for an artist known primarily as an electronic musician, but in fact it’s a continuation of techniques Corona has perfected over a number of years.
“It’s more or less done in the same fashion as my previous work: processing of previously recorded acoustic material. The only difference is the actual source material being so specific to 17th century baroque music and instruments. And since the recordings are the starting point of the composition process it naturally took me to a different place.”
Corona’s initial interpretations of the source material didn’t quite go according to plan.
“When we did a rehearsal about two weeks before the actual opening, it was pouring with rain so I wasn’t able to make the necessary tests. But being there and seeing the space and the installations (big disco balls and video projections on water fountains), I realised I was going in the wrong direction musically.
“The location demanded a different approach: more openness, more time for the sounds to develop and for them to resonate in that big space, so I went back home and during those remaining two weeks I reworked the whole commission into what it is now.
“The recordings I used as source material are very rich and cover a wide range of timbres, so I had lots of options as to how to approach the music making process.”
The Versailles Sessions should not be considered as the successor to 2007’s monumental Cosmos, rather as a special project while we await Murcof’s next album proper." [label info]
www.theleaflabel.com
|
2008 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
The Versailles Sessions |
CD |
"Vom Barock zur Elektronik: Wassermusik des mexikanischen Elektronikers:
Seinen Titel verdankt das Album dem Ort, wo alljährlich "Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes" stattfindet: das Sound-, Licht- und Wasser-Festival im wohl berühmtesten Schloss der Welt, dem Château de Versailles bei Paris. Der mexikanische Elektroniker Fernando Corona alias Murcof hat für den großen Fontänenabend im Jardin de Roi extra eine Suite geschrieben, "The Versailles Sessions" dokumentiert das Ereignis. Die sechs Kompositionen für das Projekt stammen alle aus dem 17. Jahrhundert (u. a. von Jean-Baptiste Lully, François Couperin) und wurden für das Projekt von Barockmusikern auf Originalinstrumenten eingespielt. Was wie eine Verabschiedung von elektronischer Musik klingt, ist in Wahrheit eine Fortführung von Techniken, die Corona über die Jahre entwickelt hat: die Verarbeitung bestehenden Materials - nur, dass dies jetzt aus dem 17. Jahrhundert stammt. "The Versailles Sessions" sollen dennoch nicht als Nachfolger des Albums "Cosmos" (2007) gesehen werden, eher als Zwischenprojekt zum 2009er-Werk "Océano". Das Album erscheint auf CD sowie als Doppel-LP in limitierter Edition." [label info / Indigo]
"In the summer of 2007, Fernando Corona completed a site-specific commission for Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes, an annual festival of sound, light and water at Château de Versailles in France. A suite of music was composed specifically for the grand evening fountain display in the Jardin du Roi. The Versailles Sessions is an aural document of the event, to be released this winter on specially priced CD and limited edition double vinyl.
The six compositions prepared for the project derive entirely from recordings of 17th century baroque instruments (including harpsichord, viola da gamba, flute and violin) and a mezzo soprano. GetSound, who commissioned the project, hired musicians specialized in baroque music in Paris.
“We recorded pieces by Lully, Couperin and others,” says Corona of the sessions. “They were played traditionally, but we also experimented quite a bit with the music and instruments. It was a great learning experience - the musicians were amazing - very open minded and willing to have fun.”
The recording process may appear to be a departure for an artist known primarily as an electronic musician, but in fact it’s a continuation of techniques Corona has perfected over a number of years.
“It’s more or less done in the same fashion as my previous work: processing of previously recorded acoustic material. The only difference is the actual source material being so specific to 17th century baroque music and instruments. And since the recordings are the starting point of the composition process it naturally took me to a different place.”
Corona’s initial interpretations of the source material didn’t quite go according to plan.
“When we did a rehearsal about two weeks before the actual opening, it was pouring with rain so I wasn’t able to make the necessary tests. But being there and seeing the space and the installations (big disco balls and video projections on water fountains), I realised I was going in the wrong direction musically.
“The location demanded a different approach: more openness, more time for the sounds to develop and for them to resonate in that big space, so I went back home and during those remaining two weeks I reworked the whole commission into what it is now.
“The recordings I used as source material are very rich and cover a wide range of timbres, so I had lots of options as to how to approach the music making process.”
The Versailles Sessions should not be considered as the successor to 2007’s monumental Cosmos, rather as a special project while we await Murcof’s next album proper." [label info]
www.theleaflabel.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
|
Songs for Forgetting |
LP |
"I work very slowly, hence songs for forgetting has been in development for a very long time. The first element, a large sand timer, was recorded in Cologne, Germany in August, 2007. Further field recordings were made of rain dripping through Soviet-era gutter spouts in the small Estonian village of Tõravere (which happens to be home to northern Europe’s largest optical telescope) later that same month; daytime fireworks (mascleta, set off for sound rather than light) in Valencia, Spain (March, 2008); a pebble beach in Étretat, France (June, 2008); underwater life in a branch of the Andelle River in Perruel, France (May, 2009); and, more recently, the rain gutters at my current home in Põlgaste, Estonia (September, 2013) and the stridulation and footfalls of an inadvertently disturbed ant colony on Kemiö Island, Finland (July, 2014).
But the force that brought all these recordings together was an inadvertent tendency towards instrumental recordings, which feature in each of these ’songs‘. These instruments were all unfamiliar, and in some cases they were not ‚instruments‘ at all, in the literal sense of the word, but objects or spaces that nonetheless lent themselves to being played. I encountered them around the same time as the recordings mentioned above were being made, and recorded my explorations and improvisations, sometimes alone, sometimes with other players.
The first of these instruments was small and zither-like. It was, I learned only recently, a miniature Ukrainian bandura, and it was in an apartment in Berlin where I stayed during a visit in August, 2007. The apartment was the home of another sound artist whose name, Jeff Gburek, I’d known for years, but whom I had never (and still have not) met in person. He was out of town at the time; he didn’t know for years that I played and recorded his instrument (although, thanks to this release, he does now).
The next instrument was an old radio antenna, on the roof of the aforementioned observatory telescope in Tõravere, which sang a predetermined melody when you bowed it, which I did together with a native of that village, Piibe Kolka, in August, 2007 (Piibe’s bowing can be heard in ‘the third song for forgetting’). And in December of that year, in Vienna, Austria, I recorded an improvisation with the debris and trash under a small pedestrian bridge with Lasse-Marc Riek, who coincidentally co-curates the Gruenrekorder label, and visual artist Elffriede (this action can be heard in ‘a fourth song for forgetting’).
In February of the next year, while staying with Maksims Šentelevs in Riga, Latvia, I experimented with one of the many instruments in his collection, a small kora. And a year later in February, 2009 I recorded another tabletop zither, given to me by an old housemate from my time in London, the singer-songwriter Sam Semple, playing it with a small motor also given to me by Max from Riga.
With all the elements collected, the songs began to come together, very slowly, beginning in that summer of 2007, and finishing only now as this release is being prepared. They were built often in response to specific emotional situations, situations that demanded some forgetting themselves, so the title can be read two ways: what you forget is up to you.
A brief word about some elements of the design of the physical version of this release, which is the work of Vahram Muradyan, using elements from my own collection of found objects and detritus, which are printed and embossed on sleeves made for us by the Räpina Paper Factory, here in southeast Estonia, using 100% additive-free recycled fibre: the front image is a reproduction of a leaf skeleton that I have had for some years – I can’t remember exactly where or when I found it, but I believe it is an aspen leaf from an Estonian forest. I have fond memories of recording aspen leaves in these forests, as they tremble in the wind. The maple and grape leaves that denote sides A and B of the vinyl were collected for their colors while traveling in France one autumn. The writing on the inner sleeve comes from one of several old school notebooks found in a mill ruin near my home, water-damaged and sun-faded, and mostly illegible. These notebooks make me think of memory and its loss, the fading away of the past. Included with the physical version is an original fragment of one of these notebooks.
Without the following people (along with those mentioned above) this release would not have been possible: Tuuli Tubin McGinley, Oliivia Tubin McGinley, Lasse-Marc Riek, Roland Etzin, Joshua Kunisch, Vahram Muradyan, Felicity Ford, Helmut Erler (who mastered the album at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin), and Mihkel Peedimaa (from the Räpina Paper Factory, who made and donated the sleeves). Furthermore, this release has been produced with the help of a number of supporters, to whom I express my sincerest gratitude: Ariel Vitello, Bob Maier, Carole Kojo, Daniel McGinley, Eckhard Kuchenbecker, Greg Burrell, Hao-Tsun Kuo, Hitoshi Kojo, Irvic D’Olivier, James Bailey, Jonathan Coleclough, Julia Kümmel, Lauri Laanisto, Maren Möhring, Mark Stanley, Martin Clarke, Mike DePolo, Paul Fay, Udo Noll, and my colleagues at Resonance FM."
[Patrick Tubin McGinley, April/October 2016]
"The American ex-pat Patrick McGinley (aka Murmer) has now taken up residence in a rural village in Estonia after many years of wanderings and explorations. To this day, he continues to roam any and all environments, collecting field recordings and his own interventions with a particular place. It has been almost five years since his last solo work, but McGinley remains a steadfast champion the field recording within composition through his weekly Framework radio series, broadcast on Resonance FM and beyond through numerous radio and online outlets. Songs For Forgetting highlights McGinley's talents in molding and shaping tone and subtle melody from deep within the fundamental sounds of a particular environmental sound. At the same time, he'll interject actual instrumentation. The playful clatter of McGinley tinkering with a zither ringing in the vein of Harry Partch set in motion against a humid chorus of cicadas and spellbinding dronescaping. Witness the psalter-like halo blossoms on the second half of the record, where we find McGinley bowing a Soviet era antenna mounted at the top of an near-space observational telescope. 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. Songs For Forgetting manifests into a beautiful record, packaged in an suitably rough-hewn, embossed sleeve that was fabricated at the Rapina Paper Factory in southeast Estonia. McGinley has included considerable notes and ephemera, turning this into an wondrous objet d'art." [Stranded Rec.]
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Periodic Exercises in (f)utility [homework 2016-2022] |
do-CD |
this is a Kokeshidisk release - kodi 14 - september 2023
"i work slowly, and sometimes i work not at all. so having an open invitation from taâlem to create work at the end of each year, especially as winter is setting in and it is beginning to feel like i’ve done nothing all year (i haven’t, but it can feel that way), comes as an energy boost, a reassurance, and an opportunity to resurrect some confidence, and a sense of worth. so i push myself to take that opportunity - and have done so each year since the project began (aside from the year in which my father died, explaining the 2019 gap) - and i thank jean-marc for providing it. in many, in fact almost all, of the years represented here, my piece for homework was the only work i published. indeed, this collection is sandwiched by my two most recent (physical) releases: songs for forgetting was released in late 2016, just before the docks sing in strange tongues appeared on homework 1, and tether was released in early 2023, several months after thaw and timber was published on homework 7. so this collection could be viewed as my complete sonic journey over those 7 years, digging in archives, showing off newly discovered sounds, and all in all attempting to prove to myself that it is all for something, that the tape should keep rolling, and that i must pay attention, because my homework will soon be due." (patrick/murmer, june 2023)
the docks sing in strange tongues (2016)
objects and situations found in rovaniemi, hamburg, mooste, põlgaste, tallinn, and bordeaux between 2003 and 2016. title found in the poem of the same name by panos panagiotopoulos.
echo surveys: viljandi (reimagined) (2017)
echo surveys is an ongoing series of activities including performances, workshops, installations, and compositions that consist of site-specific sonic interventions; all sounds heard are produced and/or recorded in a chosen space, using only materials found therein. this 'reimagined' work adds a new layer; it is based on a live performance at the noisy november festival at supersonicum in viljandi, estonia on 2017.11.17, and is composed from the initial field recordings made in the space for use in the performance, as well as from the recording of the performance itself. also participating in the performance and therefore in this composition were erik alalooga and taavi suisalu (the event organiser and other performer on the bill that night, respectively) and a number of members of the public.
water, grain, oil (2018)
water, fingers, and nylon string (france, 2008); disturbed ants (finland, 2014); panelia mill grinding wheel (finland, 2009); empty oil tank interventions (latvia, 2008)
nail down your ghosts (2020)
source material recorded in an abandoned and now-demolished house in the estonian town of valga in october 2019. sonic interventions performed, and elements subsequently reworked, by liisa hirsch and patrick tubin mcginley, 2019/2020. composed from those elements in june 2020. originally created for the short film to crumble into clouds above your living room by anna hints, commissioned as the estonian contribution to the 2020 venice biennale of architecture, postponed to 2021 due to the covid-19 pandemic.
echo surveys: nuti (reimagined) (2021)
in november, 2020 i participated in an event curated by shawn pinchbeck for BEAMS (the boreal electroacoustic music society) in canada entitled together apart... an evening of audio wonderments. it was to be another online concert in response to the covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, but due to the time differences for artists spread throughout north america and europe, we were given the opportunity to pre-record our performances. this allowed me to create a piece in our half-renovated farmhouse in the estonian countryside, from which a live stream would have been impossible to organise. the piece streamed online on the night of november 21st, and was then briefly archived on BEAMS’ twitch page. i then made this 'sound film' available permanently online (murmerings.com/2021/01/echo-surveys-nuti/). for this release i reimagined this work for sound only, editing a piece together from the original live performance recordings and the sources used therein.
thaw and timber (2022)
dripping woodshed roof (estonia, 2022); railings at the bfm (estonia, 2022); thawing earth (estonia, 2022); water heater (france, 2008); toddler making feedback (estonia, 2020); sodablasting log walls (estonia, 2020); inside kreenholm (estonia, 2017); baltijaam wall (estonia, 2011)
photographies by patrick tubin mcginley
design by désaccord majeur
mastered by flavien gillié
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/periodic-exercises-in-f-utility-homework-2016-2022-kodi-14
"As Taalem sees a restart (see elsewhere), so is their sub-division Kokeshidisk. The mothership Taalem releases a yearly Bandcamp digital-only, pay-as-you-want compilation called 'Homework', and for seven years, they have been doing this every year, resulting in a massive album (always announced in Vital Weekly). I am unsure why they selected Murmer to collect his pieces from six (one year he was absent because his father died) and someone else. Other, of course, then they think these are good pieces. Murmer likes to submit relatively long pieces to compilations, hence the double disc. Patrick Tubin McGinley, the man behind Murmer, isn't the most active musician in the releasing CDs (cassettes, vinyl) department. He's a man of words, and for each of the six pieces, there is a list of sound sources and inspirations for titles. For many years, he has lived in Estonia and is very active with field recordings, which he incorporates in music, installations, workshops, etc. His primary interest lies in finding sustaining and minimal sounds. 'The Docks Sing In Strange Tongues', the first piece here, collects sounds from various harbours and in the mix, it all makes a very coherent, minimalist
music piece, which reminded me of Ingram Marshall's 'Fogtropes'. This piece sets the tone for the other five. In each of his works, Murmer uses a limited set of sounds, different sounds, that is, and these are cleverly woven together. Nothing stays for very long in the place, as Murmer uses a variety of lengths, so there is never the same overlap. In that respect, he reminds me of the sadly recently deceased Steve Roden. It bears the same tranquillity, the same effective sparse use of sound sources and working within limitations to a significant effect. His field recordings are usually entirely obscured, which adds to the beauty of it all. In 'Echo Surveys: Nuti', there are wind chimes, and in ''Echo Surveys: Viljandi' birds, perhaps. Water sounds in 'Water. Grain. Oil', maybe, but whatever else? I don't know. Murmer uses quite a bit of filtering (at least, so I believe) and prefers darker sounds. This, too, adds to the ambient quality of the music. It is an excellent release, which begs the question: why isn't there more of Murmer available?" [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| MURRAY, BRENDAN |
Wonders never cease |
CD |
"Four years in the making, the music of Brendan Murray’s latest/greatest album of cinematic drone anthems, Wonders Never Cease, was honed during live concerts around New York and New England. Recorded in situ, each track was painstakingly (re)assembled and embellished back at Murray’s studio. While it cannot accurately be called a ‘live album’, the adrenaline thrill of live performance is palpable as soon as the opening howl charges out from the speakers. From the laminal scorch of the opening track, through an electric fizz storm and a breathy hymn for what sounds like harmonica and folding chairs (?), the eyes-wide-open bliss of Wonders is exhilarating. Soulful, melodic and intimate, this is electro-acoustic music as gloriously life-affirming and natural as a sunrise." [label info]
"The very last concert I saw in 2006, was on new year's eve, and by Brendan Murray, the unknown hero of experimental music. Due to some technical problems, it wasn't the grand finale of a great night, but he worked himself cleverly around the problems and did a more than suitable ending. Murray has a new CD to present, 'Wonders Never Cease' and I lost count a little bit, but it's perhaps his fourth or fifth solo release, and hopefully this will put him on the map for good, as he is ready for it (well, actually since his first CD, but that label disappeared all too quick). Murray plays around with the notion of drones in a clever way. The opening piece 'Hymn One' starts out as a loud beast, almost in a violent way, but when Murray pulls back the volume, things develop in a beautiful way. Heavily layered, with throughout changing patterns, which especially in 'Seas' works quite well, almost in a Steve Reich like manner, it is hard to believe that this actually a live album, even when its and pieces were reworked in the studio. It's a clever drone album, since it by-passes the Mirror et al as Murray's music is much more upfront and present, and that very same quality makes it also anything far from ambient music. 'Wonders Never Cease' is Murray's finest album to date and hopefully puts him on the map of great experimental composers." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.intransitiverecordings.com |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| MUSLIMGAUZE |
Tandoor Dog |
CD |
"In 1998 Staalplaat and Muslimgauze were on a conquering spirit. Bryn Jones (1961-1999), the man behind Muslimgauze delivered new works, almost on a weekly basis and was more than happy to see them released straight away. Unlike others, Staalplaat was never shy to release larger works, lumping various works together, such as the 9CD “Box Of Silk & Dogs”. Allowing free reign in editing, the 4LP box set ‘Tandoori Dog”, contained the LP of the same name, which saw only eight out of the ten original pieces. Now released as a sole CD, the complete, ten track “Tandoori Dog” is released on a limited CD, spanning in total sixty minutes of music. Muslimgauze didn’t fail in this highly productive period. Peaking as never before, his music here carries all that makes Muslimgauze the unique artist he is. Taking his influences from what can be loosely called the Middle East, but extending that to as far as Pakistan, Jones samples freely percussion, instruments and voices and adds these to his own sequences and instruments, such as the tabla. The melting pot that is the studio blends this together, in hypnotic pieces of music. Captivating, minimal, groovy, but rather than being slick and commercial, this is the roughly shaped electronic world of Bryn Jones. All of this motivated and inspired by events in the Middle East, as reflected through the titles Jones picked for his work. A strong pre-occupation with the fate of the occupied people in the Palestinian lands and an unashamed love for such controversial groups as Hezbollah. With the re-issue of “Tandoori Dog” another keystone work by Jones is finally being available again." [label info]
www.staalplaat.com
|
2013 |
€15.50 |
|
|
Zilver / Feel the Hiss |
CD |
"Some of the tracks on Feel the Hiss, a release Bryn Jones recorded live to cassette in early 1995 but never had the chance to remix and polish before he died, use the same kinds of devotional voices found on much of Minaret Speaker, but here other voices are present too. Conversational or angry, male or female, English or French or Arabic, almost inaudible or forcing their way to the front of the music, these “Zilver Tracks” (the name based on a note Jones wrote on the tape) engage more directly with the world Jones was so fascinated with and tried to represent over and over again in his work as Muslimgauze.
If, like most listeners, you only speak one or two languages, the content on Feel the Hiss can be just as inscrutable as anything Jones has put out. But the music, luckily, is also just as wonderful; for a set of demos recorded live to tape the Feel the Hiss material certainly comes across as fully-formed, if a bit more reflective and synthesizer-heavy than much of his oeuvre. The lengthy “Zilver Track 4” especially, seems at times like a tour around the embattled regions of the world Jones was so passionate about, complete with echoing percussion, voices in various languages, even train sounds.
Not that this is Muslimgauze’s answer to the KLF’s Chill Out, by any stretch of the imagination; the dark, shimmering “Zilver Track 1” is as compellingly propulsive as any of his songs. It’s possible if Jones had gone back to this tape his changes would have brought it more in line with other Muslimgauze releases but as it is Feel the Hiss is a chance to experience the more contemplative side of his work." [label info]
www.staalplaat.com
|
2015 |
€15.50 |
|
|
Abyssinia Selasie |
CD |
\"Although Bryn Jones’ work as Muslimgauze certainly numbers dub within its influence, rarely is that influence treated as directly or centrally as it is on many of the tracks found on Abyssinia Selasie. A rarity among the material Jones left behind after his death in 1999, this release features unreleased material Jones had titled, unlike many of the tapes he had submitted but hadn’t gotten around to preparing for release.
The opening title track alone, with its steady bassline and dopplering, insistent beeps, is as close to an unadulterated dub track as Jones ever came, even as the separate coda “Benzedrine Wallah” starts cranking up the outbursts of percussion. Not every song on this trim, focused collection goes in that same direction, but even elements like “Arab”’s wobbling percussion and female vocals share a similar sensibility. Even the stark “Mind of a Suicide Bomber” is more coolly menacing than overtly hostile, although as always with Jones’ work and his positioning of that work it’s hard to know how seriously, or sympathetically, we should take him.
Unfortunately Jones isn’t around to ask, either to take to task or to praise, but he has left us with such a depth of material (and was so generally taciturn in life), that we are left with only that to evaluate. The last track here is titled “Mea Culpa,” and while it starts out as a fine example of the warmer, more head-nodding sound of Abyssinia Selasie before metamorphosing into a truly out-there echo chamber, after a brief break in the middle it surges back to life with the dubbiest bassline of the album, bathed in somehow welcoming static. Jones’ work as Muslimgauze remains as enigmatic and rewarding as ever.\" [label info]
www.staalplaat.com
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Jackal The Invizible |
do-LP |
Listeners who know much of anything about Bryn Jones' work as Muslimgauze know that he was prolific in both his work and in the way he sent out his work to labels and other interested parties. Fittingly enough for an artist that feverishly productive and often taciturn to the point of frustration, he didn't tend to give much more information than handwritten track titles on the sleeve of a DAT. Why he would submit multiple copies of the same or similar tracks to those he worked with, often in totally different configurations, is now a permanent mystery, but it does lead to Jackal The Invizible, essentially a compilation of material from multiple other releases that Jones had also submitted at the time on its own DAT. All of the songs here were released at least 20 years ago (a few over 30) and as with practically all Muslimgauze releases they were limited and/or hard to get ahold of now. Jackal The Invizible is both a way to issue those tracks on vinyl as the Archive series has been consistently doing, and in interesting look into how Jones would organize and sequence his albums. The track listing here was faithfully reproduced from the way Jones titled these tracks on this submission, which is how you get Fedayeen's "Bharboo of Pakistan Railways" here called "Fedayeen Bharboo of Pakistan Railways 2001". This compilation as with most of his work was submitted without comment, so it can be asked, was it intended to be a compilation? Had he at some point decided he preferred these tracks in this arrangement rather than on their other tapes? Did he produce so much work and/or was so disorganized he simply forgot this batch had been mailed off before? Did he have a standing arrangement with his postal worker and just handed him whatever was closest to the door each week? The new juxtapositions can be quite striking; shifting suddenly from the harshly distorted blurts of "Resume and Shaduf Fatah Guerrilla 1999" to the cooly nocturnal atmosphere of "Abu Nidal 1987" and then to the dubby bass pulses and rattling hand percussion of "Hand of Fatima 1999" is an experience unlike much else in Jones' oeuvre, even though all three modes are ones he has worked in before. Engineered and mixed by J. Delf. Mastering by Rinus Hooning. Edition of 700.
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2021 |
€29.50 |
|
|
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 |
|
| |
Turn on Arabic American Radio |
do-LP |
The relationship between Bryn Jones’ music as Muslimgauze and the track/abum titles he would provide (sometimes right on the tapes he would send in for release, but often determined later, sometimes even giving two different pieces months apart the same title, accidentally or not) has always been a little mysterious. Jones himself can no longer be asked, and as we continue to investigate the swathes of material he provided, you hit sources like the DAT or DATs that make up the contents of the new double LP »Turn On Arab American Radio«. Nine tracks, the first LP/four tracks titled »Turn On Arabic American Radio,« and the other LP/five tracks labelled only »Arabic American Radio.« None of them sound particularly radio-esque, although given the simultaneous vastness and ornate focus of Jones’ Muslimgauze work that gap between name and sound is far from atypical.
Instead here the de rigeur percussion loops that underpin this particular set of tracks, while occasionally clipping into the fierce distortion that Jones either loved to use or couldn’t get away from, steer away from both the more consistent application of that distortion as well as the Middle Eastern and Asian influences he often used. It’d be a stretch to call anything here basic boom-bap production but they come closer to it than a lot of Muslimgauze production. And while those loops are, as always prominent, they’re not actually the focus; settling into steady vamps as structures for Jones to pursue an extended and often more gentle exploration of the other sample sources he has here. There are stringed instruments, the sound of water, but most prominently or strikingly the human voice. Nothing is in English but tone and the occasional word ('familia', 'passport') still provide guides. There are ululations, snatches of melody; but most often speech, dialogue, often tense and harried sounding. Is this what Jones was thinking of or referring to with his Arabic American Radio?
As with so many other questions about Muslimgauze, we’ll never know the answer to that one. (Most pertinently in this case we might wonder who appears here, and what the context of these recordings is. But Jones never provided that with his submissions.) Here, even though those inexorable loops pound on, indefatigable, that emphasis on some of the people Jones chooses lends a measured gentleness to much of »Turn On Arabic American Radio«, at least within the context of his body of work. The last thing you hear at the end of the second LP is one last question from one of the many speakers on this peculiar Muslimgauze radio, echoed away into infinity. We may never have answers, but those questions continue to resonate.
https://www.discogs.com/release/25889791-Muslimgauze-Turn-On-Arabic-American-Radio
|
2023 |
€33.00 |
|
| MUZIEKKAMER |
I - Kamermuziek |
CD |
"Muziekkamer is a minimalwave project by Martin Keuning and Cees van de Oever, based in Leiden, the Netherlands, in the 1980s. The first album, 'I' (aka Kamermuziek), is a self-healing calm unified by hushed-toned electric guitars and faint synths, while the second album is a more experimental and pop minimalist/electronic sound, similar to Kubus Kassettes' work. The guitar harmonics are hazy. The long, dreamy parts, with a vague layers of guitar harmonics, is one of the best ambient tracks on Dutch underground from the same period, and the black-and-white landscape photograph printed on the back of the J-card shows Hampstead Heath, a London park with a pristine forest." - Postambient
https://kormdigitaal.bandcamp.com/album/kamermuziek
|
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| MY HOME, SINKING |
King of Corns |
do-LP |
If writing is a concentrated form of thinking then the most concentrated writing probably ends in some kind of reflection on dying. This is what we eventually confront if we think long enough and hard enough.”
– Don DeLillo
My Home, Sinking is one of the many sound projects fronted by Venetian Enrico Coniglio, whose latest album King of Corns blends live instrumentation with field recordings and strange vocals to create a neo-classical work wherein the sum of the whole is greater than its parts.
Like Baudelaire’s great book of poems, The Flowers of Evil, King of Corns seems to allude to the interplay between life and death as twin sides of the same coin. The beautiful, haunting sleeve art features the unsmiling bust of a porcelain woman with black eyes from whose neck emerges a full bouquet of roses.
Frequently the album is beautiful on its own terms. Consider the opening track, “Bird’s Eye” which features an Eno-esque piano walking over cinematic strings and a lazy harmonica. The piece sounds like an orchestra tuning up before a concert, a call to adventure for the rest of the album. Perhaps more fittingly, it reminds of latter day Talk Talk with tensile strings, errant notes, silent interludes, slow motion piano.
Further beauty exists in “Animating Old Postcards,” which is built around a minstrel’s guitar and the ethereal voice of Finnish artist Violeta Päivänkakkara and feels like a springtime return, a much-needed break in the clouds, a patch of blue after heavy storms.
With that said, the album’s title track is undeniably terrifying. Led by the quivering, indecipherable falsetto of Jessica Constable and a fearsome piano arpeggio, “King of Corns” sounds something like a witch’s curse or an oracle warning of things to come. The last track on the album, “Full Blank (No Stars)” is a dark aria and again features Ms. Constable, who is not so much singing here as reciting musically, as if in an opera.
Clearly, Coniglio’s King of Corns is a marked change in direction from the warm sounds of the last MHS album, Sleet. More sound art, the new work is riddled with anxiety, hesitation, fear. It’s hard to imagine listening to this in polite company or before going to bed. But ultimately the album is successful in that the work demands the listener engage directly with it to form her own interpretation of the material, and in this collaboration she becomes implicit in its creation, a kind of co-author of each track.
Often King of Corns sounds like a descent into madness, a journey through the forest of the dead to the darkest parts of the self. But where there is death there is opportunity for life, for new beginnings. KoC proves that Coniglio is a Romantic in the true sense of the word: one who believes that death and darkness and dreams give us secret access to the divine and help us reconnect with the life-giving principle, or what the Greeks called “Psyche” - the soul.
-Daniel Williams
credits
released September 16, 2017
Enrico Coniglio : guitar, melodica, harmonica, horn, electric organ, synthesizer, psalter, tapes & vinyls, found objects, field recordings & programming
Elisa Marzorati : piano
Piergabriele Mancuso : viola
Chantal Acda : vocals and lyrics "I Can't Help It (But This is The End)"
Jessica Constable : vocals and lyrics "King of Corns" & "Full Blank (No Stars)"
Peter Paul Gallo : vibraphone on "Love Scene" & "I Can't Help It (But This is The End)"
James Murray : organ, vocals, loops on "Along the Pipeline"; electronics on "Full Blank (No Stars)"
Violeta Paivankakkara : vocals and lyrics, glockenspiel and effect on "Animating Old Postcards (Aikaa Ei Ole Olemassa)"
All tracks written, arranged and produced by Enrico Coniglio
Design, Calligraphy, Hand Drawn Typography by Chris Bigg
Illustrations by James Heginbottom
https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/king-of-corns
|
2017 |
€28.00 |
|
| |
King of Corns |
CD |
If writing is a concentrated form of thinking then the most concentrated writing probably ends in some kind of reflection on dying. This is what we eventually confront if we think long enough and hard enough.”
– Don DeLillo
My Home, Sinking is one of the many sound projects fronted by Venetian Enrico Coniglio, whose latest album King of Corns blends live instrumentation with field recordings and strange vocals to create a neo-classical work wherein the sum of the whole is greater than its parts.
Like Baudelaire’s great book of poems, The Flowers of Evil, King of Corns seems to allude to the interplay between life and death as twin sides of the same coin. The beautiful, haunting sleeve art features the unsmiling bust of a porcelain woman with black eyes from whose neck emerges a full bouquet of roses.
Frequently the album is beautiful on its own terms. Consider the opening track, “Bird’s Eye” which features an Eno-esque piano walking over cinematic strings and a lazy harmonica. The piece sounds like an orchestra tuning up before a concert, a call to adventure for the rest of the album. Perhaps more fittingly, it reminds of latter day Talk Talk with tensile strings, errant notes, silent interludes, slow motion piano.
Further beauty exists in “Animating Old Postcards,” which is built around a minstrel’s guitar and the ethereal voice of Finnish artist Violeta Päivänkakkara and feels like a springtime return, a much-needed break in the clouds, a patch of blue after heavy storms.
With that said, the album’s title track is undeniably terrifying. Led by the quivering, indecipherable falsetto of Jessica Constable and a fearsome piano arpeggio, “King of Corns” sounds something like a witch’s curse or an oracle warning of things to come. The last track on the album, “Full Blank (No Stars)” is a dark aria and again features Ms. Constable, who is not so much singing here as reciting musically, as if in an opera.
Clearly, Coniglio’s King of Corns is a marked change in direction from the warm sounds of the last MHS album, Sleet. More sound art, the new work is riddled with anxiety, hesitation, fear. It’s hard to imagine listening to this in polite company or before going to bed. But ultimately the album is successful in that the work demands the listener engage directly with it to form her own interpretation of the material, and in this collaboration she becomes implicit in its creation, a kind of co-author of each track.
Often King of Corns sounds like a descent into madness, a journey through the forest of the dead to the darkest parts of the self. But where there is death there is opportunity for life, for new beginnings. KoC proves that Coniglio is a Romantic in the true sense of the word: one who believes that death and darkness and dreams give us secret access to the divine and help us reconnect with the life-giving principle, or what the Greeks called “Psyche” - the soul.
-Daniel Williams
Enrico Coniglio : guitar, melodica, harmonica, horn, electric organ, synthesizer, psalter, tapes & vinyls, found objects, field recordings & programming
Elisa Marzorati : piano
Piergabriele Mancuso : viola
Chantal Acda : vocals and lyrics "I Can't Help It (But This is The End)"
Jessica Constable : vocals and lyrics "King of Corns" & "Full Blank (No Stars)"
Peter Paul Gallo : vibraphone on "Love Scene" & "I Can't Help It (But This is The End)"
James Murray : organ, vocals, loops on "Along the Pipeline"; electronics on "Full Blank (No Stars)"
Violeta Paivankakkara : vocals and lyrics, glockenspiel and effect on "Animating Old Postcards (Aikaa Ei Ole Olemassa)"
All tracks written, arranged and produced by Enrico Coniglio
Design, Calligraphy, Hand Drawn Typography by Chris Bigg
Illustrations by James Heginbottom
https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/king-of-corns
|
2017 |
€14.00 |
|
| MYERS, DAVID LEE |
Superpositions |
MC |
"Witness the common phenomenon of feedback such as produced inadvertently through poorly configured microphones and loudspeakers in public amplification situations: the sound coming from the speakers finds its way back into the microphones and produces an uncomfortable squealing sound. The component elements are electronic and acoustic, the latter involving air movement and vibration of physical objects. But internal electronic feedback is quite a curious animal, something distinct from electroacoustic feedback. It can operate – feed back – eternally, but make no sound; vibrate no air, reach no ears. It is this silent marching of electrons, antlike, about some elaborate roadway perhaps only known to themselves which is so fascinating to an artist.
The introduction of the early guitar effects devices was the real opening of an interest in sound and music for me. The initial impression of an Echoplex tape-delay (ca. 1966) still reverberates, as it were – I put down my guitar and focused on this thing itself; who needed a guitar now? A sound goes in one end and comes out the other, somehow transformed into a modified clone of itself; partially the same, but evolved. And it is significant that this transformation is a manipulation of the sound’s time-path. Most audio effects boxes – and all of those which interest me most – are based on manipulations of time, that strange entity which even the most advanced scientific analyses have yet to explain convincingly. Since childhood this inexplicable thing called time has puzzled and excited me, and in the effects device the question comes forth along with a satisfying aesthetic pleasure. Further, the concepts of time manipulation and feedback come together in the ancient ourobouros symbol which was intended to speak of several things at once: self-referral (consciousness), recurrence, and eternity. Feedback is far more than a public address system in misalignment; it is a core principle of universal importance.
DLM
David Lee Myers (aka Arcane Device) releases his latest album of Feedback Music, titled Superpositions. These pieces have been created through the use of specially configured electronic components, none of which are designed to produce sounds on their own. Rather, audio processors are wired so that their inputs are fed their own outputs, as well as the outputs of other processors, via a series of matrix mixers. The whole assemblage is played as a real-time instrument, producing tones and patterns ranging from subtle sound washes to cacophonous deluges. Superpositions is a meditation upon the unseen forces and energies inhabiting the subatomic world.
“David Lee Myers finds his sounds in the off-screen space of feedback networks. By patching the output of an electronic audio device, such as a mixing board, back into its input, Myers is able to conjure and navigate within this space… He takes snapshots of the sonic entities populating these spaces then arranges them into etheric photo-mosaics.” (Kim Cascone)
David Lee Myers is a sound and visual artist living in New York City. Since 1987 he has produced electronic music via his custom ”Feedback Machines“ under his own name, as well as Arcane Device. Myers has had dozens of recordings released by Starkland, ReR, Generator, Line, Silent, Pogus, RRRecords, Staalplaat, Monochrome Vision, and many other labels. Collaborations have been produced with Gen Ken Montgomery, Thomas Dimuzio, Ellen Band, guitarist Marco Oppedisano, Dirk Serries, and noise maestro Merzbow. Two Albums were created with legendary electronic pioneer Tod Dockstader, and four others with Hamburg’s master sound manipulator Asmus Tietchens, with a fifth in progress. Myers has performed his sounds and visuals at New York’s Generator, The Kitchen, Roulette, Experimental Media Foundation, the Knitting Factory, Clocktower, MoMA/PS1, Outpost Artists Resources, Trans Pecos and Silent Barn, as well as the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, and the Boston Museum of Modern art, among others.
All tracks produced by David Lee Myers 2016-17 on original electronic feedback systems.
Created live-to-recording with no overdubs.
Cover photo by DLM.
https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/superpositions
|
2017 |
€9.00 |
|
| N + BALTZER |
Gaunerzinken |
do-LP |
This improvisation was recorded live in one afternoon with a one-track recorder in the order of the tracklist. Nothing was cut or added.
GAUNERZINKEN
For us humans, the world consists of signs that we continually create and interpret ourselves. As cultural beings, we work partly consciously and more often unconsciously every day to produce signs of meaning. Through language, ritual, habit or deliberate planning. In this way we appropriate the world. The so-called GAUNERZINKEN have the same function. Signs painted on houses that give clues to their material value and inhabitants. The signs are planned. The inhabitants do not know their meaning. They are excluded from their interpretation.
Thus, GAUNERZINKEN form signs of meaning, created by marginalised groups who desire, in secret language, a double act of appropriation: The creation of a secret, self-concealing sign, for the appropriation of a part of the material world, the property. Through the production of signs, those excluded from material privileges gain a first access, a first symbolic occupation, a small boundary shift of the exclusionary in the world. Crime is therefore necessarily immoderate, immoderateness necessarily criminal. The music of N and Baltzer is in this immoderate, alluding to signs / playing signs, that remain ambiguous. The signs are diffuse, blurred, diffuse into atmosphere, no meaning is given, the implications are to be filled individually, subjective crooks are to emerge while listening. But no one gets excluded.
This is how we can appropriate the world. This world, flooded with signs, brushed over and dressed up, the world obscured by property. Through the production of secret meaning, through our signs, which first form in us as emotion and which we then paint on the facades of the world when we have located ourselves anew, which we should always covet, so that it may someday be ours again.
Here is your sound.
Double-Vinyl LP in a DIY linoleum print cover. Edition: Black printing on grey paper.
https://n-baltzer.bandcamp.com/releases
"Auf „Gaunerzinken“ entwickeln sich fünf, dem Wesen und der Erscheinung nach einander fremde Live-Improvisationen, die dennoch darin vereint sind, eine durch Gitarren vermittelte Unruhe zu erschaffen. Die Stücke variieren ungewöhnlich stark. Und das, obwohl nur ein Nachmittag benötigt wurde und obwohl das instrumentale Fundament während der gesamten Aufnahme hinweg identisch bleibt: „Guitars, amps and effects“ – einfach live, ohne nachträgliche Zusätze, pur. Hellmut Neidhardt, kurz N, hat es mit dieser unmittelbar bedrohlichen Musikform auf Dutzenden von Tonträgern und in einer Vielzahl von Projekten zu einer außergewöhnlichen Klasse gebracht. Und auch in Zusammenarbeit mit Sebastian Baltzer (ORANGE SWAN) gelingt ein vielschichtiges, behutsam sich entwickelndes Album von unerhörter Präzision. Gemastert von Dirk Serries, einem anderen Gitarren-Drone-Virtuosen, ist „Gaunerzinken“ ein herausragendes und atmosphärisches Werk geworden, dessen Improvisationen ein bebendes Leben innewohnt." [Ox Fanzine]
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| N(35)[HELLMUT NEIDHARDT] |
Saarn |
LP |
N is the moniker of Dortmund-based German experimental guitarist Hellmut Neidhardt. December 2014 marks the release of two new solo records, N(35) „Saarn“ and N(36) „Heven“, both of them slightly entering aspects of drone he did not work on that much before. With both „Saarn“ and „Heven“, N is focusing on the use of vibrant distortion, but in distinctive different ways within the concept.
The whole 3-track album „Saarn“ is determined by oscillations between heavy and minimal with a mood of (at least the danger of a coming) aggression even in its most silent parts. The opening piece, „Toevermanns Gruben“, is telling the story of an imaginary place buried under huge amounts of gritty fuzz, while „Seltene Erden“ keeps irritating with its movement in static. The closing piece, „Schwarze Heide“, then walks further the dark path that was first discovered with „Wehle“ (from N(22) „Goor“) some time before.
„Heven“ in fact achieves very different results, even while using the same tools: way more ethereal, otherwordly in its atmosphere, proving that even the utmost minimalism can gain an intense feel of beauty, a fortiori when „Heven I“ changes from stuttering static to a broken melody before getting lost in its own memory, somehow. „Heven II“ finally just uses grainy white noise to built up a cathedral of feedbacks, infinitely reflected.
www.denovali.com
|
2015 |
€26.50 |
|
| N(36)[HELLMUT NEIDHARDT] |
Heven |
LP |
N is the moniker of Dortmund-based German experimental guitarist Hellmut Neidhardt. December 2014 marks the release of two new solo records, N(35) „Saarn“ and N(36) „Heven“, both of them slightly entering aspects of drone he did not work on that much before. With both „Saarn“ and „Heven“, N is focusing on the use of vibrant distortion, but in distinctive different ways within the concept.
The whole 3-track album „Saarn“ is determined by oscillations between heavy and minimal with a mood of (at least the danger of a coming) aggression even in its most silent parts. The opening piece, „Toevermanns Gruben“, is telling the story of an imaginary place buried under huge amounts of gritty fuzz, while „Seltene Erden“ keeps irritating with its movement in static. The closing piece, „Schwarze Heide“, then walks further the dark path that was first discovered with „Wehle“ (from N(22) „Goor“) some time before.
„Heven“ in fact achieves very different results, even while using the same tools: way more ethereal, otherwordly in its atmosphere, proving that even the utmost minimalism can gain an intense feel of beauty, a fortiori when „Heven I“ changes from stuttering static to a broken melody before getting lost in its own memory, somehow. „Heven II“ finally just uses grainy white noise to built up a cathedral of feedbacks, infinitely reflected.
|
2015 |
€26.50 |
|
| N.STRAHL.N / METEK |
Drowning Devices |
CD-R |
"five tracks of subtley menacing, creepy combination of pulsing electronics, droning vibration, and field recordings evoking a claustrophobic, lysergic-fueled fevered dreamscape. Comes in a DVD case, the disk is pro burnt and printed." [label info]
"... The thematic approach here seems to be 'life under water', and more special the life inside a submarine. Both artists feel quite the same what the other wants and together they drum up five pieces that fit together quite well. The field recordings are difficult to pin down - but seem to me made in tunnels to get that reverb and that also keeps the sound 'outside', as recorded through a tube. To this they add their own electronics and sound effects. It starts out a bit noisy, but quite soon moves into a musical area where ambient, industrial, and microsound meet up. At times the amount of reverb used is a bit too much, but the claustrophobic nature of the music comes out quite well. Certainly when played through headphones this comes quite close. There is not much difference between the tracks that were finished by Metek or by N.Strahl.N, which might be a bit problematic - faceless perhaps - but together it makes quite a strong album. Something for the lovers of more present drone music, and those who love the Mystery Sea releases." " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
http://cohortrecords.0catch.com
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| NADJA / NETHERWORLD |
Magma to Ice |
CD |
10. Ausgabe in der FEAR DROP / FARIO - Split & Collaboration-Serie, diesmal sind die kanadischen Drone-Metal Überflieger NADJA und der italienische POLAR-AMBIENT Act NETHERWORLD in interessanter Kombination zu hören - 3 Stücke von NETHERWORLD, ein langes von NADJA welches eine einzige gigantische Drone-Blase darstellt, und eine fast 10minütige Zusammenarbeit). Kommt im überdimensionierten Vollfarb / Aufklapp-Cover! Eine Verbindung von "heissem" und "kaltem" Ambient wie man sie nur selten auf einer CD finden wird.
"Talented Italian ambient composer Alessandro Tedeschi runs the Glacial Movements record label and plays music as Netherworld. His fascination for polar landscapes and soundscapes makes him close to industrial ambient pioneers such as Thomas Köner, Rapoon, Biosphere and Lull. Icy, windy, droning and deeply "protomelodic" at once, his music is a poetic translation of the ice floe. For this record, he used processed fragments of classical music. Nadja is the drone / doom / ambient duo of Canadian musicians Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff. Their behemoth of sound is a construction of heat, weight, loop and vapour. Here, they had to break Netherworld¹s ice and find a way to the red core of Earth. The common track brings heat onto ice, which warms up, crackles and soon melts. As a conclusion, the long piece by Nadja is total heat. This is Nadja "unrhythmed", which means pure lava. This CD features exclusive graphic concepts and artwork by Alan McClelland (www.eyelyft.com) " [label info]
"French label Fario is not very active: this is their tenth release in about as many years. The label is an off shoot of the excellent (but en Francais) magazine Fear Drop, whose only goal seems to release a CD with the meeting of two artists. They present each a couple of solo pieces and one collaborative piece. Lopez & Roden, Troum & Christian Renou, Rapoon & Desaccord Majeur and Vromb & Telepherique went ahead (among others) and here it's the turn for Alessandro Tedeschi, also known as Netherworld, and owner of the Glacial Movements label and Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff, from Canada and best known as Nadja. Netherworld's three pieces are an excellent sound example of his own label: glacial movements. A very apt description. Still music of slow moving, utter deep movements. A turtle moves faster I think. A deep bass rumble in 'Closing To A Glacial Dawn'. Sounds like Biosphere or early Thomas Köner, but surely with a fine twist of his own, apparently all made with snippets of classical music. I skipped the collaboration to save that until the end and first heard the piece by Nadja, which spans nineteen minutes. A giant explosion takes place, and it sounds like a 180 degrees turn around from the Netherworld tracks. Yet that is only deceiving the listener. Yes, Nadja is much louder, but it's the same side of the ambient at work here: long sustaining sounds, feeding through effects, creating a ringing effect in your ear. Absense of rhythm is noted. How exactly their collaborative effort was recorded is a bit unclear but both ends meet up well here. There is the glacier like sounds of Netherworld, amplified of course to compete with the harsher sounds of Nadja, who mix in their own blend of guitars and electronics. Placed as the fourth track on the CD it makes perfect sense, forming a perfect bridge between the trio of silence of Netherworld and the solo outburst of Nadja. A perfect collaboration." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
labelwebsite FARIO: http://www.feardrop.net/fario.html
|
2008 |
€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 |
Townsville |
CD |
"Ein Kontrabass wiederholt immer wieder ein kaskadierendes Motiv, unaufdringliche Einladung, doch mit einzusteigen. Und Lloyd Swantons Partner tun es - einmal mehr, wie so oft in den gemeinsamen 20 Jahren. Chris Abrahams streut Pianonoten ein, entspannt perlend. Und Tony Buck federt und sirrt mit Besen und Cymbals. So bricht THE NECKS-Zeit an, unverwechselbar. Diesmal wieder live im heimischen Australien, in Thuringowa am 15.2.2007. Nicht ganz so lakonisch betitelt wie piano bass drums vor 10 Jahren, aber ebenso
schlicht nach dem benachbarten Townsville
(ReR Necks8). Aus Wiederholungen und kleinen Variationen ergibt sich der hypnotische Sound des Trios, immer ein wenig anders, aber wie nach der selben ungeschriebenen Formel gewebt. Intuitiver Minimalismus, der sich, einmal angestoßen, prozesshaft entfaltet. Für jedes Konzert steigen sie an einer anderen Stelle in den Fluss ohne Ufer, dessen unerschöpfliche
Quelle sie selber sind. Buck tickelt und klickt als verlässliche Unruhe, Swanton zupft und plonkt seine dunklen Tontrauben und Abrahams klimpert seine Arpeggien, harft die Klaviatur auf und ab. Als ob die Klangwelt ein- und ausatmen würde. Das Tempo wird leicht angezogen, indem Buck die Schlagzahl erhöht. Ohne dass der Spielfluss selber beschleunigt würde, nur die Oberfläche rippelt sich, mal mehr, mal weniger. An den gut 53 Minuten ist nichts Dramatisches und nichts Hyperbolisches. Aber es gibt ‚gefühlte‘ Verdichtungen der Webmuster, Akzentverschiebungen zwischen
der drei Polen. Mit der Paradoxie, dass
selbst bei merklicher Beschleunigung eines
Spielers, die Synchronität nicht aufgehoben
wird. Wer The Necks einmal gehört hat, kriegt sie schlecht wieder aus dem Hirn. Eine Play-it-again-Droge, die tagträumerisch, zeitvergessen, süchtig macht." [Bad Alchemy]
"The Necks in quiet mood recorded at a concert recording in Townsville, Thuringowa, Northern Queensland. Though many Necks’ pieces open with - or eventually arrive at - some discernable groove, Townsville just floats in a state of suspension from beginning to end. It’s like watching the ocean as wave follows wave follows wave: each the same; each different; assymetric. Bassist Lloyd Swanton who, on this occasion, provides the motif that set Townsville running says he had had no idea where it would lead: ‘One of the deep joys for me’ he said, ‘after twenty years of making music with this group, is that we’re still completely unable to predict where our pieces will go.’
[label notes]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
Mosquito / See through |
do-CD |
"On the one hand, they seem to be releasing too many CDs - on the other, they are so different and so good you really need to have them. This time they offer two long pieces, both exquisite, of which Mosquito is, in my opinion, destined for greatness. Since the demo arrived in the office it's been on continuously. Minimal, with every sound perfectly imagined and perfectly placed, it achieves almost total timelessness. Essential." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
"The Necks: are they inspiring or monotonous? This is the most commonly asked question with regard to their music. Unlike traditional jazz groups, this Australian trio opts for single songs that span the entire radius of their discs. The question, though, of whether they're inspirational or not is insignificant, because they've been regarded as the most sought-after jazz musicians in all of Australia. Between the three of them -- Chris Abrahams (keyboard/piano), Tony Buck (drums), and Lloyd Swanton (bass) -- they have contributed to over 150 albums. That's quite an impressive number, considering how reasonably unknown they are; or perhaps that's only here in the United States.
Nonetheless, I have a feeling that the critical acclaim of their last few albums has slowly started to diminish this oversight. Their latest offering, which is a double-disc set called Mosquito / See Through, should fit in nicely with the rest of their catalog and continue to gather new supporters. They will simultaneously keep those existing fans happy since their basic concept has not been too heavily deviated upon. In the same fashion as the rest of their work, these two songs are slightly over an hour long in duration. And like a Robert Ryman painting, The Necks present them in very minimal fashion.
First in line, "Mosquito" is a hypnotic song that moves along at a leisurely pace until slight variations are allowed to flourish from within. Reflective piano is the highlight of this song, but there are gentle pulses of bass, a sometimes non-existent ride cymbal, and hanging wood chimes to accompany it. The inexorable subtlety of Abraham's piano is enough to lull you into a mindless state of sedation. Only during Talk Talk's best moments have I heard the piano sound so warm and charming.
"See Through" is the next long piece. Unlike its predecessor, it has oddly been broken up into several segments. During certain moments, there is at least a one-minute gap of complete silence before we are reintroduced to the song again. That aside, it's unquestionably the more interesting of the two songs. Where "Mosquito" focuses on lighter situations, "See Through" is a much darker and complex affair. The sound of jazz is almost completely concealed, and in its place we are left with stimulating atmosphere. The piano is still the focus here, and the drums, once again, fill in the empty space.
Heaven only knows where this album will take you if you allow it to do so. My only suggestion is that it not be behind the wheel of a car, for fear that you'll fall asleep and hit a road sign. I imagine that if you ever have the chance to take a train ride where you can view the countryside, Mosquito / See Through would be the ideal soundtrack. It has a way of blending in with its surroundings while never becoming overwhelming. And though most people might label this music as pretentious and self-indulgent, I would argue that it's some of the most stirring minimal jazz I've heard." [Tiny Mix Tapes]
|
2004 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Vertigo |
CD |
"The release of a new Necks album is always news. This is our 12th to date - and their 18th. While most ensembles are driven by personalities, the Necks are powered by an idea. A very large and simple idea - which now seems completely obvious…. but only because the Necks thought of it and made it work. Now their pleasure (and ours) is sequentially to re-imagine and explore that idea – the prime directive of which seems to be to be that each unfolding step and every passing detail of any performance be allowed to evolve organically out of the musical conditions established at its moment of departure. In other words, we are in the territory of chaos and catastrophe theory; of hurricanes and butterfly wings… And, since one can never step twice into the same river, each beginning has led to wildly unpredictable and variant outcomes; and imperceptibly: you never hear the changes until somehow they have already happened. “We end up, Lloyd Swanton writes, ‘in a very different place from whatever our initial notion … had been.” In the case of Vertigo, we are dropped straight into an almost Feldmanesque musical universe, in which sounds - seemingly disconnected - are already there; creating space rather than inhabiting it. Then, without trying, they mutate. Not mechanically and not according to any pre-determined process - because it’s always clear that what we hear is being played by human beings; that it’s music. A special kind of music that is not pushy or demanding or demonstrative, but rather co-operative, spatial, ambiguous. A music that leaves room for its listeners." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
"Die unvergleichlichen THE NECKS mit dem nunmehr 18. Album ihrer 28-jährigen
Karriere. THE NECKS haben etwas geschafft, was nur wenigen Künstlern gelingt: einen singulären
Stil zu kreieren, dabei eine ganz unverkennbare eigene Handschrift zu entwickeln und doch
mit jedem neuen Album nicht einfach bewährte Rezepturen neu aufzukochen, sondern durch
feinfühlige Neujustierung der Parameter neue Nuancen zu offenbaren. CHRIS ABRAHAMS
(Piano), TONY BUCK (Drums) und LLOYD SWANTON (Bass) setzen auch auf ihrem neuen Album „Vertigo“ den Maßstab sehr hoch an. Der prägende repetitiv-hypnotisierende Klangfluss
aus leichtfüßig swingendem (Post-)Jazz, repetitiven Grooves à la JAKI LIEBEZEIT (CAN) und elektronischen Sounds, der viele ihrer alten Alben prägte, ist auch auf dem aktuellen Album zu hören. Elegant und subtil erschafft das Trio aus Australien hier abermals ein Meisterwerk. Wie kaum einer anderen Band gelingt es den Musikern, dem Hörer einen „Weg“ vorzugeben, ihm aber genug Freiraum für eigenes Hören und Interpretieren zu lassen. Ganz große Kunst!" [Broken Silence]
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| NECROPHORUS |
Imprints |
CD |
Das neue NECROPHORUS-Werk, introvertierter und elektronischer als seine RAISON D'ETRE-Veröffentlichungen, ohne das "Gothic"-flair, dafür umso "kosmischer"......verwirbelte Orgel-artige tönende Harmonien, aber auch Spielwiese für etwas "abgefahrene" elektronische Sounds, field recordings, sogar Akustik-Gitarrenklänge..
aber alles geschieht in sehr ruhigen, magisch-meditativen Bahnen ...
"Beautiful, sensitive and electrified. 'Imprints' by Necrophorus goes beyond the previous album 'elinrós' (2005) and further investigates the aural landscape of imagination and mysticism. 'Imprints' vibrates a fresh air mixed of three dimensional electrified organic field recordings and minimal immersive sequenced organ sounds thus creating the psychedelic atmosphere of virtually being inside the music, inside the magic circle of the aural landscape. 'Imprints' is the fifth CD album from Necrophorus/Peter Andersson (Sweden) who is most known for the project raison d'etre with several masterpiece releases on the Swedish legendary Cold Meat Industry label. Inspired by the impressions of his visit to the amazing landscapes of Iceland summer 2006, Peter Andersson has created a new astonishing aural output. 'Imprints' consists of three variations of the same impression: two of them are pure studio composisitons while the third variation is improvised as 'live in studio' recording. Format: CD, folding cover. Total time: 50:16 minutes" [label info]
www.wrotyczrecords.prv.pl
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| NERVE NET NOISE |
Meteor Circuit |
CD |
Japanisches Duo mit einem dynamischen Mix aus Stille und analog-synthetischen Sounds, die sich in seltsamen Klick- und Pfeif-mustern anordnen. Weder harsch noch ambient, klingt teils nach mutierten Vögeln, .. oder so... extrem in seiner Konsequenz und oft hart an der Grenze zum Erträglichen. IN SEARCH OF EXTREMISTS-POP? here you are..
"Following two albums on Kazunao Nagata's cult Zero Gravity label and last year's stunning "Various Amusements" CD on Hronir (and, of course, the infamous "160/240" on Meme), "Meteor Circuit" is the first Nerve Net Noise CD published in the US. Nakamura records more accessible techno-pop under the alias Tagomago. He also records using the alias Toki-Meki Science for Nobukazu Takemura's Childisc label. The band describes their sound as "electric noise music, but not academic, not mere noisy sound. We think that our music is not so much noise music as new kind of pop music"."
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| NETHERWORLD |
Kall. The Abyss where Dreams fall |
CD |
".... In a tradition that is anchored, at the same time, in avant-garde, ritual soundz and dark-ambient, with a typically Italian touch, NETHERWORLD gives a peculiarly and elegantly organic and palpable feel to sounds that, in the hands of others, would maybe fall flat …and it is as if the sound universe conjured by the magic of NETHERWORLD was strangely…how could one say? OCCUPIED. Each moment, each twist and turn of this sound adventure bears infinite richness and elasticity, at all times …those are rather ‘busy’ sound layers but each of the elements has sufficient breathing space and can differentiate itself from the other surrounding components. This antagonism represents one of NETHERWORLD’s greatest strengths. Another noteworthy antagonism: this tendency to propose us ambiences that are excessively introspective, subdued, withdrawn into themselves, but which, at the same time, expand, subtly dilate to occupy an incommensurable space. Upon the first notes (or pulses??) of the opening track, ‘’KALL’’, this infinite abyss, envelops us and our dreams sink, dissolve, reinvent themselves…The sound propositions found on’’KALL’’ have enough movement and density to please the ones fond of depth in their music, but the overall ‘purified’ feel will please the most discerning purist. For the occasion, MONDES ELLIPTIQUES once again used the mastering talents of JOHN SELLEKAERS @ METARC and it is CHRISTIAN SA LETTE who put his savoir-faire in our service for the design of the sleeve and images. Limited to 441 copies! Deluxe cardboard sleeve." [label description]
"Netherworld is Alessandro Tedeschi and on the album 'Kall - the abyss where dreams fall' he shows his interest in cool ambient and drone related kind of music, that slowly and patiently unfolds in the space. The music is presented in four tracks that are called 'Kall', from part one to part four. What's most present in the 14 minutes of the first piece is the pulsating drone atmosphere, that sounds very gentle and is put in the front, while from time to time there are other sounds too that are appearing in the background and are adding a specific and slightly tribal sounding sense to the track. The sense of tribal ambient music is even more present in the second piece, while in the third longer piece of 21 minutes, there are motives similar to those in the first track - slowly unfolding layers of sounds that are coming from the cooler corners of the ambient spectrum, a kind of atmosphere that is present through the whole album. 'Kall - part 4' is no exception in the sounds that Netherworld uses in the music on this album. The fourth part is as smooth ambient music as the previous parts, it is the smoothest track, with almost 8 minutes of few slowly shifting layers of a kind of sustained, unusual, calm and sometimes linear sounding and spreading ambient music, a kind of aesthetic and approach to the music that is mostly present on the whole album, that is not a typical ambient aesthetic, but it crossovers the border-lines between the ambient and drone kinds of music." [BR / Vital Weekly]
www.angle-rec.net
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| NEWS FROM BABEL |
Box |
3 x CD-Box |
Wiederveröffentlichung der beiden NEWS FROM BABEL LPs, plus Material einer raren 7", in schmucker Box!
"Vieles auf "Letters Home", dem zweiten und letzten Album von News From Babel, versprüht, nicht zuletzt dank unterkühltem Gesang von Robert Wyatt, den spröden Charme, der mich an die Lieder von Kurt Weill erinnert. "Heart of Stone" beinhaltet Elemente von tanzanregender Klezmer-Musik, die nahtlos in Kammermusik-Chanson-Klänge übergehen. Auch der zurückhaltende, an Dagmar Krause angelehnte Gesang von Sally Potter weiß zu überzeugen, wobei, wie beispielsweise auf "Banknote", wiederholt Folklore mit gehobenem, an die 30-er Jahre erinnerndem Liedgut vermischt wird. Im Text von "Moss" wird Beweis geführt, dass das einzig Wahre und Unverfälschte nur im Kontakt mit Mutter Erde und mit Natur zu finden ist, während die ersten drei Lindsay Cooper/Chris Cutler-Chansons sich nacheinander mit Themen wie Unfreundlichkeit des Daseins, Herzen aus Stein und Kälte des Geldes auseinandersetzen. Die Atmosphäre dieser Platte wirkt durch den sparsamen Einsatz von Blasinstrumenten, Harfe und Schlagzeug mit ein wenig Keyboards ziemlich spartanisch, nicht selten traurig, aber nicht abweisend. Im melancholischen Lied "Dark Matter" werden Pop-Anleihen aus den 50-ern hörbar. In dem rhythmisch flotten, reichlich mit Harfen-Arpeggios versehenen "Fast food" kann sich der Hörer am zweitstimmigen Gesang von Dagmar Krause erfreuen. Sehr einnehmend klingt auch die im dunkel-stimmungsvollen "Late evening" von Harfe und Piano begleitete Stimme von Frau Krause, die dort kurzzeitig auch im Duo mit Robert Wyatt zu hören ist. Durch die nüchternen bis depressiven Texte und schnörkellose Darbietung ist "Letters Home" recht dunkel und melancholisch geraten, bleibt dessen ungeachtet in vielerlei Hinsicht gelungen und damit empfehlenswert." [Siggy Zielinski über "Letters from Home"]
"Reissue on 2 CDs of both long out of print LPs, re-mastered and repackaged, in a slipcase with an extra illustrated CD of the 7" single that was issued only to subscribers with the original release. Stretched songs and studio work. 'Work' was Lindsay Cooper, Chris Cutler, Dagmar Krause and Zeena Parkins, and followed the vein breached by Art Bears, though with a very different musical emphasis. 'Letters' added Robert Wyatt, Sally Potter, Phil Minton and Bill Gilonis. Music by Lindsay Cooper, words by Chris Cutler. With full text and illustrations." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2006 |
€23.00 |
|
| NEZNAMO |
Aiwyâstô |
CD |
"If somebody still doesn't know, behind the Neznamo project stands the Moscow-based musician Dmitry Shilov who stepped on the path of ritual ambient music in 1996 under the stage name of Unknown. After releasing five albums on the "Strely Peruna" ("Perun's Arrows") label, the project temporarily fell in a lethargic sleep but woke up again in 2006 with a renewed name and approach.
As Neznamo Dmitriy has released several mini-albums on his own label Moonsun Productions, as well as a number of collaboration works with several other acts from the Russian drone underground: Misery, Bardo, Lunar Abyss, Siyanie, etc… For those interested in the project's roots and branches we can give some more keywords: Temnozor', Medve Na Meche, Peal Grim, Magickal Things.
"Aiwyâstô" is Neznamo's first full-length album and first "factory-pressed" CD. The album consists of one 42-min long composition recorded in a deep transcendental state. Covered in ornaments of unhasting vibrations, flickering and parallel sound layers, dense string drone permeates the whole track. This music is for lovers of deep inner self diving. Towards the depths of pitch-dark sound where one can see all forms dissolving in emptiness and being reborn by it again in an endless game of space and imagination." [label info]
zhb.radionoise.ru/eng/releases.html
"The shadowy figure behind Neznamo is the same Muscovite who offered up the Peal Grim cd from a couple months back. That was the album sporting the disclaimer "This record is not recommended to listening for depressively inclined persons" and Aiwyasyo is a blackened ambient record of a similar disposition. This album is not as exasperatedly bleak as the Peal Grim album, but it makes for another really amazing entry in the canons of contemporary Russian dark ambient works. Synth, guitars, and spectral emanations may or may not be in the mix for the bleak electrical pools of Aiwyasto. Sawtooth hums and buzzes gird the semi-melodic fugues that swirl, rumble, and brood over 40 minutes into this overwhelmingly sublime expanse of Ur-drone majesty that's not all that far from the likes of Troum / Maeror Tri, Aidan Baker's more turbulent solo works, and the cosmological grimness of Inade. Very nice, indeed." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| NICOLAI, CARSTEN |
Ray Collector |
10inch |
https://noton.info/product/n-063/
Noton presents Ray Collector, a limited-edition vinyl featuring recordings sourced from tapes produced by Carsten Nicolai for his 2023 solo exhibition Strahlen/Raggi at Fondazione Modena Arti Visive. In February 2022, Carsten Nicolai dispatched ten parcels from Berlin to various destinations. Each package contained a blank magnetic tape cassette, an Ilford delta 3200 ISO 1000 black-and-white film, and a Kodak ISO 800 color negative film. All parcels were addressed to the same recipient, Mr. Nemo, the unforgettable captain of the submarine nautilus in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. The idea was for the recipients to return the parcels to the sender. Each package held magnetic tapes and photosensitive films that would be exposed to electromagnetic waves and radiation during their journey. Upon their return to the sender, the latent impressions were developed, digitized, and thus made both visible and audible.
|
2023 |
€32.50 |
|
| 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 |
Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna |
CD |
Zweite Zusammenarbeit der Skandinavier, und wieder wird eine geheimnisvolle, einsame & endlose Soundwelt erschaffen, die seltsam entrückt wie frühe WERKBUND-Sachen auf uns wirkt....
Wie DEUTSCH NEPAL oder KARJALAN SISSIT scheinen auch der ex- HAZARD- (und die Isländer von STILLUPPSTEYPA sowieso) eine geradezu obsessives Verhältnis zum Alkohol zu besitzen, die in diese Aufnahmen mit eingeflossen ist; wie der lange Absturz nach der rauschvollen Ekstase, surreal halluzinierend und beklemmend...
"In Scandinavia, it's not uncommon to hear of someone's mother, grandfather, uncle, or plumber who drank him-or-herself to death at an early age; and the Swedish drone artist BJ Nilsen has felt the alcoholic pangs which may foreshadow his own demise. In recent years, Nilsen has turned to his Icelandic neighbors Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson (collectively known as Stilluppsteypa) in existential sympathy over the problems of their collective lust for alcohol. Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna marks the second collaborative document of abject minimalism that these three have composed; and like its predecessor Vikinga Brennivin, this album is spiked with drunken thought. Any alcohol induced euphoria has been tempered by perturbing blackouts, moments of cruelty, and an all-consuming nihilism. Beyond their shared Scandinavian heritage, their expressionist urge for the frigid drone, and their penchant for drink, BJ Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa intend this recording as an open ended experience, wandering through their sound without the burden of any exegetical text that may get in the way.
Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna resolves itself as a grim kaleidoscope, where the bleakness of the wintry Scandinavian landscape and the langour of a drunken escapade constantly mutate through the highly refined sensibility of dronescaping. Sonar pings announce the beginning of this album, with its echoes returning as an amorphous fog and locating little but a gloomy pall upon the event horizon. Clattering electronics scurry across the barren sounds like death-watch beetles upon the tundra; and creaking doors offer something much more foreboding than what Pierre Henry envisioned for musique concrete. Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna adheres to the psychological dis-quiet through sound design that Alan Splet provided for Eraserhead or that Nurse With Wound achieved on Salt Marie Celeste. Yet for all of their tendencies for brooding and desolation, BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa retain a compulsion for a glacial beauty through their intoxicated visions of the sublime.... " [label info]
"...On the same Helen Scarsdale Agency label the second collaboration between B.J. Nilsen and Stillupsteypa. One perhaps wondered if the latter were still around, because the last thing we heard was the previous work with Nilsen (see Vital Weekly 460) and again alcohol abuse in the Scandinavian territory is the main theme here. It's a firm continuation of the previous album. Using also field recordings this is much along similar lines of the Jim Haynes album and far away from the last thing we heard from Stillupsteypa (which was close to being a disco band). A winter landscape, frozen roads, empty swirling through a desolate country is what is on this album. They captured the stale wind and put it to music. If the term Isolationist music hadn't been invented before, it should be done for this album. Droning landscapes, quietly humming, and even at times using a faint trace of a melody, such as in 'Undir Ahrifum/Sunderlaus' (all credits are in Swedish and Icelandic - two entirely different languages) with something that might very well a guitar. And sometimes it seems nothing is happening at all, such a breeze, such as in 'Supbröder/Drykkjufelagar', humming quietly. This album is a great one, excellently produced, but perhaps not holding something that is entirely new to the world of electronic music, but rather carries on a tradition, which sometimes is fair enough." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"For a country whose entire population is only half that of San Francisco, Iceland has an exceptionally prolific arts community. One could easily look to the big Icelandic names in pop music (i.e. Bjork and Sigur Ros); but there's also slightly lesser known (but even more adventurous) music from the likes of Johann Johannson, Apparat Organ Quartet, and the entire output of the Kitchen Motors institution. But our personal favorite from Iceland remains Stilluppsteypa, whose dada drunkenness and black humor has developed arctic undercurrents to their increasingly bleak drone-based work. On Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna, the Stilluppsteypa duo of Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson have hooked up once again with the Swedish sound artist BJ Nilsen, perhaps best known for his triumphant elemental drone work as Hazard released through Touch. Sigmarsson sums up the communal idea behind this album as a "love for drones, Scandinavia, and alcohol." Of course, he then proceeds to type a polysyllabic onomatopoetic bunch of drunken text that makes our extend-o-spelling of doom seem trite by comparison.
The previous collaboration Vikinga Brennivin was an homage to the Icelandic firewater of the same name; yet it held a clarity and singlemindedness rarely attributed to alcoholic excess. Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna has that same contradictory dualism of conceptually relating to being fucked up without totally losing a grip on reality. Or perhaps these three Scandinavians have gotten so loaded that they drifted into a parallel universe of liquid physics and amorphous gravity. Needless to say, Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna is another masterful album of alchemical drone, that's even darker and more morose than its predecessor. Sonar pulses and crackles of wood break up the jet-black atmospheres of frozen electronic drones, resonant frequencies, and hallucinatory echoes rippling way out on the outer regions of the event horizon for this sonic black hole. At times falling close to the constant spiralling of Nurse With Wound's Salt Marie Celeste, and times recalling the best isolationism of Thomas Köner. Somber, magnificent, and exquisitely constructed!" [Aquarius Records] |
2006 |
€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 |
Iron and Ice |
CD |
st.an.da.2244
CD ltd. 200 copies in 6-panel digisleeve
Nimh
Iron and Ice
After a good six years from Nimh's last solo CD of previously unreleased material (Circles of the Vain Prayers), and two years after his previous collaborative CD (Post-Folk Lore Vol.1), Giuseppe Verticchio is back, walking again on those same electronic paths strongly imbued with ethnic ritual suggestions and sonorities. The sound of string and wind instruments, metals and percussion instruments coming mainly from South-East Asian countries, combined with refined electronic textures, voices, field recordings and obscure environmental substrates, describes an adventurous and multicoloured intercontinental journey, crossing geographical and stylistic borders, taking the long rigorous experimental research undertaken by the well-known Italian artist since more than twenty years ago even further.
store.silentes.it/catalogue/standa2244.htm |
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| NLC / EISENLAGER / OCCUPIED HEAD / WILFRIED HANRATH |
Thing |
CD-R |
In 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.
With the second instalment of the THING series, attenuation circuit presents four artists that offer their various, but always rather deep and spacious takes on ambient. EISENLAGER have previously released download albums on attenuation circuit; both Occupied Head and Wilfried Hanrath have released on the label and were also featured live at attenuation circuit's “re:flexions sound-art” festival. In addition to these three German-based artists, Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites from France make their first appearance on the label with their contribution to this compilation. A continuous presence in the international experimental music underground for decades, Julien ASH of NLC first inspired label head Sascha Stadlmeier to open attenuation circuit – up until then only a release platform for his own music – to other artists in 2010. Therefore, attenuation circuit is very happy to welcome Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites to the label roster with this new track in their new duo line-up of Julien ASH and Alois L., which started in 2021 after NLC had stopped their activity for more than a decade.
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/thing-2 |
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| NODDING GOD (DAVID TIBET & ANREW LILES) |
Play Wooden Child |
LP |
NODDING GOD were formed 666 years ago by Andrew Liles, David Tibet, and The UnderAge Shaitan-Boy in a Boys-Only preparatory boarding school in Babylon, since shut down by unfortunate events that took place there, in the night, in the dark.
Their first album, WOODEN CHILD, is released on House Of Mythology in May 2019. Sung 93% in Akkadian by David, who has studied this language for many years, this New Baby God Who Nods - a Nodding God, a Godding Nod - WOODEN CHILD is powered by Stars and Cuneiform and Pop and Drop and One Thousand Liles In One Thousand Axes.
Nodding God’s Virgin Boards Appearance will be at the Islington Assembly Hall on Saturday May 11, where they will PLAY WOODEN CHILD in its entirety; the event is presented by Old Empire & Born Again Concerts, in association with Mythology.
Joining Andrew and David on the boards will be Reinier van Houdt and Michael J. York on Analogue Synthesisers and Drone Planks and Organ Lords, with FluorescentFilms by Davide Pepe and Lasers by Rob of StanWaxLasers. The UnderAge Shaitan-Boy is, unfortunately, under Police Curfew and will be unable to attend this time, despite legal representations to the authorities to allow him to appear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62KVH4bEe8k
"Die meisten der in den letzten Jahren entstandenen Projekte David Tibets außerhalb von Current 93 – die Zusammenarbeit mit ZU als ZU93 auf dem kammermusikalischen „Mirror Emperor“, das opulenter instrumentierte mit Youth aufgenommene „Create Christ, The Sailor Boy“-Album (beide Alben erschienen ebenfalls auf House of Mythology) oder die Hommage an John Balance zusammen mit James Blackshaw – waren musikalisch sicher nicht so weit von Current 93-Arbeiten entfernt. Anders dagegen verhält es sich bei dem aus Tibet, Andrew Liles und dem anonymen „Shaitan Boy“ (ein anderer Otto Avery?) als Nodding God eingespielten Album – ein Projektname, der auf eine von Tibets frühe(re)n Obsessionen verweist.
Schon die Ästhetik macht deutlich, dass die Stimmung eine andere ist: Pazuzu(s) als Springteufel vor pinkem Hintergrund und die Darstellung der drei Beteiligten als Cartoonfiguren. Das spiegelt sich auch in der komplett elektronischen Musik wider. Wie soll man das nennen, was man auf den sieben Tracks hören kann? Retrofuturismus? Progressive auf einem C64 komponiert? Auf dem Opener „Trapezoid Haunting“ hört man Tibets elektronisch verfremdete Stimme, die aus Ištars Gang in die Unterwelt vorträgt (der akkadischen Version der sumerischen Göttin Innana). Dazu erklingen repetetive Synthpassagen, Arpeggios und auch die folgenden sechs Tracks sind ähnlich ausgerichtet. „Natron Skipping Rope“ lässt an Jahrmarktsmusik denken, man hört Lasershots. Auf „Xanthosis Sabbat Clock“ kann man inmitten des Akkadischen englische Wörter erahnen (“quicksilver”, “Mercury”). „Salamander Candy“ wird zwischendurch von seltsamen Schreien durchzogen. Bei aller Verspieltheit haftet manchen der Tracks allerdings durchaus ein Moment des Unheimlichen an, was auch, aber nicht alleinig, an der durch die Bearbeitung so nichtmenschlich klingenden Stimme liegen mag.
Sucht man im umfangreichen Werk Tibets nach (muikalischen) Referenzen, so kommt einem vielleicht noch am ehesten entfernt der „Love Dance Of The Nodding Folk“ in den Sinn, aber letztlich wird auf “Play Wooden Child” eine ganz eigene Welt entworfen. Tibets Arbeiten waren/sind häufig geprägt von einem Kontrast(ieren) von Erhabenem und Profanem: Zum 5-Uhr-Tee erscheint Pazuzu an der Tür. Der Gegensatz zwischen der ausgestorbenem akkadischen Sprache, von der auch Linguisten nicht genau sagen können, wie sie ausgesprochen wurde, und der pinken Ästhetik und der Musik könnte wahrscheinlich nicht größer sein. In einem anlässlich der Veröffentlichung gemachten Interview fasst es Andrew Liles vielleicht auch ganz gut zusammen: “For me Akkadian just sounds great, otherworldly, something Christopher Lee would recite at some nefarious ritual in a Hammer movie. High camp or high art – it’s all interchangeable for me.”
Wer das Album direkt beim Label bestellt hat, bekommt eine Zwei-Track-CD, auf der neben der Albumversion von “Calcination Totem Station” noch ein Remix des Tracks namens “In A Foreign LandScape” zu finden ist. Diese etwas dunklere Version wurde für den Soundtrack von “In A Foreign Town” komponiert, einem 11-minütigen Kurzfilm, der eventuell zu einer auf Kurzgeschichten Thomas Ligottis basierenden Anthologieserie ausgeweitet wird." [Michael Göttert / African Paper]
|
2019 |
€29.50 |
|
| NOETINGER, JEROME |
dR |
CD |
Jérôme Noetinger, tape recorder Revox B77, microphones, radios, objects, synthesizer Korg MS20, piano frame…
Recorded January 2017 at PiedNu, Le Havre, by Emmanuel Lalande. Edited and mixed June 2017. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, September 2017.
“All the pieces on this CD were realised on one or two Revox B77s and recorded directly to hard disc. They represent a panorama of my practice on a range of devices (reel-to-reel tape recorders, contact microphones, radios, small electronics, voice and microphone, pick-up microphones, objects...). I discovered the reel-to-reel tape recorder in 1983 and started to work with it on arriving in Grenoble in 1986 in the studios of COREAM (école de musique de Fontaine). Initially used principally as a layer to reproduce pre-recorded sounds, the tape recorder became my instrument. I use it with loops to play with repetitions, delay and accumulations. Or with spools, taking off the pinch roller to manually control the speed. The magnetic tape – a surface of inscription of a sound being made – is a malleable support, where crayonnés, scratches and magnetisation excite the polarisation of the magnetic particles. The possibilities of reinjection, that is, recording from the left channel to the right while at the same time from the right to the left, simultaneously controlling the speed, transforms this tape recorder into a sound generator.” JN
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| NOGRAY, FREDERIC |
Wuritagu |
mCDR |
"french composer, frédéric nogray pays a particular attention on sounds in their intrinsic qualities and for what they are: vibratory phenomenon. but also for their broadcasting into the listening space, our perceptions on it, and different states of consciousness induced by listening. along his musical works with crystal singing bowls and/or feedbacks, he creates dreamlike sonic compositions from field recordings. his past works were released by various international labels such as kaon or 3leaves.
all sounds used for "wuritagu" were field recorded on the north coast of honduras during may 2012, in and around la ensenada and triunfo de la cruz. wuritagu, el lago negro is a lake between these two garifuna villages. surrounding the lake there are mangroves. at one end the lake is separated from the caribbean sea by a beach. at the other end, a small road connects the two villages. all sounds were recorded at different moments of the day and at night.
"wuritagu" is a powerful field recording-based composition where you can feel the raw energy of the jungle…" [label info]
www.taalem.com
"Of course everybody - me at least - is wondering what Taalem will do next. When Drone Records released their 99th 7" single they stopped. With these new releases on Taalem we also reach number 99 - Frederic Nogray does the honours and here we start. We know his music from releases on Kaon and he seems to be someone whose interest lies in the use of field recordings. Here he uses sounds recorded at the north coast of Honduras in May 2012 close to a lake of the same title. This twenty-one minute work is made from various recorded during various times of day and night. I assume these recordings were layered together as it's all quite full with sound. The lower end of the seashore sounds colliding with the high-end singing of insects makes a particular scary move, I thought, especially if, at one later point, planes or helicopters are part of it. It's all, in general, a bit louder than is usual, a bit cruder and with the constant pressing force of water sounds something you could easily drown in." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€5.00 |
|
| NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES |
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 |
|
| |
Intervisage (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
the most impressive newcomer in a while - profound and mysterious dreamscapes full of atmosphere...
first edition
250 copies, orange vinyl,
handmade jute-sleeves with
coloured photo inside!!
released May 1997
second edition
300 copies, black vinyl,
printed sleeves released May 2000
"This group from brussels has grown to one of the leading experimental improvisational outfits of the last few years. often performing live throughout europe (they have just finished
a polish tour), they excite the audience with their complex and overly suspensed noise-works that lack comparison. in a very short period of time, they have released 4 cd's and one 10",
as well as a few tapes on their own label. this first 7" for the group shows them at their most refined ambient/atmospheric level, mysterious and threatening at the same time, with an ever
growing tension. squealing and growling noisescapes for a deep view inside the dark side of your mind! "We think: Intervisage
seems to be a psychological tool to discover the undefined spheres of your mind." [label info]
|
1997 |
€ |
|
| NORTHAM, MICHAEL |
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 |
|
| NOVAK, YANN |
Paradise & Winchester |
CD |
"Paradise & Winchester was created in late 2011 for the Belgian imprint Unfathomless who’s credo is to commission works that ‘illustrate artists‘ personal fascination for specific locations, either natural, human built, or fictitious’. In response to this, Novak chose a location that he had never been to, yet knew he would have a strong reaction to, Las Vegas, NV. The piece focuses on ‘The Las Vegas Strip’, a portion of Las Vegas Boulevard outside the city limits spanning two unincorporated townships: Paradise and Winchester.Paradise & Winchester was created from ten recordings, made over three days, each one an attempt to find relatively quiet moments in an outdoor location. These quiet moments were then digitally altered to reflect a more personal reaction to the location. The final form of the piece is an ever changing hybrid state, move from one location to the next and a constant mix of nearly raw material with altered material.Paradise & Winchester was formed in late 2011 after a 7 day trip collecting and recording sounds and images. The trip ended with three days of rest in Las Vegas, NV."
[Yann Novak, May 2012]
www.unfathomless.net
"There was a time the name Yann Novak propped up in these pages quite regularly, if not for his own music, it was for releases on his Dragon's Eye Recordings, but in more recent times this has become less and less. I am not sure why this is. Maybe he just releases less and less, or perhaps not all of his releases reach me. Here he has an interesting work which deals with the sounds of The Las Vegas Strip, in itself part of the Las Vegas boulevard, 'outside the city limit, spanning the two unincoprorated townships of Paradise and Winchester, where the majority of the casinos and tourist activity takes place'. This is not exactly a new soundtrack to Paul Verhoeven's 'Showgirls' (a fav here) or 'Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas'. In fact should you not have known this, would you be able to tell this forty some minute was recorded in one the most hectic and noisy cities in the world? I don't think so. At the same time I have to admit that I am also not entirely sure to what extend there has
been sound processing. Surely something, which makes a very nice pattern of gliding sounds and endless delays, but in between, in the backside, far away we still hear the activities of humans. Voices, cars parking and that sort of thing, but also the sound of wind, blowing down the microphone. In these forty-three minutes he moves between various settings, in all about five or six different movements. It has that gentle microsound feel that is part of many of the previous works by Novak have, and perhaps as such isn't the new approach to what he does. That aside though, this I thought was a great work. Taking the quiet sounds of a busy city and melt that into a gentle soundscape. Very nice!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
The Voice of Theseus |
CD |
From Yann Novak
In Greek mythology, the legend of Theseus describes how the king-founder of ancient Athens rescues the children of his city from King Minos’ minotaur on the island of Crete. In commemoration, Athenians began a pilgrimage to honor his victory, taking the ship of Theseus and sailing it from Athens to Delos. It was with this tradition that a philosophical paradox about the historic ship was raised: As the ship was repaired, piece by piece, until it was no longer composed of any original parts, at what point could the ship no longer be considered the same entity?
In recent years, I’ve become interested in exploring the perceptual differences I experience. While some of these differences—partial color blindness and dyslexia—have been with me my entire life, tinnitus caused by hearing damage is a relatively new change to how I experience the world. It is these sensory challenges which have shaped my artistic practice by creating what I call a perceptual insecurity—an uncertainty of how accurately I discern the world around me.
The Voice of Theseus is my attempt to explore the obstacles I face in processing external sensory information. If I have trouble perceiving reds and greens, if I have trouble hearing certain frequencies, if I don’t interpret written language in a standard way, how closely can I experience reality in the way that others experience it? The album asks the listener to question how their unique means of perception and interpretation might differ from that of others.
For The Voice of Theseus, I asked two of my favorite vocalists to assist with this experiment. Both Dorian Wood and G.Brenner recorded vocals for me to manipulate throughout the album. If their original audio is Theseus’s ship, the changes I make to their voices are like the Athenians replacing each of the original vessel’s pieces. And so, how far can these vocals be pushed while still remaining attached to the vocalists’ identities? Where lies the separation between the source materials and the objects they’re used to create?
The myth of Theseus’ ship allowed me to tease at the nuances of how reality can be observed, interpreted, and altered in an indeterminate number of ways; it can be dismantled and rebuilt, many times over. And yet, because of my internal circumstances, a perceptual insecurity remains. As flexible as the true nature of an object or moment may be, inaccuracy looms. There’s no real way to know how great the disparity is between my observational experiences and another’s, and no clear limit of how many pieces of our shared reality can be altered—before it stops being just that.
https://yannnovak.bandcamp.com/album/the-voice-of-theseus-2
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| NULL, K.K. |
ERG per GALAXY |
CD |
Kinetische Energie in NOISE umgesetzt? KK NULL benutzt hier ziemlich extreme & hohe Frequenzen, die um die Wette knirschen und fiepsen.. hat was mächtiges, zermalmendes, reine Energieströme werden sichtbar... kosmischer harsh noise.....ein elektrisch-monumentales Klanggewitter.... dann aber auch viel leiser, seltsame Strukturen & Pulsationen ausbildendend... Galaktische Trance? No easy listening, aber ziemlich einzigartig, KK NULLs Tonkunst !
“ERG: A measurement of kinetic energy.
A snowflake falling on Earth = 1 erg.
ERG per GALAXY: The total amount of kinetic energy in a galaxy. Kazuyuki calls this album one of the best works he's ever done. We here at Opposite Records are incredibly excited about this release! One of the finest works of KK Null's career, he modestly calls this "high-quality cosmic noise." A fierce expression of Nulltronics created without synthesizers, guitar, or computers. I say it brings to mind radio transmissions from other planets and electrical storms being shaped by KK's hand. Intensely trance-inducing.” [label info]
|
2002 |
€14.50 |
|
| NURSE WITH WOUND |
Homotopy to Marie |
BOOK / 2 x CD |
Double-CD version includes 30-page metallic hardcover book (15 x 20 x 2cm) containing color and black-and-white art by Babs Santini (Steven Stapleton). Rotorelief present a reissue of Homotopy To Marie. the fifth album by Nurse With Wound, originally released in 1982. Music and sleeve created by Steven Stapleton. The album is "a step on from the Dadaist rock of Merzbild Schwet, with much use of tape manipulation and classical avant-garde techniques". The album, which combines tape edits with resonating gong tones and disembodied children's voices to create a sonic collage, is far removed from the harsh improvisations of the group's early albums. The title of the brief closing track derives from a passage from "Les Chants de Maldoror" (1869), a surreal poetic novel written by Le Comte de Lautréamont. This appropriation of a phrase from Maldoror is shared in common with the title of Nurse With Wound's debut album, Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella (1979); both phrases appear in Lautréamont's work. The album was first issued on Stapleton's own United Dairies label on vinyl, cassette, and later in remastered compact disc including an extra track "Astral Dustbin Dirge". This masterpiece reissue is the official full, double album from the original recording sessions. The four tracks from the original LP are accompanied by additional recordings from the same period.
|
2018 |
€27.50 |
|
|
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 |
|
| |
Thunder Perfect Mind (special ed.) |
3 x pic-LP |
One of the most essential works from Nurse With Wound, coming in an extended luxury 3x picture LP and 2CD edition, with many unreleased, alternative versions and songs.
This album is the sister album to Current 93’s same titled album and it’s a crownjewel for collectors of avantgarde and experimental music.
The original release of Nurse with Wound’s gargantuan “Thunder Perfect Mind” in 1992 coincided with that of Current 93’s homonymous genre-defining album. Legend has it that the gnostic name initially appeared to Steven Stapleton in a dream as the title of Tibet’s then still nameless upcoming album. Both records feature contributions from David Tibet, Colin Potter, Rose McDowall, John Balance of Coil, Alan Trench of Orchis and Joolie Wood amongst others. The title and the partial overlap of the personnel on both albums isn’t quite where the similarities end, both albums have since become undisputed milestones in their respective artists’ oeuvre. At the core of the definitive 2023 Infinite Fog re-release fully overseen by Steven Stapleton are the two original tracks “Cold” – a classic unsettling rhythmic Nurse collage-fest, significantly closer to jittery psychelia than the oft-cited “industrial feel” and the epic “Colder Still”, easily one of the most mind-bending breathtaking NWW compositions up to this point and well beyond. The track soothes ghostly atmosphere and reveals new surprises with every listen, not least of which is a direct link to its sister release from c93 as well as the first appearance of the signature rhythm loop that would mutate and re-emerge on several later tracks. The album also is the first full-length collaboration with genius sound wizard Colin Potter who has since become a ubiquitous sidekick both on Nurse albums as well as in live performances. As a follow-up to what is widely acknowledged as one of the best-loved exercises in drone of the 20th century “Soliloquy for Lilith”, TPM is a much more varied but at least equally rewarding experience. Infinite Fog are beyond pleased to be able to offer a significantly enhanced, remastered and extended 3 LP version for old and new fans alike.
Songs:
1. Cold
2. Colder Still
3. Zero Neither No (Andrew Liles mix)
4. Crank
5. Steel Dream March Of The Metal Men
6. The Dadda’s Intoxication
7. Dead Cold
8. Cold (Miss Ticker Mix)
9. Spooky Loop
10. Alien
11. Colder Than
12. Colder Than
13. Bad Trip In Berlin
https://infinitefog.bandcamp.com/album/thunder-perfect-mind |
2024 |
€88.00 |
|
| NURSE WITH WOUND / OCTAVE MIRBEAU |
Alienation / Un Homme Sensible |
mCD + book |
"Je ne crois pas avoir jamais été méchant. Non, en vérité, je ne le crois pas. Tout enfant, j’étais même doué d’une sensibilité excessivement, exagérément douloureuse qui me portait à plaindre, – jusqu’à en être malade – les souffrances des autres… pourvu – cela va de soi, car je suis un artiste – qu’elles ne se compliquassent point de laideurs anormales ou de monstruosités physiologiques. Ah ! ce n’est pas moi – vous pouvez m’en croire – qui admettrai jamais l’esthétique de M. Rodin. Et, je puis me vanter que j’en ai jeté des pommes cuites à son Balzac !…
Écrivain et critique, Octave Mirbeau (1848-1917) est notamment l'auteur de L'Abbé Jules, Le jardin des supplices et Journal d'une femme de chambre. Dans Un homme sensible, il conte l'histoire d'un assassin bien décidé, au nom de l'harmonie du monde, à débarrasser celui-ci de « tous les organismes inaptes à une vie harmonieuse et forte ». De quoi inspirer Nurse With Wound, qui, en guise d'illustration, nous livre ici Alienation (The Devil's Interval), une nouvelle pièce de musique inédite."
www.lenkalente.com/product/un-homme-sensible-d-octave-mirbeau-nurse-with-wound
"Let me finish where it all started. With Nurse With Wound whose music I have been listening to for the last ooooh thirty five years or so. Late eighties maybe? Mid eighties? Memories lost in the fog of time. You listen to so much you lose track. What was my first Nurse With Wound album? Probably ‘A Sucked Orange’, maybe that collaboration with Hafler Trio that came out on Staaltape. ‘A Sucked Orange’ I found hilarious; I’m A Frayed Knot, Pleasant Banjo Intro With Irritating Squeak, Scrambled Egg Rebellion In The Smegma Department. I listened and thought to myself but aren’t Nurse With Wound supposed to be dark and scary? Somewhere lodged in the back of my brain was the cover art for ‘Chance Meeting ...’ and that leather clad dominatrix and the thought that only weirdos listened to Nurse With Wound and here was ‘Raymonde Fluffs It’ in which Raymonde fluffs his opening lines. Laugh? I nearly bought myself one. The split with Hafler Trio meanwhile, that truly fried my brain. I had no idea what was going on but I knew that I liked it.
Shortly afterwards I availed myself of twenty nine United Dairies cassettes via Ron Lessard and have proudly walked stride by stride with Nurse With Wound ever since, diving in to the back catalogue and buying new stuff when the chance arose. Until recently when the thought struck me that barring what Lenka Lente have released I haven’t listened to a new Nurse With Wound release for what must be over ten years. How did that happen? How did I manage to overlook what one of my favourite bands have been doing for the last ten years?
I decided to make up for lost time by drawing up a list of every Nurse With Wound release catalogued on Discogs and ticked off all those that I had physical copies of. I discounted the two Nurse With Wound MP3 discs I bought in St Petersburg in 2003 because a] I dislike the Russian and Chinese attitude towards copyright and b] MP3’s are a bit shit. I now realise that far from having everything Nurse With Wound had recorded from inception to the year 2000 and bits beyond I was the proud owner of quite a bit of it with several gaps that needed filling. To fill these gaps I need time and money so for the foreseeable the blog is being put to bed as I venture forth on the good ship Nurse With Wound proudly captained by Steve Stapleton and his crew. Whether I shall ever rouse it from its slumbers we shall have to wait and see.
In the meantime I’m going to find out what Nurse With Wound have been up to these last ten years. I need to hear what awaits me within that decade and the gaps that lie beyond. I shall also paint and draw, read, listen to the radio, go for walks around Scholes, see out this sodding lockdown, survive the virus and hopefully emerge like a vaccinated butterfly sometime during the spring months. By then I will have listened to lots of Nurse With Wound. Lots. Masses. Hopefully I’ll have bought quite a bit too. Maybe I’ll sell off some stuff to make room for it. My very own dedicated Nurse With Wound shelf with a vinyl copy of ‘A Sucked Orange’ forever proudly on display.
My Lenka Lente/Nurse With Wound CD’s will also go there though the shelf will have to be a tad smaller to accommodate them. These three inch/five centimeter discs have been virtually my only portal to what Nurse With Wound have been up to recently. The last one that came through the door piquing my interest enough to having me seek out their Tusk set from 2017, which by the way in case you are interested and why shouldn’t you be is quite stunning and well worth your time. If only I was there. Woe is me etc.
‘Alienations [The Devil’s Interval]’ is a fifteen minute slice of a ‘sleep concert’ Nurse With Wound gave in Ireland also during 2017. Sleep concerts being eight hour long overnight shows where Stapleton DJ’s his back catalogue while mixing in live sounds [I’m guessing] as the audience chills out for the night on airbeds and sleeping bags. Somnolence and hypnogogia being the perfect state of mind in which to receive the slowly moving drones of say Soliloquy For Lilith. Whether Stapleton played ‘Chance Meeting …’ in its entirety at four a.m. isn’t recorded. You can achieve the same state of mind at home by smoking a big bifter and playing Soliloquy For Lilith on repeat while rubbing the rim of a glass bowl with a wet finger. Just don’t try it with ‘A Sucked Orange’ ... unless you’re an insomniac. The results will be very different. Fifteen minutes culled from eight hours of DJ’ing will have to suffice for now then and beautiful it is too with the merest hint of Aurelie Lierman’s vocals helping to lull you safely in to the droning arms of morpheus.
As for Octave Mirbeau, I vaguely remember buying a copy of his ‘The Torture Garden’ when I was going through a very expensive and steep transgressive reading curve. If I had all the money returned to me that I spent on books of a transgressive nature I’d have enough to buy a good chunk of the Nurse With Wound back catalogue on original vinyl, in mint condition. Needless to say I was wholly unprepared and underwhelmed by Mirbeau’s satire on the brutality of humankind wanting and expecting something of a far more base nature for my money. I left Mirbeau and much of transgressive literature behind around the same time. Maybe I should go back now that I am older and wiser? Now that I have more time on my hands. Now that I’m reacquainting myself with Nurse With Wound. The perfect partners perhaps? I could translate all of ‘Un Homme Sensible’ while listening to ‘Automating Volume Three’. I’m sure that it would be time well spent." [Idwal Fisher]
https://idwalfisher.blogspot.com/2021/02/octave-mirbeau-and-nurse-with-wound.html
|
2021 |
€16.00 |
|
| NYTT LAND |
Odal |
CD |
New epic musical canvas from Nordic Folk band NYTT LAND.
Working with the same unchanging 4 band-members, the musicians continue to revive the true magical sound of the Ancient North.
OĐAL..
HERITAGE…
PATH TO THE ROOTS….
"Oðal" is inspired by the traditional music of the indigenous peoples of Siberia, the Old Icelandic epic and the atmosphere of classic Norwegian black metal.
This time the album was recorded without using samples; all parts of the instruments were performed live. All songs were recorded and mixed in one of the technical quality best Russian studios, "Radio Sibir", which strongly affected the sound quality. All the sounds of nature were recorded in western Siberia and northern Norway.
For the first time the 4-year-old son of Natalia and Anatoly, Yuri Pakhalenko, took part. By this they emphasise the concept of the album - heritage.
As in the previous album, "Fimbulvinter", "Oðal" features the traditional Siberian overtone singing technique "kargyraa", but the overtone singing by vocalist Natalia Pakhalenko gives a special character to the sound. This is very unique, since this technique is a almost exclusively a male singing practice due to its physicality.
So, it's time to start the path to the roots...
credits
released March 25, 2018
All songs composed, produced and recorded by Anatoly “Nordman” Pakhalenko and Natalya “Krauka” Pakhalenko in 2017.
Lyrics – Прорицание вёльвы (перевод А. И. Корсуна)
Речи Высокого (перевод А. И. Корсуна)
Völuspá (ed. Guðni Jónsson)
Hávamál (ed. Guðni Jónsson)
Sigrdrífumál (ed. Guðni Jónsson)
Njáls saga (ed. Guðni Jónsson)
https://nyttland.bandcamp.com/album/odal
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| O PARADIS |
Pequenas Canciones de Amor |
CD |
"The 1st thing that comes to mind when I hear O Paradis is Novy Svet and lookie lookie Jurgen Weber from just that project worked and wrote some of the material. It has the same campy cabaret vibe as Novy Svet. Though there are more eastern and gypsy elements into the Folkish overtone. I all honesty the 1st track was a tough listen to get through. There are moments were I really wonder where O Paradis are going with this.
They are very akin to Spiritual Front in song structure and ideals as well. I do like the lazy horns and heavy bass elements that add an avant jazz overtone. ‘Pequenas Canciones De Amor’ being in Italian some of the time is a bit hard for me to follow from time to time but there are really some beautiful track especially when the female vocals are mixed with the very lounge sung male vocals.
A truly shining moment is the Bob Dylan song so well done by the mighty Johnny Cash called " its aint me, Baby”. The additional accordion piece which is incorporated really adds to the fullness of the track.
Sometime I think O Paradis really want to be Novy Svet as some of the more dark ambient/ martini/ martial moments could come off one of their releases. I was always a sucker for Novy Svet so it’s something I greatly missed. I'm shocked that labels like Punch, WKN or Soleilmoon didn’t jump at the chance to release this title. Some of these tracks I think are in Spanish like Novy Svet did from time to time as well. As ‘Pequenas Canciones De Amo’ goes along the CD get stronger and stronger and a more complex beast that is hugely expansive and almost epic at times, which also include moments of even stirring neo-classic movements. This new label Tourette based of Texas USA have given a release to stand up with the bigger labels mentioned above. It comes in a wonderful digipak as well. Just to add to the magic of it all. I will be looking forward to hearing more from O Paradis and Tourette in the future." [Clint Listing /Judas Kiss]
www.touretterecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
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| O YUKI CONJUGATE |
A Tension of Opposites Vol.3 & 4 |
MC |
listen:
https://oyukiconjugate.bandcamp.com/album/a-tension-of-opposites-vols-1-2
Volume 3:
'A World Without Zeros'
Tracks 1 - 5 by Andrew Hulme, Hull & London 221-2 (43 minutes)
Volume 4
'Inversion'
Tracks 6 - 16 by Roger Horberry, York 2022 (37 minutes)
with
Joe Lamb - saxophone
Two years after the first two volumes of A Tension of Opposites (ATOO) were issued OYC return to the form they created to house their looser more exploratory works. ATOO allows them to expand their musical horizons and release their music more expediently.
The original ATOO was born out of 2020's virus state where both OYC members were left working in isolation. Two types of music emerged spontaneously, and rather than try to combine them OYC decided to present the results separately, two sides of a contrasting whole.
In need of a suitable format and frustrated by their usual lengthy release schedules, OYC returned to the quick and dirty compact cassette – the place they started back in the 80s.
ATOO is 'Dirty Ambient', a phrase coined by OYC for the process of working quickly and instinctively, embracing errors and honouring imperfections. It's also a jibe at what is sometimes a hideously manicured genre.
VIEW SHORT FILM HERE
vimeo.com/815575259
Brand new cassette release, second in the series of releases called 'A Tension of Opposites'.
86 minutes of completely new music, effectively two albums in one.
Housed in dual colour black and white shell, with folded Maltese cross packaging, full colour design printed on uncoated 240gsm card, inside and out.
This edition is a complement to 'A Tension of Opposites Volumes 1 & 2' and is limited to 300 copies.
"Now in its 40th year of existence, O Yuki Conjugate is still going strong. Going through various line-ups, but with Roger Horberry and Andrew Hulme as the common thread in their history. Their new cassette is a follow-up to the first instalment of 'A Tension Of Opposites' (see Vital Weekly 1275) and the result of working in isolation. The first one was at the height of lockdown and covid, but an idea they
liked to repeat. Hume has five pieces on the first side, Horberry ten on the second, and you try to spot the differences in approach and do the maths as the total is the sound of O Yuki Conjugate. They label their music as dirty ambient, which is about the "process of working quickly and instinctively, embracing errors and honouring imperfections. It's also a jibe at what is sometimes a hideously manicured genre." It's easy to hear the typical OYC elements in the music here, the percussion, the bass sounds, the sparse synthesizers, the slightly exotic feeling and the 'dirty' elements, a bit of tape hiss, for instance. As before, Horberry likes to keep his pieces short and tends to be rhythmic. Hulme has four shortish pieces and one long piece, and, again, his music is a slightly more abstract ambient drift. Remember that these 'differences' aren't significant, as Hulme's pieces have a fair share of rhythm, just as Horberry's music is highly atmospherical. Hulme's pieces are, perhaps,
more a collage of various sounds and textures, generally mixed in a free-floating manner, whereas Horberry's are kept together and have a song-like structure. Indeed, these approaches make up the music of O Yuki Conjugate. Let me end with the same conclusion as before; you can mistake this for a group effort, which is undoubtedly the point." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| O'MALLEY, STEPHEN |
Eternelle Idole |
do-LP |
"September 2015 marks the release of Stephen O’Malley’s ‘Eternelle Idole’, long awaited documentation of the score of Paris based choreographer Gisèle Vienne's eponymous artistic ice skating choreographic piece of the same name.
Composed of 47 minutes of music spread over 2 vinyls and enhanced by a elegant and chilling photoset by Estelle Hanania, the record features some - familiar - O’Malley collaborators such as Steve Moore, Daniel O'Sullivan, Peter Rehberg, Jesse Sykes, Bill Herzog & Randall Dunn.
Recorded between Brest (FR), Seattle (USA), and Rotterdam (NL), the score sees Stephen O’Malley taking several creative detours, utilizing modular synthesizers and programming as key elements for much of the composition. And while a 3 minutes hole (Track 3) will extract the music from any temporality, emerging eerie phrases of keyboards and piano draw a white monochrome stage for a young girl’s stark and emotive elegy.
Not to worry then… clavichord and guitars weave the darkness, supported by Jesse Sykes prophetical voice, summoning the utter walls of the threats from the external world.
Mirroring the music score, Estelle Hanania presents 16 photographs from the choreographic piece, enlightening how much ice-skating can be about grace and sustain, geometry, telemetry, distance and perfection, as well as possible falls, gloomy shadows.
Metal against ice, tights and knots, spirals and scratches, shouts and winds : field recordings mold a crispy atmosphere while instruments draws some ovals shapes such as lakes, ice skating ring, cosmos belt… and a terrestrial cloud passage and eventual landing platform for a flying saucer." [label info]
www.shelter-press.org
|
2015 |
€32.00 |
|
| OBJEKT4 |
No Light District |
do-CDR |
Nice release from the swedish project which is hard to define stylistically, soft washes of dream-sequence music & more rhythmic based (but strangely fragmented) dark electronica. Includes Audio-DVD (with same material) as bonus.
"Dark ambiental/noise from Stockholm. Dark soundscapes from an empty old house with horrible noises. It would be a perfect soundtrack for the movies of David Lynch! CD1 contains the "No Light District" in audio (stereo) format, for normal audio CD players.
CD2 for DTS-compatible DVD-players / receivers connected to a 5.1 system. 2XCD-r in DVD case with pro-cover"
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| OKLAND, NILS |
Bris |
CD |
“Nils Økland is one of Norway's most remarkable fiddlers, a renewer of traditional folk music, building bridges to classical, contemporary and improvised music. His music combines freedom and tradition -- he is concerned with the tradition of passing music by word of mouth and at the same time to see it in a fruitful meeting with modern impulses. Hallvard Kvale, an authority on Norwegian folk music and the founder of Norway's biggest and longest running record company for traditional music, Helio, names Nils Økland a visionary, the best thing to happen to Norwegian folk music in decades, and the closest the tradtition has come to a Miles Davis." Økland (Hardanger fiddle, violin), Sigbørn Apeland (harmonium, piano, organ), Torbjørn Økland (guitar, trumpet), Pål Thorstensen (double bass), Åsne Valland (vocal).” [press release]
|
2005 |
€15.00 |
|
| OLD CASTLE |
Welcome to Graceland |
CD |
"Rapoon and ex-Zoviet France, Robert Pepper of Pas Musique and Shaun Sandor aka Promute met in 2011 when they performed in Brooklyn at Cafe Orwell and they just clicked immediately. Starting as colaborative duos, they decided to work as a trio and so Old Castle came to life – incarnation of synergy drawn from the experience and creativity of each member. Given that each gentleman has pretty vast catalogue of very varied music the end result is pretty hard to classify and saying simply that it’s experimental music just doesn’t give it justice.
Tracks bear echoes of Coil. You can clearly feel shamanistic approach to sound creation with influences of IDM and LSD (the substance). Album starts in a pretty dark tone to move towards more rhythmic, colorful and abstract structures to end with a droning horror of the last track (ironically tiltled “Mummy Love”). Along the way you will hear unexpected appearances of classical instruments like trumpets, pianos or violins and even less obvious didgeridoo which brings to mind aboriginal trance inducing music. Everything veiled in mystery and eeriness. Overall experience reminds of acid trip with all its lighter and darker aspects.
It’s also worth to mention the cover art by Magdalena Eftimova, which after listening goes with the music perfectly. Bits of colours, textures and shapes turn into acid like yet coherent image and same goes with music - collages of sounds turn to coherent tracks and these create eventually amazing album as a whole.
CD edition of 400 copies comes in a 6 panel digipack."
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/welcome-to-graceland
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| ON (SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU & STEVEN HESS) |
Your naked Ghost comes back at Night |
CD |
"Das renommierte Electro-Duo trifft auf den Dark-Ambient-Meister Helge Sten:
Bei dem Projekt On handelt es sich um die Kollaboration zwischen dem französischen Komponisten und Produzenten Sylvain Chauveau und dem in Chicago lebenden Percussionisten Steven Hess (Haptic, Pan American). Das Duo wählte schon immer recht seltsame Wege, seine Arbeit zu präsentieren. Doch das Prinzip ist einfach: Die beiden nehmen ein Album auf, um es dann einem Dritten zur Überarbeitung zu geben. Der Remix ist dann das fertige Werk. 2003 wurden über drei Stunden Arbeit vom norwegischen Dark-Ambient-Meister Helge Sten alias Deathprod bearbeitet. Stens charakteristischer Schmuddel-Ambient wird ohrenfällig, wenn er Hess und Chauveaus Kompositionen in einen Sumpf aus tiefem Hall und synthetischem Rauch taucht. Hess’ perkussives Dröhnen ist zum entfernten Summen eines Insektenflügels gefiltert und Chauveaus präparierte Gitarre wird zur tektonischen Unterhaltung zweier Kontinente. Man weiß nicht immer, wann On aufhört und wo Deathprod anfängt, aber das ist auch das Geheimnis dieser Produktion." [label info]
"..Those familiar with Deathprod will instantly recognise Helge Sten’s dense atmospheric structures and minimal and haunting soundscapes. It is, indeed, his presence which is felt the most on this record, as he manipulates Chauveau’s guitar textures into vast sonic plains and retains very few recognisable traces of the original sound sources. Hess’s percussions are even more treated and only seem to appear as occasional seismic pulses, sending shockwaves deep within the sound formations, or as distant textural touches. Album opener Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night And Flies Around My Bed is based on a slowly evolving warm and opaque drone upon which are added a few brushes of distortions stretched to the point where they become extremely polished and sleek. Erotique, which follows, opens with the distant rumble of percussions, but darker forms soon roll in and give this piece a stark desolate feel at the opposite end of the scale of what its title suggests.
Later on, on Facade, Sten uses metallic percussions as main element, progressively drawing them out into a much more compact and dense cloud of noise over the twelve minutes of the piece, while retaining the rich hue of the original component. Elsewhere, In The Forest Of The Night appears as dense but it is sign-posted with regular pulses which, while never dragging the piece out of its original torpor, brighten up its path. Too Many Demons Still Haunt This Land and The Lonesome Poetry Of Mark Rothko, which closes this album, are much darker and incredibly vast, as persistent winds blow upon barren landscapes and swallow the most vivid sonic details which attempt to arise, leaving these two pieces in a permanent state of darkness. The latter especially, stretching over seventeen and a half minutes, is an incredibly haunting moment, which, after over twelve minutes of deep-space like noises, begins to open up to a more peaceful and almost melodic sound form.
With Helge Sten applying his touch and aesthetic to the original pieces recorded by Sylvain Chauveau and Steven Hess, it is totally impossible to even envisage what these may have sounded. And while the sound sources were created by the pair, ultimately, this album sounds like the work of Sten. This however never hinders its impact in any way, the resulting compositions working extremely well together to create an intense and moody journey through some of the most stunning atmospheric soundscapes heard since SAWII." [The Milkfactory]
www.typerecords.com
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Your naked Ghost comes back at Night |
do-LP |
"Das renommierte Electro-Duo trifft auf den Dark-Ambient-Meister Helge Sten:
Bei dem Projekt On handelt es sich um die Kollaboration zwischen dem französischen Komponisten und Produzenten Sylvain Chauveau und dem in Chicago lebenden Percussionisten Steven Hess (Haptic, Pan American). Das Duo wählte schon immer recht seltsame Wege, seine Arbeit zu präsentieren. Doch das Prinzip ist einfach: Die beiden nehmen ein Album auf, um es dann einem Dritten zur Überarbeitung zu geben. Der Remix ist dann das fertige Werk. 2003 wurden über drei Stunden Arbeit vom norwegischen Dark-Ambient-Meister Helge Sten alias Deathprod bearbeitet. Stens charakteristischer Schmuddel-Ambient wird ohrenfällig, wenn er Hess und Chauveaus Kompositionen in einen Sumpf aus tiefem Hall und synthetischem Rauch taucht. Hess’ perkussives Dröhnen ist zum entfernten Summen eines Insektenflügels gefiltert und Chauveaus präparierte Gitarre wird zur tektonischen Unterhaltung zweier Kontinente. Man weiß nicht immer, wann On aufhört und wo Deathprod anfängt, aber das ist auch das Geheimnis dieser Produktion." [label info]
"..Those familiar with Deathprod will instantly recognise Helge Sten’s dense atmospheric structures and minimal and haunting soundscapes. It is, indeed, his presence which is felt the most on this record, as he manipulates Chauveau’s guitar textures into vast sonic plains and retains very few recognisable traces of the original sound sources. Hess’s percussions are even more treated and only seem to appear as occasional seismic pulses, sending shockwaves deep within the sound formations, or as distant textural touches. Album opener Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night And Flies Around My Bed is based on a slowly evolving warm and opaque drone upon which are added a few brushes of distortions stretched to the point where they become extremely polished and sleek. Erotique, which follows, opens with the distant rumble of percussions, but darker forms soon roll in and give this piece a stark desolate feel at the opposite end of the scale of what its title suggests.
Later on, on Facade, Sten uses metallic percussions as main element, progressively drawing them out into a much more compact and dense cloud of noise over the twelve minutes of the piece, while retaining the rich hue of the original component. Elsewhere, In The Forest Of The Night appears as dense but it is sign-posted with regular pulses which, while never dragging the piece out of its original torpor, brighten up its path. Too Many Demons Still Haunt This Land and The Lonesome Poetry Of Mark Rothko, which closes this album, are much darker and incredibly vast, as persistent winds blow upon barren landscapes and swallow the most vivid sonic details which attempt to arise, leaving these two pieces in a permanent state of darkness. The latter especially, stretching over seventeen and a half minutes, is an incredibly haunting moment, which, after over twelve minutes of deep-space like noises, begins to open up to a more peaceful and almost melodic sound form.
With Helge Sten applying his touch and aesthetic to the original pieces recorded by Sylvain Chauveau and Steven Hess, it is totally impossible to even envisage what these may have sounded. And while the sound sources were created by the pair, ultimately, this album sounds like the work of Sten. This however never hinders its impact in any way, the resulting compositions working extremely well together to create an intense and moody journey through some of the most stunning atmospheric soundscapes heard since SAWII." [The Milkfactory]
CD-version available too, 16 Euro !
www.typerecords.com
|
2009 |
€20.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| OPITOPE |
Hau |
CD |
"This an imaginary album traveling from the north to south, overlapping the images of transition of the four seasons. In reality, indeed one things always leads to an end and I feel sad every time I think about that. In this album, we tried to express this sorrow feeling changing gradually into hope as we travel south. Seasons have no end. It always moves from spring, summer, autumn, winter back to spring.. And just like the changing seasons, the tracks in this album constantly shifts another and the last piece connects to the very beginning which forms the never ending circle. We have expressed the images of these "endings" with "never endings" by music. These thoughts were brought up naturally during the making of this album and it's not that we had this idea from the start. Another concept of this album is "symmetry". There are 9 pieces in this album and is constructed by track 5 being the axis of the symmetry - like in terms os composition, 1st track is a piano piece and also the 9th track. The same thing goes to the arrangements like you will notice sounds that forms contrasts between the left & right speaker." [Opitope]
www.spekk.net
|
2007 |
€15.50 |
|
| OPIUM |
Floatdownstream |
CD-R |
Das besondere an OPIUMS Transzendental-Ambient sind die ethnischen Original-Sounds, die sehr dezent und hintergründig im Klangfluss sichtbar werden (Didj, Perkussion, östliche Blas- und Streichinstrumente, Feldaufnahmen...
Behutsame Dreamscapes, die gleichzeitig entrancen und sensibilisieren. Referenzen: TUU, ALIO DIE, GRASSOW....
“An appealing and inspired work of classic ritual ambient music, with obscure and dilated sounds... Extraordinary and evocative atmospheres, for a sonic continuum based on articulate electronic waves, flowing pads, voices, percussions, ethnic strings and wind instruments, sitar, didjeridoo, natural noises recordings... Elegant, catchy, moving... Absolutely not to miss.“ [label info]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORBIT SERVICE |
Twilight |
CD |
Über BETA-LACTAM wird diese (Debut?)-CD dieser vierköpfigen Band aus Denver, CO, vertrieben. ORBIT SERVICE machen verträumten, langsamen Songwriter-Folk/Pop mit hochmelancholischer Note und schönen Instrumentalparts, dunkel, gefühlvoll & warm.... leicht elektronisch / psychedelisch, gitarrig, mit getragenen Melodica- bzw. Akkordeon-Arrangements.... erinnert an RED HOUSE PAINTERS, IDAHO, oder SYD BARRET wenn er heute noch Musik machen würde...
“Twilight, mastered by Grammy-award-winning engineer Matt Sandoski, explores dark, brooding territory with near-telepathic interplay. Seamless from start to finish, this eleven-song cycle sustains an ominous, slow-loping ambience suitable for doomsday -- or at least a rainy-morning shag. Twilight is a journey through lavish, woeful soundscapes populated by jilted lovers, sleepless nights, and friends that are friends no more. Masterfully arranged and orchestrated, the album envelopes the listener in a seamless world of soaring peaks and dismal, barren wastelands. Hope is absent, and the anger of youth has been replaced by melancholic acceptance of the world's hastening plummet at the hands of man. The album's pristine production, handled by both the band members and Grammy Award-winning engineer Matt Sandoski, blurs the line between listener and performer. Around every bend are sonic explorations that create a moving and shared experience.” [press release]
"The best way I can describe the sound of this album is to think of what you would get if you mixed PORTISHEAD, a little PINK FLOYD, RADIOHEAD, and the slower side of PORCUPINE TREE." [Jettmandude, www.peacedogman.com, May 2005]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| ORGANUM |
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 / Z'EV |
Tocsin |
CD |
Endlich mal was ganz neues von ORGANUM: diese Zusammenarbeit mit Z’EV entführt mit Piano und Stahlklängen in objektlose Sphären und melancholische Zwischenspiele, eine überraschende Zusammenführung, die gut funktioniert...
“Following their maxi CD 'Tinnitus Vu' on Touch in 2004 'Tocsin' is the first full lenght album by these two renowned sound artists. Whereas Z'ev simply reworked already existing work by Jackman for 'Tinnitus Vu', this time the artists agreed to both meet in the studio for 'Tocsin'. They created and recorded sounds from a piano which can be found at RMS Studios London and a stainless steel piece built by Z'ev circa 1989, over the course of several hours, took the recordings home, and after a period of each one mixing these sounds by themselves came up with what can be heard on this CD. Two distinctively different works/sections by both artists which form a multilayered and fascinating album. Design by Janthan Coleclough. Edition of 600 copies in full colour 4 panel digisleeve. Total playing time: 49:24 min.” [press release]
“.....Together they went in the studio one day in 2004 and each played an instrument: Z'ev played a stainless steel instrument, built in 1989 and Organum played piano. They improvised for several hours and then each return home to work on their own mix of the material. It's hard to believe that these are two sides of the same coin, really. One of he two lengthy Organum pieces dwell heavily on sparse piano sounds, with vague rumblings in the background. Maybe the plucking of the stainless steel instrument, but it's kept to a strict background. The other piece shows similar piano notes but with bowing sounds and long sustains on metal. Z'ev on the other hand has seven shorter pieces and each seems to rely heavily on sustaining sounds, scraping sounds with piano notes forming a much looser connection to the whole. It seems to me that Z'ev added more electronic processing to the sounds, such as the use of reverb and delay. Unlike what you could easily believe is that the drone like pieces here are by Z'ev and not by Organum. Z'ev's pieces are more along the lines of the previous Touch release. Quite a fruitful collaboration and hopefully more to come.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| ORGANUM ELECTRONICS |
Organum Electronics |
CD |
In the birth of the universe
Time stands still amidst a wild and untamable energy
Radiant light bathes and purifies solid stone pillars
Both ancient and modern
Wild vibrations touch our most innermost core and perception
Organum Electronics exists in the clear moment of the present
But its mysterious compositions lay hidden in a
timeless past
Modulating oscillations mirror our most fundamental sense of being
As though a living and breathing entity would
Communicating with a life-force and language we have all but forgotten
sirenrecords.blogspot.com/2019/11/organum-electronics-siren-29.html
"David Jackman’s music, both as Organum and under his given name, is typically characterized by repetition, brevity and a deadpan aloofness. He’s made plenty of extremely short (sometimes
one-sided) 7” singles, albums containing multiple slight variations on a single piece, and albums of compositional (if not sonic) minimalism. It’s Jackman’s typical move to provide very little information beyond a word, or sometimes an image. Lately, he’s been predisposed to not even providing an image; just as few words as possible on a white background, nothing more.
Naturally, he does not seem to do interviews and has no web presence. As listeners, we’re left to apprehend the music as itself. No guidance into his hermetic world. I find it refreshing. Whatever your experience of an Organum album is, that’s all you get. Thankfully, each emission is thought- provoking enough to get lost in and monolithic enough to encourage both passive and active engagement.
In the case of the flatly titled Electronics”, the music is as evocative and singular as anything Jackman has produced. The three 15-minute untitled pieces are monoliths of surging drone bathed in mammoth reverberation. The title says everything you need to know and nothing at all.
Same with the cover art, merely the title and name in a black print cross pattern on white background. The design is nearly (or perhaps exactly?) identical to Jackman’s relatively more active and mellow “Herbstsonne” album; is there an implied relationship between the two? I’ve given both albums some deep listen and I cannot tell what the relationship could be. And so again, the sound is all one gets. “Electronics” is dense and huge; a roiling swamp of electric din that would appeal to fans of Jackman’s early collaborations with The New Blockaders (“Salute” and “Wrack”), though this is more atmospheric than aggressive. It’s a slow boil of fierce control, not a chaotic attack. Few actual events happen, and there isn’t much difference between the three tracks… it’s almost as if Jackman set some sounds in motion, then stepped back and allowed the pieces to generate themselves. It’s relentless and heavy, uniform in mood across all 45 minutes. No build-up, no denouement, just a steady mysterious churn to get lost inside of." [HS, Vital Weekly]
|
2019 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Solitude |
CD |
“In the everlasting silence of the universe
Dark clouds reflect upon shimmering water
The voiceless radiance of solitude
Dissonant overtones in dark clouds
Pierce the eternal veil of night
The rivers rage ceaselessly
Burst
Swiftly, cloud-shadows and sunbeams
White flames burning through a dark sky
Wrapped in its own eternity
Wild and forsaken
No sound is tamed
Release and rebirth, revolve, subside and swell
Inescapable and incessant in motion
The path of that unfailing sound
A harmony
Ancient and solemn
The voiceless radiance of solitude”
David Jackman’s music, both as Organum and under his given name, is typically characterized by repetition, brevity and a deadpan aloofness. He’s made plenty of extremely short (sometimes one-sided) 7” singles, albums containing multiple slight variations on a single piece, and albums of compositional (if not sonic) minimalism. It’s Jackman’s typical move to provide very little information beyond a word, or sometimes an image. Lately, he’s been predisposed to not even providing an image; just as few words as possible on a white background, nothing more.
Naturally, he does not seem to do interviews and has no web presence. As listeners, we’re left to apprehend the music as itself. No guidance into his hermetic world. I find it refreshing. Whatever your experience of an Organum album is, that’s all you get. Thankfully, each emission is thought- provoking enough to get lost in and monolithic enough to encourage both passive and active engagement.
8Howard Stelzer]
"In Vital Weekly 1216, HS reviewed 'Electronics' by Organum, which was quite the change for Organum’s David Jackman. In the last decade or so, Jackman used quite a lot of real instruments to construct a bizarre composition that may or may not be the same. After that came 'Stillness', not reviewed on these pages, and the name was changed to Organum Electronics, which is also the banner for 'Solitude', a thirty-six-minute piece of harsh electronics. Oddly enough, the artwork didn't change and is still similar to the artwork of his 'quieter' phase and which I think is pop art without the images. I have no idea if David Jackman acquired a set of modular electronics to do this, or if this is something he always had but not used a lot. The loud character of the music brings back memories of the very first record I heard from Organum, 'In Extremis'. I always thought that was made with acoustic instruments played with mechanical objects and slowed down, and I might be wrong. It had that density of ringing sounds that I enjoyed a lot back then and still do; Organum is one of the three or four musicians of whom I own a lot of records. That sort of density I also find in 'Solitude', even when it might be all electronics. It sounds like being trapped in the machine room of a large ship. The more you concentrate, the more little nuances appear in the music, an odd sense of movement in a standstill notion. The music might be loud, but it has not the similar aggression I find in some noise records. There is, odd as it may sound, a soothing aspect to the music. I am a fanboy, I admit that, and that means Organum can't do wrong. It was a bold move to change the style of music for David Jackman, but most enjoyable!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€14.00 |
|
|
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 |
|
| |
Darcknes |
CD |
"Organum Electronics ‘Darcknes’ is the sibling album of ‘Quietude’ (DS128). It is a similarly 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. ‘Darcknes’ (DS130) is the second 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." [label info]
"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 ARKTIKA |
At Royspytten |
7inch |
Neue Single der Norweger, hier beschreiten sie sehr subtil dark-folkige Wege..
The same Origami Arktika dreamteam line up as the last single on killer – at Snippen. This time the Norwegian folk music undercurrents are even more pronounced, including their very own version of a Jørund Telnes song (Norwegian folk music performer). Since last time the band has released several CDs - >brook< - a spilt CD with Lull and a live CD from Poland. This single is the first material to arrive from their latest session and hopefully the rest of this material sees the light of day. Origami Arktika sounds like nothing else on earth, a bit folk music, a bit drone rock, a bit outlandish as a freeform arctic storm. Personnel are Tore H. Bøe, Kai S. Mikalsen, Bjarne Larsen, Rune Flaten and Kjell Ø. Braaten. Current activities include Salvatore, several Origami fractions, Kobi, Ka, Sketch, Palace of Pleasure and a lot more. Beautiful colour cover courtesy of Jarle Hrafn Grindhaug.45 rpm, edition of 300 where 100 are on dark lilac vinyl” [press-release]
|
2002 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
aBSOLuT GEHöR |
LP |
"Origami Arktika embodies tension. With “Absolut Gehör” they explore otherworldly realms. Songs gleam with energy. Everyone works together to create these fevered dreams. Rhythm is the focal point for these pieces. Akin to a tribal feel the members play off of each other allowing for a collection that builds gradually. Instrumentation is kept extremely colorful alternating between the acoustic and the imagined. Kept intangible the pieces literally breathe.
“Ro og hamle” begins things off in creepy fashion with disorientated drums, music boxes, and a barely conscious bass. Setting the mood is remarkably simple for them as they explore the shadows. The calculated freedom reaches a critical point by the end with the song threatening to fully derail. “Bryggja te jol” allows things to get marginally grounded. Right in the beginning the same mood appears to be set. Eventually however a groove forms halfway through the piece and propels them to the luscious finale. Light on their toe “Tora liti” shows how nimble they can be keeping things remarkably clear. Elements fall into piece representing strange new territories to fully explore. By far the best track on the collection is the playful “Det syng for Storegut”. On this track Origami Arktika express their utmost desires to play with listener expectations. After so much experimentation they appear to capitalize on that work bringing forth an incredibly habit forming piece.
“Absolut Gehör” explores new sonic universes. Origami Arktika are a rare breed of a band." [Beach Sloth]
"This already arrived some time ago, and I played it already quite a lot. That could be an indication that this is really good, but in this case it's more doubt and an uncertainity to make up my mind. Origami Arktika is a band that includes Rune Flaten on vocals, and Tore Honore Boe, Kai Koloi Mikalsen and others; no instruments are specified here, but it's quite heavy on percussion and string instruments (guitars no doubt, a bass but also a zither). Not this keep a steady beat per se, as the drumming is done in a more ritualistic form. It owes more to the world of free psychedelic music than say dance music, more jazz than rock. These shamans do a slow dance. Perhaps this is all rooted in the world of ancient folk music, but then updated to the current day? I am not sure, but it sounds like it. At times quite drone like, but unmistakably a 'musical' record. This is a band playing. Maybe these are things I find hard to get in to. Maybe it's because I don't understand Norwegian,
providing this is not sung in another language I don't know. Maybe I am slightly allergic to all things ritualistik as such spelling dictates. But then, and here comes my uncertainty, I am playing this and find myself tapping my feet along and getting into their somewhat krautrock inspired rhythms. If you like the Nordic mysticism of say Sigur Ros and want something as moody but no doubt a lot weirder, than this is the place to visit. It's in a dark Norwegian Wood." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€22.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| ORO!ORO! |
Sastingis |
CD |
"The latest oro!oro! album is dedicated to the eternal winter. To the everlasting glacial stagnation. Just imagine it is one and the same season - the season of winter - all year round. That is the true core of the stagnation. Excessively deep meditative sounds remind ether, the habitat of spirits. Reluctantly you ask yourself if you are still alive? In terms of style, the album harks back to the cult ambient albums of Current’93. Those who still recall The Stars Are Marching Sadly Home may expect the same atmosphere. Perhaps now is the time when the waiting for the spring will never end?" [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2013 |
€12.50 |
|
| ORPHAX |
De Tragedie van een Liedjesschrijver zonder Woorden |
CD |
" “De tragedie van een liedjesschrijver zonder woorden” (The tragedy of a song writer without words) is the first normal CD by Orphax. This album contains music that has been written between April 2005 and July 2007 and retouched again in 2008 and 2010. The period these songs were written was one with many transitions in the live of van Erve. It was the end of his student years, the begin of his working years, a period where he struggled with an at that time unknown disease, a period where he was searching for answers to questions he didn't know. Inspired by this he wrote these wordless pieces.
The music on this release, at first planned for release in 2011, shows yet another look into the ever expanding work by Orphax. Even more than his other work this one is dealing with small details in the composition creating an environment that feels comfortable but at the same time grabs you by the throat. The music goes from minimal droning sounds to isolationist soundscapes and experimental ambient moods.
Orphax is the project by Sietse van Erve, born in Tilburg, living in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Orphax works in the field of experimental electronic music once started out with ambient music slowly incorporating drone elements he now has a focus on minimalist music and lo-fi droning sounds. With every release he tries out new ways to get to his goal to create a psychedelic mind influencing atmosphere.
So far he has released several CD-R releases both private as on small labels such as Cut Hands and Verato Project, Broken20 and Moving Furniture Records.
In the past he was performed and worked with artists such as The Village Orchestra, Jos Smolders, and Erstlaub. He also shared the stage with musicians such as Charalambides, Sindre Bjerga, Zebra (Frans de Waard & Roel Meelkop), Staplerfahrer, Dirk Serries and many others.
Limited Special Edition with bonus CD only available directly through Orphax." [label info]
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
"A while in the making, this 'tragedy of a song writer without words', which was already recorded between 2005 and 2005, later reworked, in 2008 and 2010 and then left in the hands of a less reliable label, but now being released as a CD on Orphax' own label, Moving Furniture Records. Orphax, you should know, is the work of Sietse van Erve and perhaps the easiest thing to say is that he is a computer musician, and one of the few I know who works extensively with AudioMulch, a sort of build your own musical software, along the lines of Max/msp or pure data. He has released a whole bunch of things, mostly CDRs and downloads, but now his first CD, and perhaps I am listening to this differently, but it sounds great. Do I listen better, more closely because this is a CD? I would hope it doesn't make any difference, but the five pieces, all with titles in Dutch, showcase what Orphax does best. Creating glitch like music, with microscopic changes, deep end drones and it works heavily on the mind. You could wonder wether something 'new' happens here, but that's not the point I think. Orphax plays some glitch based music which is firmly rooted in minimalism and has a tendency towards noise, but unlike some of his previous releases, the element of noise is very much under control here: it's there for sure, it serves the purpose of the music but it doesn't get in the way of whatever is going on, the drones, the ambience. Carefully building sound constructions, these six pieces is each a beauty to hear. This is, and I am not exaggerating here, by far the best Orphax release I have heard. It's a great decision to have this on a real CD, a show of confidence." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€11.50 |
|
| ORPHAX & MACHINEFABRIEK |
Weerkaatsing |
CD |
Weerkaatsing is the first collaboration by Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) and Sietse van Erve (Orphax), both active players in the Dutch experimental electronic music field. While their paths did cross many times at concerts either as visitors or as performing artists, never before these prolific musicians got together. And as with so many collaborations also this one has a story behind it:
Reflectie (Orphax)
The idea behind this collaboration started in 2007, when Rutger released his EP Stofstuk and following this the remix album Kruimeldief.
For years since the release I was intrigued by this little piece and the various remixes, and always had the idea of making a remix myself (and actually to start a series of unrequested remixes). Finally in 2016 I took the time to really work on this Stofstuk remix. With some magic and other forms of witchcraft I created the almost 20 minute long drone piece Reflectie, based solely on the Stofstuk piece. I tried to put a real Orphax touch to the work, but without losing the true Machinefabriek sound. As such it really felt for me as if we did a collaboration; and it was screaming for more.
So I told Rutger about this and after I sent him the piece the idea came he would also remix one of my works. And from there this collaboration really kicked off...
Spiegeling (Machinefabriek)
The first time I met Sietse was at a gig in Utrecht, probably in 2006 or so, but I’m not sure. Since then, I saw him at so many gigs… one of the regulars of the scene, I’d say. Anyway, in 2007 I invited a load of artists to make a remix of my track ‘Stofstuk’. The results appeared on the album ‘Kruimeldief’, but what was missing was Sietse’s remix. At least, that’s what I found out recently. Apparently he had been ‘secretly’ working on a beautiful 20-minute remake of my track. Damn, it was too nice not to do anything with it, so we decided that I should return the favour and do a remix of an Orphax piece. I choose 'Geluiden van de Eerste Dag’, of his 'Tragedie van een Liedjesschrijver’ album, the piece that resonated the most with me. And the rework was done in no time. Not because I was in a hurry, but because the basic material of the track was so grateful to work with. I added a few looped snippets of violin which I recorded at a rehearsal (for another piece), and these worked perfectly with Sietse’s sounds. ‘One plus one equals three’, I’d say (cliché or not).
Weerkaatsing (Together)
So then we had two remixes. We had already decided to release this somehow, but it didn’t feel complete yet. That’s when ‘Weerkaatsing’, the title track, came to life. The most ‘collaborative collaboration’, and our favourite track of the album. It’s like the table tennis illustration on the cover; we kept bouncing sounds back and forth, until the track was finished. Which, again, didn’t take long. We were clearly on the same wavelength, and together with the other two tracks, we think it’s a really solid drone album.
movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/weerkaatsing
"In a small country like The Netherlands there is a small, lively scene of experimental musicians, who bump into each other quite a lot and it is almost inevitable that there will be collaborations. Sietse van Erve, also known as Orphax bumped into Rutger Zuydervelt, alias Machinefabriek, bumped into each other a lot, as players of concerts or visitors to other concerts. Orphax was also interested in 'Stofstuk', an early piece by Machinefabriek (see Vital Weekly 573) that got quite quickly a remix CD to its name (see Vital Weekly 586). Van Erve was not on part of that remix project but over the years worked on a remix of his own and when Rutger found out, he decided to thank by doing a remix of an Orphax piece, 'Geluiden van de Eerste dag' from 'Tragedie Van Een Liedjesschrijver' (see Vital Weekly 899), in a twenty minute piece. To top it off they
worked on a joint piece of music, bouncing sound files back and forth and now all three pieces.
These three pieces are now to be found on 'Weerkaatsing', which means reflection, just as all three pieces have titles which Dutch synonyms for 'reflection'. Many works by both artists have been reviewed in Vital Weekly, and if you read what was written over the years, you know the words 'drone' and 'ambient' have been used quite a bit. This collaborative is not different and both play what their fans, me included, expect them to do. Where Machinefabriek has the sustaining organ sound Orphax is known, along with the stretching of bell sounds, Orphax uses the violin loops of the original and even allows for some rough cuts. Machinefabriek seems to be at his most minimal in this piece, in awe of Orphax, I'd say, and Orphax returns by showing a more musical side. In their duet piece they go for the more conventional drone approach and it consists of many layers of Orphax' old organs picked up in a space with a microphone adding an excellent space feel to them, and it gets a lovely treatment. This CD has a great cover too,
courtesy by Zuydervelt. An excellent release." (FdW/Vital weekly) |
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO |
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 & 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 & 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 |
|
| OUBYS |
Terra_Incognita |
LP |
" 'Terra Incogita’ is Oubys’ first release on Testtoon Records.
Following up on his two acclaimed CD releases on the U-Cover label, ‘Terra Incognita’ delves into even more vast territory.
Essentially exploring different spaces and different modes of energy, ‘Terra Incognita’ uses a distinctly analogue production and mastering design to lure the listener into a trance-like lullaby, a hypnotic state of altered consciousness if you will. At the same time though, the music plays with a direct expression of organic elements, earthing the listening experience, thus giving it a solid base. The sound of the album should be felt, should be experienced. At maximum volume or at low volume, a beautiful paradox reveals itself. A continuous counterpoint of energy materializing and matter being transformed into energy draws this music into different directions all the time.
Mellow washes alternate with sharp, almost piercing sounds, deep sub-tones alternate with hiss. Oubys’ intention is to confront and subdue, to make space be felt and to translate and transmit energy." [label info]
www.testtoon.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| OUR LOVE WILL DESTROY THE WORLD |
I hate even Numbers |
LP |
"Parallel universes mangle and mash into a superheated cloud of galactic debris and non-recyclable plastic. After a slew of genre-confounding 7" releases, Our Love Will Destroy The World unravels his own history of nearly everything in this, the mere third full length offering under his world destroying moniker. Smearing the already dotty line between twinkle-toed rave music and excoriating drone cacophony, "I Hate Even Numbers" weighs in like a three-legged gargantuan in a one-man morris dance. Blessed with a deep conviction that 'nowhere' is somewhere definitely worth going to, crippled, hobbling, clunkbeats and bubblepulses contest every frequency to the death underscored (overscored?) by mega-electrified guitar tuning exercises, shattering a passage to a brand new India. Everything louder than everything else, everything dissolving in the powerful acid of the sound next to it - a frybrained avalanche of audio M&Ms. Profound, elevating, and mercilessly, relentlessly UP!
Our Love Will Destroy The World is the new one-man project by New Zealander Campbell Kneale after disbanding BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL. In the past Kneale has released albums on Ecstatic Peace, Corpus Hermeticum, Last Visible Dog, Conspiracy and his own Celebrate Psi Phenomena label. He has colllaborated with Lee Ranaldo, Neil Campbell, Bruce Russel, John Olson (Wolf Eyes), Yellow Swans, has toured throughout Japan, Europe, America and Australia and also records und the names BLACK BONED ANGEL and Ming.
"I Hate Even Numbers" is the 2nd LP by this new project for the Dekorder label (his 4th altogether) after last year's monolithic "Stillborn Plague Angels" album.
Limited edition of 400 copies!" [label info]
www.dekorder.com
"A quartet of new releases on Dekorder display the label's nicer senses of finding interesting new names as well as keeping the old. The old is represented by Campbell Kneale, previously working as Birchville Cat Motel, now trading as Our Love Will Destroy The World. The music also saw some changes, which are even more apparent on this third album under the new guise. Kneale dances the vitus dance here. The five pieces are all evolving around revolving sounds. Hectic, nervous, jumpy, this hardly classifies as 'dance' music. There is a bit of drum computer in here, but not a 4/4 one and there is a total chaos in all these jumpy sounds which are looped together. Occasionally we hear some guitar noise underneath all of this bumping stuff, a vague reminder perhaps of the more droney and noisy days of Kneale. I thought this was a pretty nice record, a decisive step forward (or side-ward is perhaps a better word), and do something new and do that well. This album reminded me of the album Richard Youngs put out on Dekorder: that same wicked sense of rhythm." [label info]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| OUSTAD, KRISTOFFER |
Filth Haven |
CD |
"As one half of Swedish/Norwegian industrial duo K.N.O., Kristoffer Oustad is no stranger to the Malignant roster, and yet within the broader context of the K.N.O. sound, his exact contributions were never fully known, or at least immediately recognizable. Listening to his debut solo recording, it becomes evident that the more emotive and moody qualities within those recordings seemed to be his primary responsibility. The 7 tracks that comprise Filth Haven operate on a palpable psychological level and are perhaps some of the most personal and deeply emotional recordings Malignant has released. Oustad shows an innate ability to craft intricate and detailed pieces of grey hued, analog darkness that feel suspended in time… dreamlike and meditative, yet always hinting at something ominous on the horizon, as gradually shifting textures, drifting tones and haunting melodies intersect in a hazy, somnambulant procession. While the method for composition (analog synths, guitar, and field recordings) may have been the same, each track is uniquely different than the next, but in the end, feels tightly bound together by a cinematic framework that sinks deep into your consciousness. An absolutely astounding and rewarding work for those that appreciate all manner of dark music." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
"Filth Haven is the first full length release published by the Norwegian Kristoffer Oustad under his own name. In the past Oustad has offered several albums and compilation works under the moniker of Kristoffer Nyströms Orkester (a power industrial duet formed with Peter Nyström of Megaptera) and Plague Machinery and the post-metal, avant-garde industrial project V:28.
Filth Haven is an ultimate bleak, demonic and epic soundscaping inferno. Massive, absorbing and grimy, the dark instrumental music rituals offered here are made of brooding droney chords, treated found sources, ultra-sonic electronic assaults, micro signals, harsh noises, disembodied chants and treated hypnotic-like percussive elements. The whole orchestration is amazingly captivating and exceptionally turbulent, as if we enter in complete nightmare-ish hallucinations which send us back to primordial origins or to some forgotten cosmic events. ‘Filth Haven’ is a tremendously hell-ish narrative album, a sublime illustration of infernal scenes of extravagance and final desolation we can appreciate in terrifying painting visions of John Martin, John Charles Dollman or Adolf Hiremy-Hirschl, just to name a few. The apocalyptic mood is interrupted by rare field recordings as in the otherworldly Acheron-like droning sound tapestry of “Row me over.”
Mesmeric splendor, compelling musical procession and dark contemplative estates that will ravish addicted fans of isolationist ambient music and anything related to post-industrial experimentalism. With this album Malignant Records proves one more time that they figure among the most iconic producers of shimmering industrial ambient music. Filth Haven is definitely a recommended album for collectors as well as beginners in the genre." [Philippe Blache, IGLOO MAGAZINE]
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| OVRO |
Horizontal / Vertical (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
"OVRO has already been called "the wondergirl of Finnish experimental music" and with this, her first ever vinyl-release, she really proves this! On HORIZONTAL / VERTICAL deep waving droning noises are set against vortexing echoes & swirling digital effects, derived from what could be instrumental sources or object recordings, moving the willing listener into a surrealistic subconscious dimension. Especially on the second side the contrasting conrete material can fill your imagination with "something" that "happens", so captivating & condensed!
This music spreads like an unconscious aural travelogue in different spatial directions (horizontal & vertical). What makes OVRO so special is her capability to create very "cinematographic" and "narrative" drone-atmospheres or landscapes, with great care for even tiniest details.
OVRO is also a part of the SOME PLACE ELSE-association, together with NIKO SKORPIO.
Filed under: Subsconscious Travel-Drones
more info: www.someplaceelse.net/artists/?id=ovro
WHITE VINYL. HANDMADE COVERS PASTED UP WITH NEWSPAPER-SHEETS & FILMSTRIPS" [label info]
www.dronerecords.de
"Auch OVRO, die mit Horizontal / Vertical (DR-93, white vinyl, red labels) erstmals auf Vinyl zu hören ist, bekennt sich zu einem ‚Anderswo‘, das als Label Some Place Else eine Adresse in Venäjänkangas hat, in den Hinterwäldern von Turku. Dort hat die junge Finnin Musik veröffentlicht - Malice in Underland (2003), Gegendurchgangenzeit (2005), Mosaick the Serpent / Vipera Aurea (2006) und Revisited (2008) und weiteres als Hæretici 7o74, einem Duo mit Niko Skorpio - , die jedem, der sie hörte, in die Zwielichtzone
zwischen Tag, Traum und Alptraum entrückte und Geheimnisse zuflüsterte, wie sie Dichter als Krikelkrakel einer anderen Macht zu Papier bringen. Schon das Video zu ‚Equation Impossible‘ macht eine Faszination durch Stummfilmhorror und Schwarzweißfilme von Polanski deutlich. Hier suggiert ein aufgeklebter Filmstreifen auf den handgefertigten EP-Hüllen eine cineastische Qualität der ominösen Klänge, die ins Bewusstsein einsickern wie nichts Gutes. Eine grummelnde Basswelle, wischende, fast krächzende und kaskadierende Loops, die rückwärts und linksherum gegen das Gebot
der Zeit verstoßen. ‚Undergrounded‘ und ‚Elevatored‘ steht auf den Auslaufrillen. Man steckt in einem Untergeschoss fest, und das leise Klopfen und Scharren vor der Tür lässt einen zittern, dass sie nicht aufgeht. Oder ist es nur der eigene Puls im Ohr, und schon zittert der furchtsamen Nachtwache in der Hirn-Morgue sprichwörtlich ‚jedes Blatt‘?" [Bad Alchemy]
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| P16.D4 |
DISTRUCT |
CD |
Assemblage of transformed, organized and (re)structed sound material submitted by:
Bladder Flask, Déficit Des Années Antérieures, De Fabriek, The Haters, Philip Johnson, Hiroki Kocha, Merzbow, Fredrik Nilsen, Nocturnal Emissions, Nurse With Wound, Onnyk, Harold Schellinx, Die Tödliche Doris, Vortex Campaign.
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-distruct-lp/
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“On this, their second LP, P16.D4 solicited tapes from several artists from Europe, England, the U.S., Canada, and Japan, and mixed that with their own material. Though in the current digital age collaborations from artists thousands of miles apart is quite normal, this was a quite radical approach back in 1982, when work on this LP began – an interesting concept that actually works quite well, since these artists, which include Bladder Flask, DDAA, the Haters, Merzbow, Nocturnal Emissions, Nurse With Wound, and several others – work in a similar free-ranging experimentalism as P16.D4, and their particular elements, usually just vocals or one instrument or noise implement, blend well without diluting P16.D4’s own peculiar brand of avant-garde post-industrialism, but merely give it another facet. One of the best tracks, “Aufmarsch, Heimlich,” consists of a choir submitted anonymously from Eastern Europe phasing in and out of static while a skronky alto sax bleats away. Most of the pieces exist somewhere just beyond the borders of free jazz, industrial, and even classical avant-garde, full of jarring noises and strange transitions and with a heavy overlay of electronics. What started out as an experiment yielded one of P16.D4’s best albums.”
Rolf Semprebon / AMG
“Distruct is organized around sounds provided by the cream of experimental musicians of the early ’80s, from Nurse With Wound to Nocturnal Emissions, via De Fabriek, Die Todliche Doris, The Haters, Merzbow, and others. Obviously, there is no question of remixing here, and at no time do P16.D4 seek to hide its sources, clearly identifying the contribution of each artist in the liner notes. It would be futile to try to find the paw of each artist, the trio operating vis-à-vis its collaborators the same methods as in their own work. Reworked, distorted by various effects, cut, edited, aggregated with other sounds, produced by P16.D4 themselves, reprocessed. Exchange, communication, two other data that will constantly recur in the work of P16.D4, rich in external contributions and encounters of all kinds. Musically, and despite the diversity of sources treated, Distruct escapes the heterogeneous character, which often marks this type of collaboration, to offer a coherent whole: fragments of opera, Soviet speeches, out-of-tune guitar, saxophone, tattered violins, overdriven and metallic noisy attacks, jackhammers, field recordings, battered choirs, and many other less identifiable sounds. In addition to the desired dialogue between the artists, Distruct also offers a real reflection on listening, and on the expectations of the listener.”
Dissolve
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.
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| PAIN JERK |
Neurotten |
LP |
Kohei Gomi began experimenting with home recording in the 1980s and got so lost in extreme sonics under the Pain Jerk moniker that his output inevitably spilled out into the wider world. By the mid-90s, he was one of the most prolific and influential noise units operating out of Japan, hurling maelstroms of chaotic chunder and deranged grime at anyone who could handle the extremes. Pain Jerk became one of the leading figures in the "dynamic" style of Japanese noise or Japanoise and is also the owner of the noise tape label AMP that during the 90s releases about fifty cassettes of his amazing noise project.
Among his works released in his most prolific period, Neurotten stands out without a doubt, reaching cult status and instantly becoming a classic of the genre. Recorded in 1996 and published the same year on the legendary Slaughter Productions by Marco Corbelli aka Atrax Morgue, in only 80 hand numbered copies in a special A5 tin-foil sleeve with translucent insert and instead some using a red cardboard insert accompanied by a small curved iron rod, similar to a dentist's tool and now it has become a worship object for the most avid collectors.
The assault here is very high-end heavy: relentlessly aggressive. The sound severs and bleeds more than it beats and bludgeons. Side A is divided into two tracks, Gushcore and Teen-Wreckage, of incredible beauty. Nothing compares to the sounds emitted by vinyl grooves composed with a mysterious configuration of constantly flowing noise - always recorded live without overdubs. Devastating, unfriendly harsh noise: the hardest rock that is pierced by the sharpest diamond! With only one track on side B, which takes 23 minutes, we encounter one of most iconic compositions from his wide discography: Disembowel. Hearing impaired volumes that duel, bouncing sound structures displacing the ego and generating many difficulties in brain processing. There’re a lot of rips and chaos, pulsating pulses of recycled transient sounds and some loops, muffled high tones that twist into spastic shapes capable of breaking the faint speaker cones.
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/neurotten
|
2021 |
€21.50 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE |
Relationship Studies |
LP |
"Relationship Studies LP includes 2 seminal electronic music radical realizations by Charlemagne Palestine, or Relationship Study No. 1 (1967) and the generally titled Electronic from the same year. Sounds in motion like race cars, motor cycles, war planes, rocket ships excited Charlemagne sonic imagination when we was still a young teenager. Then came the experience of listening to the electronic music of Tod Dockstader, Alwyn Nikolais, Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaffer, Xenakis and Poème Electronique by Edgar Varese. Immediately fascinated Charlemagne Palestine bought a primitive electronic equipment and started to experiment, creating his original electronicesque language. The two previously unreleased 18 minute masterpieces presented here directly come from this early period of intense experimentations in a fluid ever-changing mix of adding and filtering white noise and simple sine tone generators. Both pieces are late night compositions created at the electronic music studio of the New York N.Y.U. Intermedia Center using Buchla 100 and Buchla 200 systems. Even if dating back from the mid-1960s these intense sonorities might very much recall the best early power electronic scene from the late 1970s, in particular to the first brut music works created by Maurizio Bianchi. For sure they represent a very unique and inspiring approach to electronic creation, sounding more and more actual and surprising nowadays. Edition limited to 350 copies." [label info] |
2010 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
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 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE & RHYS CHATHAM |
Youuu - Mee = Weee |
3 x CD |
"166 minutes with Charlemagne Palestine:
piano Bösendorfer, orgue Yamaha and voice
Rhys Chatham: trumpet, loop pedal, electric guitar.
This is the first recorded collaboration between Charlemagne Palestine and Rhys Chatham. And it's precious. After the musical meeting with Tony Conrad (SR204), and with Z'ev (SR340), this new Sub Rosa sessions creates a form of trilogy.
Rhys Chatham
Rhys Chatham began his musical career as a piano tuner for avant-garde pioneer La Monte Young as well as harpsichord tuner for Gustav Leonhardt, Rosalyn Tureck and Glenn Gould.
He soon studied under electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick and minimalist icon La Monte Young and was a member of Young's group, The Theater of Eternal Music, during the early seventies; Chatham also played with Tony Conrad in an early version of Conrad's group, The Dream Syndicate. In 1971, while still in his teens, Chatham became the first music director at the experimental art space The Kitchen in lower Manhattan. His early works, such as Two Gongs (1971) owed a significant debt to Young and other minimalists.
His concert productions included experimenters Maryanne Amacher, Robert Ashley, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, and early alternative rockers such as Fred Frith, Robert Fripp, Arto Lindsay, and John Lurie. He has worked closely with visual artist/musician Robert Longo, particularly in the 1980s, and on an experimental opera called XS: The Opera Opus (1984-6) with the visual artist Joseph Nechvatal.
By 1977, Chatham's music was heavily influenced by punk rock, having seen an early Ramones concert. He was particularly intrigued by and influential upon the group of artists music critics would label No Wave in 1978. Members of the New York City noise rock band Band of Susans began their careers in Chatham's ensembles; they later performed a cover of Chatham's "Guitar Trio" on their 1991 album, The Word And The Flesh. (This parallels the way that members of fellow NYC noise rockers Sonic Youth began their careers in Branca's ensembles; Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth did play with Chatham as well.)
Chatham began playing trumpet in 1983, and his more recent works explore improvisatory trumpet solos; these are performed by Chatham himself, employing much of the same amplification and effects that he acquired with the guitar, over synthesized dance rhythms by the composer Martin Wheeler.
Charlemagne Palestine
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.
Works/Selected Discography
Four Manifestations on Six Elements (Barooni, 1974), Strumming Music (Shandar, 1977) was revolutionary in that it turned "strumming" into an avant-garde technique, and minimalism into highly dynamic (and noisy) music. Palestine improvised on a piano emphasizing otherworldly overtones. Schlingen-Blaengen (New World, 1998), Karenina (Durtro, 1997), Jamaica Heinekens In Brooklyn (Barooni, 2000), a symphony of drones and found sounds." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2014 |
€18.50 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE & Z'EV |
Rubhitbangklanghear Rubhitbangklangear |
do-CD |
"Second time in 20 years Palestine and Z'ev are performing together. First time they're recording it! Unreleased material from Charlemagne's lair, a place now called Charleworld, where both fellows spent 3 days in June 2010. Part of our Sub Rosa/Laboratoire Central sessions.
'i first started to play the bells while at high school of music + art in the sixties at st. thomas church across the street from the museum of modern art in manhattan!! i played everyday for years!! in the eighties
i met z'ev in amsterdam!! i'd known him for 20 years before he suggested one day that we perform together, which we did at lem barcelona in 2007!! later after seeing and hearing the carillon at my studio in brussels he suggested that we perform and record together there, which we did in 2010!! here's / hearsz what we did!!!!' charlemagne palestine " [label info]
www.subrosa.net
"Unter den Minimalisten ist Charlemagne Palestine sicher derjenige, der im etablierten und institutionalisierten Musikbetrieb weniger als seine Kollegen wahrgenommen wird. Die Auftritte und Aufnahmen Palestines hatten bzw. haben – nicht nur wegen dem Moment des Repetetiven (der sich auch im Titel widerspiegelt) – (auch) immer einen gewissen rituellen Charakter, etwa wenn z. B. die Stofftiere aus der extensiven Sammlung Palestines auf der Bühne drappiert wurden (vgl. die Rückseite der CD) und er sich den obligatorischen Cognac (der hier das Cover ziert) einschüttete. Und auch Z’EV hat sich sowohl musikalisch als auch schriftlich (in Rhythmajik, Practical Uses of Number, Rhythm and Sound, das bezeichnenderweise ursprünglich von Temple Press veröffentlicht wurde) mit dem, was Musik alles bewirken kann, auseinandergesetzt. Über das zuletzt genannte Werk schrebt Z’EV, es handele „not about music but spells out the use of rhythm and sound and proportion for Trance, Healing“.
In den Linernotes der Doppel-CD schreibt Palestine, er und Z’EV hätten sich 20 Jahre gekannt, bevor sie 2007 den Entschluss fassten, zusammen aufzutreten. Die auf „RubhitbangklanghearRubhitbangklangear“ enthaltenen Aufnahmen stammen aus dem Jahr 2010 und wurden in Palestines Studio in Brüssel gemacht. Auf der ersten CD finden sich die gemeinsamen Arbeiten: Während Palestine auf seinem Carillon -eine Art überdimensionales Glockenspiel- Melodien minimal variiert spielt, schlägt Z’EV seine schweren Bass-Trommeln. Was anfangs noch nebeneinander herzulaufen scheint, fügt sich im Verlauf der 18 Minuten zusammen; das Stück entwickelt sich zu einem repetetiv-perkussiven Mantra, das fast schon sakralen Charakter hat. Die zweite Duoaufnahme beginnt wesentlich zurückhaltender: Während die Glocken behutsam und langsam geschlagen werden, sind Z’EVs Beiträge kaum noch rhythmisch zu nennen, klingen so, als spiele er eine riesige Klangschale. Der dritte Track enthält dagegen erratischer klingende Perkussion, man meint, Z’EV wanke vom Cognac beschwingt durch eine Fabrikhalle, das Carillon ist hier stärker im Hintergrund. Das ist das vielleicht atonalste Stück auf dem Album. Die zweite CD enthält die Soloarbeiten und auch wenn diese nicht wirklich schlecht sind, so fallen sie im Vergleich zur ersten CD etwas ab, wobei die schiere physische Präsenz Z’EVs, die sich auf dem 46-minügen Abschlusstrack zeigt, schon beeindruckt und den Hörer – je nach Disposition – vielleicht tatsächlich in Trance versetzen kann." [M.G./African Paper]
"Here's two men who have been around since the 60s and both considerable ties to the underground, perhaps Z'EV more than Palestine. But neither have been elevated into the world of high art and are easy to approach. They met in Amsterdam in the 80s and have played a concert before, but only in 2010 they actually recorded material together at Charleworld, Charlemagne Palestine's own place, where has a carillon set up. The picture on the back shows what this looks like. Palestine up in the air playing the bells and Z'EV on the floor with his percussion. In '#3' the playing is somewhat chaotic and aided by natural reverb, but it's my least favorite piece of the three collaborations. In the other two we find an interesting drone like layer, played by Z'EV on a large skin drum and which adds a great texture to the more controlled playing of Palestine. In "#2' Z'EV only seems to rub the skins and makes it even more intense and creepy. I stopped the music because I wasn't sure if I was just hearing the music or something outside happened. That's the great mark of quality, I think. Those two long opening pieces would have been great enough by themselves. There is also a second CD with solo works. Palestine is brief here, just under eight minutes with a fine piece of carillon music, and 'Solo Z#1' sees Z'EV exploring more of those drone like sounds like on the second duo duo piece while his second piece lasts forty six minutes and we hear him like at least I remind me from the first time I heard his music (mid 80s). Banging metal percussion, aided with natural reverb, in what seems now proto-industrial music from an acoustic perspective. Excellent stuff here, this is the Z'EV I haven't heard in quite some time. Great package of excellent contemporary music all around." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| PAN SONIC & CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE |
Mort aux Vaches |
do-LP |
"Vinyl re-issue of the work initially released on CD by Staalplaat in 2000. First time on vinyl, remastered, with new cover design (a 1974 drawing by Charlemagne Palestine).
This is the first release in the 'GodBear' series, a project consisting in the re-issue of existing works and production of unreleased material by Charlemagne. In partnership with the Charlemagne Palestine Foundation." [label info}
"Pan Sonic + Charlemagne Palestine’s 20 year old drone album finally takes a new life on LP with this first pressing via Godbear following Staalplaat’s long sold-out CD
Forming the 2nd meeting on record between Palestine, Vainio and Väisänen after their 1997 hook-up with Pita (Peter Rehberg) on ‘Three Compositions for Machines’, their follow-up is slimmed down to the legendary pianist and Finnish wave shapers for an exceedingly tense, minimal, excursion marrying glacial microtonal chords licked with underlying, rhythmic subbass disturbance and occasional, off-key, distorted moraine that buckles the microtones from below.
Both sides of the equation maintain a tense equilibrium throughout the album, which, while originally divided in five parts, played thru seamlessly, whereas this new vinyl cut dedicates nearly a side per piece. Across its taut body Palestine and Pan Sonic sustain gossamer fine chords and swollen, sometimes unruly bass, appearing to under-do each other and never making any moves, but the tension just gives at point, sinking into subbass mire and slipping trains of thought out of line. It’s perhaps not entirely typical of either of them, and achieves a modest mix of their respective sensibilities." [Boomkat]
|
2019 |
€34.00 |
|
| PANHUYSEN, PAUL |
Pendulum Change |
LP |
"First vinyl LP edition by Dutch sound and visual artist Paul Panhuysen since 1986. In terms of sound art, Paul Panhuysen is well-known for his long string installations, yet he has produced a vast amount of other sound installations using different materials and sound sources ranging from various instruments to animals such as birds. This LP contains a recording of the installation "Pendulum Change Ringing", displayed at Pand Koloniale Waren in Hasselt (Belgium) in 2012. The installation consists of twelve engraved Turkish metal platters, each mounted onto a black plastic bin, and placed in a 20 meters long row. The rim of each platter is hit by a metal pendulum operated by a tiny electromotor. Each hit causes the platter to resonate with a rich sound texture full of dissonant overtones. During the recording, the twelve pendulums are activated one after the other. The paces at which they swing differ due to their rods having different lengths. This causes interlocking rhythmic patterns to emerge that become more complex with each step and never stay the same. Hits aggregate into clusters, then thin out again. The sound is not chaotic, yet its regularity is hard to comprehend. "You might call Pendulum Change Ringing a typical Paul Panhuysen piece: it works according to a system, quite a simple one in fact, but its effect surpasses that apparent simplicity by far." (René van Peer)
Edition of 300 copies. Full-color sleeve with photos of the installation and liner notes by René van Peer. Black poly-lined inner sleeve." [label info]
www.edition-telemark.de
|
2014 |
€22.00 |
|
| |
Long String Installations |
3 x LP |
After two LPs in 2014 and 2017, Edition Telemark now turns to the group of works that is probably the most well-known within the vast oeuvre of Dutch sound and visual artist Paul Panhuysen (1934–2015): his long string installations. Using this term, he referred to all of his works involving strings and sounds. They were realized all around the world between 1982 and 2012 – until 1991 mostly together with Johan Goedhart –, each installation made specifically for the site where it was displayed.
Unlike other artists working with long strings around the same time, e.g. Ellen Fullman and Terry Fox, Panhuysen's strings were instruments or performative material only secondarily. Rather, his installations can be considered sculptural and sounding events in space, operating in between two lines of tradition, constructivism and situationism, that are evident also in many other parts of his oeuvre.
"Over 250 long string installations were made since 1982 and have produced a better understanding of what is happening in these works. The first information about what happens around us always depends on the perception and detection of our senses and is afterwards transformed, analyzed and interpreted by the brain. It has been a happy coincidence which has drawn my attention to this opportunity to integrate image and sound in the art of long string installations. [...] In daily life we try to understand what is happening primarily by visual and auditory perception. In art these two senses are mostly kept apart. In the long string installations, eyes and ears are equally important. This improves the understanding of reality and daily life." (from Panhuysen's preface to the book "Long Strings 1982–2011")
The first recordings of Panhuysen's long string installations were published in the 1980s, most famously on a 3-LP box set edited on Apollo Records in 1986.
This new 3-LP set includes solely unreleased recordings made between 1982 and 2012, with one recording added posthumously in 2017. It is presented in a triple gate-fold sleeve with printed inner sleeves containing liner notes by Rolf Sachsse and Stephan Wunderlich as well as various high-resolution photos.
www.edition-telemark.de |
2018 |
€55.00 |
|
| PANTALEIMON |
Heart of the Sun |
CD |
Eine gar illustre Schar von Musikern & Projekten remixten für dieses Album Songs von ANDRIA DEGENS aka PANTALEIMON, daneben gibt es einige "echte" Kollaborationen und vorher unveröffentlichte Stücke von ihr. Folkiger, "magischer" Ambient in wunderbaren & wundersamen Variationen, kein Stück ist doppelt vorhanden...
"The whole thing started when Clodagh Simonds (Fovea Hex) asked if she could remix 'Under The Water.' Of course, I said yes. When she came back with such remarkable music, and casually mentioned, 'Oh, why don't you ask a couple of other pals to do remixes?', it gave me the idea for this album. It is not simply a remix album, but a collaborative project. I chose friends I admired as artists and who inhabit creative spaces that are connected in some way and on some level to me and to each other. I gave away my 'babies' to go out to play with the likes of Andrew W.K., Stephen O'Malley, Lilium, Carter Tutti, Colin Potter, Andrew Liles, The Bricoleur, Plinth, Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (Larsen), and, of course, Fovea Hex. Even though I had an inkling that the mixes would fit together as one coherent whole, I had no idea just how much they would complement one another. There are also some previously unreleased tracks including a cover of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's 'Even If Love,' which didn't quite make it on Mercy Oceans for aural reasons. However, this cover version has been gently manipulated and star-mangled by Susan Stenger (Band of Susans)." [label info / credits]
".... The sparse, delicate hazy folk of Pantaleimon remixed? Don't worry there are no cheesy beats, awkward turntables or sloppy hands on any of these songs. In fact the first time we listened we had no idea that any of these songs were in fact remixes. Maybe it's because we hadn't heard any of these songs in their first incarnation. But wow, we were drawn in immediately. Andria Degens is making such beautiful and haunting music as Pantalimon that we almost hesitate to mention that she's married to David Tibet of Current 93, as her own music more then stands on its own. But if folks who haven't heard her before and are C93 fans check this out then the more ears that hear Pantaleimon the better!
While the sound is similar to the music of folks like Fursaxa, Grouper and Christina Carter, there is much more immediacy, focus and a connection to folk history in the songs of Pantaleimon. While less hazy then some of her peers there is a seemingly sonic mist hanging
over her songs which stops you in your tracks. There is also a rustic quality in these stripped down songs that makes us think of Bridget St. John and Hala Strana recording a record together. Plenty of folks help out by adding sounds and ambience but all do so with much subtly and respect. Who knew Andrew W.K. could be so subtle, his tasteful keyboards are heard on the record's opener, and the list of other contributors/remixers reads like a who's who of the musical underground (Colin Potter, Andrew Lilies, Stephen O'Malley, Fovea Hex, Lilium, etc). Heart Of The Sun is becoming the record we listen to both early in the morning and then late at night as we surrender to
sleep. So beautiful!" [Aquarius Records review]
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| PAPIRO |
Avventure lontane |
LP |
PAPIRO is a "Swiss Sicilian" with a cellar full of antique synthesizers. This record brings you weird electronica with an easy-listening touch, full of strange artificial 70's sounds and sinus-tones and a nice drone-piece at the end, reminded us on stuff from FELIX KUBIN, the label-owner said "somewhere between PEREY & GERSHON KINGSLEY, ENNIO MORRICONE and HIGH LLAMAS. For those of you who like the ancient early synth-sounds. Comes in a "glow in the dark" -handpainted cover, on the same label that brought us MIRROR & IN CAMERA.
"....-Papiro's music owns much to the works of Roedelius, Asmus Tietchens (on his Hematic Sunset albums) or even Bruce Haack, but comes off original enough to stand on its own. As a whole, this album is perfectly suited for any retro-styled party. All hail therefore to the groovy glow-in-the-dark cover, which fits the music like a dream." [FK / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€17.50 |
|
| PARMEGIANI, BERNARD |
Memoire Magnetique Vol. 1 |
LP |
"Transversales Disques is very glad to announce the release of « Mémoire Magnétique, vol.1 » spanning 1966-1990, revelatory collection of commercial and secret music by electronic music pioneer Bernard Parmegiani.
This series of rare application music compositions are representative of the vast scope explored by Parmegiani. Far from the strict format of concert music, its codes and usages, this music designed to fit with the screen is a work of amazing freshness and spontaneity.
It is pervaded with a singular balance, between minimalist music and a more articulated language. There is a space for melody, for word repetitions. Actually, repetition is a constant feature, blurring the line between his concert work and the rest. More than a border line, it seems to define two worlds, which communicate through it.
With an impressive number of application works, and some time spent at the head of the Sound / Image sector in the research service led by Pierre Schaeffer, the composer has managed to build up a framework designed for research and mutual exchange. Bernard Parmegiani presents us with lights, gestures, lines, various registers. Besides, how could one perceive these pieces of music without the pictures they are supposed to enhance? Each title is suggestive, and the best answer is in the field of imagination.
In the middle of the B-side, there is a true gem dated 1977. In this second extract of “Versailles… peut-être“ Bernard Parmegiani gives us a glimpse of the future. One can feel the pulse of the 80’s and of the first accents of Techno Music. It feels like driving a drop head car at 134 BPM, faster than on Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn”. One can also sense that soon the LFO will be replaced by the drum-machine.
Listening to these pieces of music arouses the same sensation as reading the prose of an author already known for his poetry. If one has never read his poems, here is the record that will open the door on a new world to be discovered / Maxime Barthélemy.
Remastered high-resolution audio transferred directly from the original tapes.
Exclusive Liner Notes + OBI STRIP
https://transversales.bandcamp.com/album/m-moire-magn-tique-vol-1-1966-1990 |
2018 |
€24.00 |
|
| |
Memoire Magnetique Vol. 2 |
LP |
Transversales is very glad to announce the release of « Mémoire Magnétique, vol.2 » spanning 1966-1993, revelatory collection of short and secret music by electronic music pioneer Bernard Parmegiani.
The second volume of this compilation allows us to discover some of unreleased rarities from Bernard Parmegiani’s personal archives and unpublished recordings which were composed for the screen or the performing arts.
Remastered high-resolution audio transferred directly from the original tapes.
Exclusive liner notes and pictures.
Musique originale composée, interprétée et enregistrée par Bernard Parmegiani.
Production exécutive : Jonathan Fitoussi & Sébastien Rosat.
Mastering à partir des bandes originales : Jonathan Fitoussi.
Direction artistique & graphisme : Jean-Philippe Talaga.
Traduction : Michèle Parent.
(P) 2021 Transversales Disques ®
sous licence exclusive de Claude-Anne Parmegiani
A1 / "Témoignages" - 1972.
Générique pour la série télévisée de Pierre Houdain.
A2 / "Pop secret" - 1970.
Version remixée pour concert de la musique créée avec le groupe
"Third Ear Band" au Royal Festival Hall, Londres.
A3 / "Voyage Conseil" - 1970.
Musique pour la publicité de : "Voyage Conseil".
Version non utilisée.
A4 / "Lion d'or" - 1988.
Générique pour l'émission radio de Georges Léon diffusée sur France Culture
le 22/02/1988.
A5 / "Flash sports" - 1975.
Indicatif de l'émission télévisée éponyme diffusée sur Antenne 2.
A6 / "Spot pub" - 1971.
Spot publicitaire non identifié, non utilisé.
A7 / "Journal TV 2" - 1981.
Indicatif du journal télévisé d'Antenne 2.
A8 / "Stade 2" - 1976-1986.
Indicatif de l'émission : "Stade 2".
Antenne 2, émission sport. Animation : Peter Foldès.
A9 / "L'art au monde des ténèbres" - 1982.
Série documentaire télévisée de Mario Ruspoli.
A10 / "Sonal Roissy" - 1971-2005.
Signal sonore de l'aéroport Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle.
B1 / "Bongo fuego" - 1967.
Film d'animation de Peter Foldès.
B2 / "Electrorythmes" - 1966.
Version remixée pour concert ; film de Peter Foldès avec la chorégraphe Marpessa Dawn.
B3 / "E Pericoloso sporgersi" - (élément) - 1991.
Musique radiophonique ; commande de France Culture.
B4 / "Une mission éphémère" - 1993.
Film d'animation de Piotr Kamler.
B5 / "Une honorable partie de Gô" - 1978.
Série documentaire télévisée de Jean-Emile Jeannesson,
"Lettres du bout du monde".
B6 / "Sonal Roissy" - (inédit) - 1971.
Maquette de signal sonore pour l'aéroport Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle.
Version non utilisée.
https://bernardparmegiani.bandcamp.com/album/m-moire-magn-tique-vol-2-1966-1993
"Belonging to a growing body of previously unreleased work culled from the archives of Bernard Parmegiani, the always incredible Transversales Disques returns with “Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 2”, the second instalment in their series of albums focusing on the composer’s work for film, television, and the performing arts.
An inevitable revelation for even the most devoted of Parmegiani’s fans, we’re also making it available as part of a specially priced bundle with brand new represses of “Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1” and “Rock (Bande originale du film, 1982)” for those who missed them the first time around.
So good.
Over the last few years, the Paris based imprint, Transversales Disques, has set a remarkable standard for archival releases, bringing us a treasure trove of previously unreleased recordings by Pierre Henry, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Luc Ferrari, Igor Wakhevitch, Philip Glass, Ariel Kalma, François Bayle, Ennio Morricone, and numerous others.
While by no means the limit of their focus, the imprint has offered special attention to works by French pioneers of electronic music, particularly those associated with Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète (GRMC) and Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). Central to this modus operandi is the work of Bernard Parmegiani. Back in 2017, they brought us the composer’s incredible 1982 soundtrack, Rock, created for Michel Treguero’s film of the same name, followed by the LP, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1 in 2018.
After three years of waiting, the label is back with the second instalment of rare sounds by Parmegiani, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 2, accompanied by brand new represses of Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1 and Rock (Bande originale du film, 1982), which have been out of print since their initial release. As a special celebration, we’re offering them individually or together as a specially priced bundle. They’re 20th Century electroacoustic music at its absolute height, hugely historically important, and not to be missed.
Bernard Parmegiani’s contributions to electronic and electroacoustic practice are now regarded as among the most important in the history of 20th Century Music, but this wasn’t always the case. For much of his career, the composer lingered in the shadow of his more famous peers at Groupe de Recherches - Pierre Schaeffer, Luc Ferrari, François Bayle, etc. Some of this was a consequence of circumstance and idealism. Gifted with a deep belief in access and humor, Parmegiani believed in the profound potential of electronic and electroacoustic sound, seeking to integrate it into everyday life, particularly through forms of mass distribution activated by radio, film, and television. A great deal of his output was created for these contexts - remaining unreleased on physical formats - while he supported himself as a sound engineer and as the head of the Music/Image division of French television. It is into this rarely heard body of recordings which Transversales Disques takes us once again.
Like the first instalment, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 2 culls its material form the composer’s personal archives and unpublished recordings of material created between 1966 and 1993, focusing specifically on his output for the screen and the performing arts. Standing as a largely unacknowledged counterpoint to more famous works like De Natura Sonorum, La Roue Ferris, Dedans Dehors, Chants Magnétiques, and Chronos - created during same period covered by the collection - these works unveil a lesser-known vision of Parmegiani, one that embedded himself in the subconscious landscape of the French public, with sounds that were often heard without acknowledging their genius or source.
Comprising 16 revelatory tracks, of relatively short lengths - from 13 seconds to just over 8 minutes - Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 2 covers a brilliant range of material, from sci-fi tinged arpeggiating synths, brooding minimalist expanses, semi psychedelic meanderings away with free-flowing texture, pastoral meditations, playful, percussive musique concrète, pieces that flirt on the edges of kosmische and Berlin school electronics, and so much more.
Encountering the composer in the throes of his deepest passion - working alongside the visual realm - just when you’d thought you’d heard it all, Transversales Disques digs up more gold from the archives of Bernard Parmegiani, expanding our vision of the astounding talent and range of one of the most important sonic artists of the 20th Century.
These previously unreleased rarities have been remastered from the original tapes in high-resolution audio, and come complete with exclusive liner notes and pictures. As engrossing as records come, and an absolute blast to listen to. Not to be missed!
Across 17 despite works, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1 spans 24 years of Parmegiani’s output of music designed to integrate with the screen, drawing on a framework the composer developed for research and mutual exchange between sound and image. It should come as no surprise, given the overwhelming creative talent which Parmegiani possessed, that these efforts more than stand on their own when separated from the images with which they were designed to speak. The LP is an overwhelmingly powerful body of revelatory sound.
Not unlike his soundtrack for Rock, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1 pushes the boundaries of what the work emerging from Groupe de Recherches is often perceived to have been, if not the very notions of what qualifies as avant-garde. Imbued with Parmegiani’s overwhelming humor and playfulness, it offers nods to a countless range of musical idioms and fields of practice - often painting a dark, dystopian technological, rhythmic landscape with aural touchstones ranging from techno, Kraftwerk, and John Carpenter soundtracks, with a peppering of the clown show, reminding us that Parmegiani began his career as a mime.
There’s no question that Transversales Disques is taking the high road, bringing us into wild, wonderful, and often overlooked bodies of organized sound which rewrite almost every standard narrative of history. These works are some of a Bernard Parmegiani which all too few heard, belonging to a way of working which captures the idealism closest to his heart.
Absolutely brilliant creatively - a challenging field of imagination and an endlessly thrilling listen. Transferred directly from the original tapes with exclusive liner notes, if you missed the first pressing, don’t sleep. This is an absolute must for any fan of Parmegiani, GRM, soundtracks, and electronic music at large."
[Soundohm]
https://bernardparmegiani.bandcamp.com/album/m-moire-magn-tique-vol-2-1966-1993
|
2021 |
€26.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| |
Growl |
CD |
"Composer Åke Parmerud is from Göteborg, which is also the home of underground labels such as Fang Bomb, Release The Bats, and Beläten, names on which we can always rely to provide solid blasts of depressive post-industrial noise and drone music. Parmerud isn’t exactly cut from the same cloth, being as how he’s a prize-winning and classically-trained electroacoustic maestro, but there are moments of tasty darkness on his Growl (empreintes DIGITALes IMED 15132) collection which appeal to a macabre chap like myself. La vie mécanique, for instance, is a pretty effective critique of modern industrialisation, or at least an observation on it, and takes the hoary old dystopian cliché of “modern man becoming machine-like” and dusts it down for an update that involves samples of machinery blended with Techno music. In this lively composition of clattering beats and metal, it’s far from clear where the factory machines leave off and the dancefloor begins; it’s intending to convey something about the body being broken down into smaller units, much like the cogs of a machine being taken apart. Parmerud also makes a commentary on the contemporary use of machines (laptops, presumably) for making music. I wish he’d be a little less equivocal about it, both in his notes and his music, but it’s a nifty statement.
Maybe serious composers shouldn’t dabble with Techno. However, if you think men of Parmerud’s generation should leave the kids’ music alone, you’ll be even more appalled by the idea of Growl itself, where he drily observes “metal music is big in Sweden” from his lofty position, and borrows some ideas from his youngest son who plays in a metal band. This might be Aron Parmerud who plays his “axe” for Marionette, a Death Metal band who made a couple of albums for Listenable Records. What the composer has done here is zero-in on the throat-shredding vocals that characterise a lot of the music in this genre, and through arranging samples of voices shrieking “Hell Is Us! Die We Must!”, has built a virtual “growlers choir”. With the dark techno backing, electronic effects, and gloomy ambient tones, this works surprisingly well, even if it sounds too “expensive” and well-produced for a genuine metal album and has far too many interesting dynamics. He also misses the claustrophobia and genuine sense of doom. But even so Parmerud turns in a strong piece of work, and in any case he wasn’t setting out to produce a metal album.
What else are the “young people” interested in these days? Vinyl records, of course! So listen in to 2011’s Grooves if you want to hear what Parmerud can do when sampling the black stuff. The source material for this was the vinyl collection of his friend Kai Hanekken; in fact the composition seems to have been a by-product of a digitisation project requested by said Hanekken, who urged the composer to pick up the gauntlet and create a composition. He gave in. What gets sampled are run-out grooves and vinyl “noise”, i.e. crackles and clicks and such; Parmerud seems to have been only too aware that doing this was already something of a well-worn cliché, but again he liked the challenge and wanted to see if he could invert it and bring new life into the idea. Although best heard at high volumes and played back through a multi-channel system, Grooves still succeeds on your home CD player and delivers a suffocating density which is clearly one of this composer’s trademarks. Continuity is severely disrupted by the multiple edits, and the speed with which the layers of abstract noise pile up is incredibly alarming. You’ll feel like you’re trapped on an enormous spinning black disc of death.
Also here: 2014’s Electric Birds derived from birdsong samples (yet another instance where Parmerud had promised himself he would never make a piece like this), and Transmissions II, the most recent composition. It derives from a multi-media work where, if seen live, a singing choir are able to manipulate sound signals in real time. Some fascinating complex electronic layers result, and it sounds a lot more contemporary than some of the formal music that often gets released on this label, and is every bit as convincing as any given Mego release from the last few years. Sometimes proper composers make a ninny of themselves when they try and get “with it”, but Åke Parmerud has nothing to be ashamed of here." [The Sound Projector]
|
2015 |
€14.50 |
|
| PATTERNS OF THE SKY |
The Long Flight |
CD |
Looming underneath these towering creatures we normally refer to as clouds, it is easy to stop and stare with fascination and introspection at their cyclic drifting across the heavens. The pattern looks much the same from above, watching these silent skyriders fall prey to unrelenting winds, sweeping them away underneath and above, while they muster all their strength to stay with the sun. The Long Flight is a retrospective glance down the ambient side of Texas based project Patterns of the Sky and comes in a jewelcase with 16-page booklet.
gterma001to010.blogspot.com/p/gterma018-patterns-of-sky-long-flight.html
|
2012 |
€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 |
|
| PBK & MODELBAU |
The Dead Time |
CD |
https://oxidation.bandcamp.com/album/the-dead-time
"In music, separating the wheat from the chaff these days is not easy, one has to apply some kind of compulsion and instinct towards interesting releases. “The Dead Time” was made out of processing sonic information in the passing of time, yet what makes this music stand out from the passing and make it “dead”?
"I am interested in the alchemical breakdown of things and the results of pure accidents.” -Phillip B. Klingler
Frans de Waard and Phillip B. Klingler are rooted in the experimental music scene. Both are still at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of underground and formal electroacoustic music. This album was made of collages of recordings De Waard made in 2014, fermenting on Klingler’s shelve until summer 2021. One day that summer, Klingler awoke with a premonition about the work, which started an intensely creative period. He created three collaborations: 'The Dead Time' with De Waard, a PBK & Nocturnal Emissions LP, and the CHAIN LETTER EXHORTATION Series. "It's the same way I like to paint: only when inspired to do so, and without preconception.” as Klingler states.
Both composers are daily concerned with archival matters, so they have a deep intellectual and experiential understanding of the importance of work and detail, no matter how small or few the edition. To my knowledge, this quality translates into the depth of sound, fragility and sensibility, the compositional approach of the unknown by the use of transformed field recordings, digital processed, mixer feedback, synthesizers and sample players, which allows them to enter this abyss of a personal and yet collaborative esoteric space. As Klingler puts it: “I think it was very nice to leave the tracks as "miniatures" with their characteristics, not attempting to be epic in scope, but more like the experiments of the 1950's/60's - Dutch composers of the Phillips Research Laboratory, where all ideas of creativity were embraced, even somewhat incongruous combinations. (..) The compositions are made, but they are abstract, no narrative”.
The “miniatures” sound like deep, personal, little moments of awakening, fermented by time, but then again appearing to be free from it: “We have imposed our own very personal process(es) on the audio to create sounds that belong to something but also subvert that thing.”, as Klinger states.
This is a robust and thoughtful work of two composers always deeply involved in their game and firmly immersed in its execution. Favourite piece: “Knife”." [MC / Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€13.50 |
|
| PECORELLI, DANIELE / MARK SCHAUB |
& |
LP |
" &, first production of the newborn Anomala Soundscapes wants to be a programmatic manifesto of what the label intends to
realize. The debut album of a new label has the difficult task of giving the editorial imprint in one fell swoop. Vinyl was chosen as the
format and split album as a formula. The format of the vinyl was not chosen for the alleged better listening quality compared to than
other media, but rather and above all for to recover a certain now rare “listening ritual”.
The & project was intended to be released as a vinyl record from its very origin. Each side separately presents the work of one
of the two musicians, neither of whom had heard the work of the other until the release.
Who’ll frame my memories in ash Daniele Pecorelli
We are our consciousness, and our consciousness is the form and content of our memory. What happens to our memories the
moment we die? They become an electrical residue that fades away. As we are conscious that our memory is falling apart, a new
consciousness arises that in turn disintegrates into kaleidoscopic fragments until they dilate into the final moment of our recorded time.
Combustion Mark Schaub
Material, rough, sometimes unprejudiced, dark but carnival, tries to render the idea of transformation in an informal way without
emotional variations. In particular chemical transformation, the allusion to fire is made explicit by the title. The transformation is an
action of opposing forces and from the tension develops the passage that explores all the audible frequencies (even inaudible) trying
to materialize the intimate tension of the matter and the dissolution of the same in the final suspended and almost incomplete."
|
2019 |
€22.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| PENNY RIMBAUD'S L'ACADEMIE DES VANITES (CRASS) |
Yes Sir, the Truth of Revolution |
CD |
"CRASS WAS THEN - THIS IS NOW. WAKE UP TO IT
CRASS' album, 'Yes, Sir, I Will', was possibly the most angry and hard hitting attack on the political/military/industrial complex ever consigned to vinyl. Written by Penny Rimbaud in 1982 at the height of the Falklands conflict, it seethes with righteous indignation over what he saw as a pointless but vicious exercise in vote catching by a government whose popularity was severely on the wane. So powerful was this critique that it led to threats of prosecution by that very same government, threats which were typically used by CRASS to further their attacks on it and its tyrannical leader, Margaret Thatcher.
Over thirty years later, in 2014, Rimbaud was asked to participate in the Rebellion Festival, a yearly punk gathering held in Blackpool, UK. Realising that the opening date of the festival closely coincided with that of the euphemistically named 'Great War', Rimbaud and the festival organisers agreed that as an appropriate response they should open the event with a performance of 'Yes, Sir, I Will'.
In preparing for this performance, Rimbaud began to question the relevance of some of the content of 'Yes, Sir'. It seemed to him that much of it was pertinent only to the time in which it was written, a time when a genuine social uprising had appeared to be a very real possibility (one that was violently and conclusively squashed during the miners' strike of 1984). But times change and there was, he now felt, an element of aggression within the work which veiled its essential message of love and peace; it was a passion that could all too easily be mistaken for blind anger. With this in mind, and inspired by John Lennon's 'All You Need is Love', he set about rewriting 'Yes, Sir' from what he describes as a more Taoist viewpoint. Through replacing screams of anguish with laments of love, he was largely able to satisfy his wish to change 'Yes, Sir' into an expression of compassion, that being the hugely demanding realm of love in its unconditional form.
For the Rebellion performance of the now retitled 'Yes, Sir, the Truth of Revolution', Rimbaud was joined by CRASS' lead vocalist Eve Libertine plus a group of leading musicians from the London jazz scene with whom they'd worked extensively in the past. Named 'L'Académie des Vanités', the band consisted of Eve Libertine/vocals, Penny Rimbaud/vocals, Louise Elliott/sax, Kate Shortt/cello, Jennifer Maidman/guitar, Phil Robson/guitar, Thad Kelly/bass and Gene Calderazzo/drums. The live recording of that show, presented here, captures all the tense excitement created by presenting a primarily punk audience with complex poetics of love, accompanied by equally demanding freeform, improvised jazz. However, as had generally been the case with CRASS' output, wild, willing and worrisome, it would be wise to expect the unexpected. Equally, through its progressive and colourful imagery, the vibrant packaging designed by Gee Vaucher shows a refusal to harp back to the illusory golden past of punk dreams and conceits.
'We are poets, armed with the cobblestones of love, unconditional, uncompromising, beyond need of proof.' However, if proof is needed, it will most surely be found in the content of this radical, imaginative release." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| PERESLEGIN, ANATOLY |
Download the God |
CD |
Erstes Album auf Electroshock Records von dieses russischen Komponisten, inspiriert von biblischen Themen ... Strong synthetic & pastoral music.
„Anatoly Pereslegin's "Download the God" is a single composition in six sections, based on the prophetic works of Isaiah and Ezekiel and composed in Jerusalem during the mid-Nineties. There can hardly have been a more positive example of "Jerusalem Syndrome" during the decade - this composition is millennial in the very best sense. It might not have succeeded but, in fact, it is an extraordinary success - probably one of the dozen or so most powerful pieces of electronica (or post-classical) music I've ever heard. If it has a point of departure, it would be Messiaen - it has the same carillon-like quality, the same chromatic lushness and the same non-linear ecstasis to it - although the dark maelstrom of Ligeti's "San Francisco Polyphony" is also suggested, as is the percussive minimalism of Reich and the op-art patterns of Glass and Riley. It's obviously been composed with extreme care, although its architecture is designed to let in maximum space and light - perhaps its most remarkable feature is the way in which it combines gravitas with delicacy, power with swiftness, to produce a musical analogue to the prophetic experience that is totally convincing.” [Norman Jope / "Stride”-mag]
|
2000 |
€12.00 |
|
| PETERS, STEVE |
Airforms (Chamber Music 10) |
CD |
Chamber Music is an ongoing series of site-specific sound works made entirely from a single recording of the empty space in which they are presented. An hour of “silent” room tone is recorded when no people are in the building; this is heavily filtered to extract drones derived from the room’s resonant frequencies. This is the only sonic material used, and there is minimal electronic processing involved. Airforms was made in 2013 as a birthday gift for Steve Roden, who provided two hours of empty room tone recorded in his bubble-shaped “Airform” house designed and built by architect Wallace Neff in 1946. The first hour was used to make the drones, and the second hour to make the bell-like tones, and the two are here superimposed. Certain Roden-inspired compositional strategies were devised to generate indeterminate structures.
“This is literally chamber music – sound artist Steve Peters records the ambient resonances of empty rooms, which he then turns into site-specific installations exhibited in the same locations. The latent acoustic potential of the space is brought out into a more tangible form. For the most part, stony sonorities are all that can be heard: long, looming tones that unfold incredibly slowly...these are broken by moments of vivid detail: sounds like dropping water, or the soft report of a sonar, gather and disperse, apparently randomly – though after a while they almost recall Morse code.” — The Wire
|
2017 |
€15.00 |
|
| PETIT, PHILIPPE |
Henry: The Iron Man |
LP |
"I first head Philippe Petit's Henry the Iron Man on WFMU in March of 2010 while driving through the meadowlands on the New Jersey Turnpike. The air was freezing and the sky a depressing cement gray. The music perfectly matched the frozen, decimated landscape. Then, as I took the exit ramp to the even more decrepit route 1 &9, the mood shifted, and I was lifted out of the darkness. Some sort of transformation was taking place, and the bleak numbness of winter soon gave way to hope and the strange feeling that Philippe and I would work together soon.
Fast forward to December 2010. Philip was now on Aagoo records and I was playing the test pressings of Henry. The same surprise and wonder that I had felt on the New Jersey Turnpike surfaced once again. Where do the manipulations start and stop? Is that popping sound Philippe's tweaking or dust on my cartridge? I was left guessing whether to approve the tests or not; and for me, this uncertainty is part of the pleasure of hearing the record.
Philippe’s work on vinyl informs both his creative process and the final product itself. He captures the accidents caused by vinyl manipulations and shapes them into sonic sculptures—creating order from a sum of circumstantial parts. The physical texture of the vinyl album also gradually changes over time. With each repeated listening, Philippe’s album gathers the patina of age. The cracklings become warmer, the sounds become altered, and the album’s identity evolves with every revolution of the plastic disc. My guess is even if your turntable is falling apart this record will be fun to play." [label info]
www.aagoo.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| PETITE PORTE DE BRONZE |
En travers du chemin |
CD-R |
“Now here is something which I know nothing about. I never heard of Petite Porte De Bronze, and the website from the label doesn't
mention this yet. Except that I got this CDR from someone who has the same name as my brother (and I am pretty it's not my brother who made this). There are in total ten tracks on this release, which are just over thirty-two minutes. Let me start by saying I liked this release but I am a bit clueless why I like this. Making music out of skipping CDs, cable hum and other mistakes that occur in the process of making music is of course not new since Oval's second CD, but Petite Porte Bronze do a nice job turning these 'mistakes' into small ambient textures, with a mild rhythmic undertone, pleasent dissonant keys. The ten tracks are relatively short and sketch like, almost like they are not really mixed it's entire form. This adds a nice rough shape to them. A well-known path is chosen here, but nevertheless a nice one indeed.” [FdW, Vital Weekly]
Address: http://www.tonto.at
|
2002 |
€11.00 |
|
| PHALLUS DEI |
Black Dawn |
CD |
"Ein in dichte, undurchdringliche Dunkelheit gehülltes Szenario, in welchem sich nur schemenhaft kleine Details zu erkennen geben. Erst mit der Zeit scheint sich das Dunkel etwas zu lichten, nach und nach geben sich immer mehr Gegenstände zu erkennen, die langsam aber merklich in Bewegung geraten. Und doch bleibt all dies so rätselhaft und unklar wie zuvor, und ganz auflösen wird sich das Dunkel ohnehin nicht. Was bleibt ist der Eidruck einer diffusen Bedrohung. So in etwa könnte man sich eine schwarze Morgendämmerung oder ein schwarzes Erwachen vorstellen. Phallus Dei haben für ihr neues Album einen wahrlich passenden Titel gewählt.
Phallus Dei besteht als Projekt bereits seit Ende der 80er – damals noch als Solo-Projekt von Oliver St. Lingam, doch bald kamen andere Musiker hinzu, und seit langem bilden Lingam, Marc Ernsting und Richard Van Kruysdijk eine feste Band, die sich aber immer wieder Gassänger und andere Kollaborateure aus ganz unterschiedlichen Ecken ins Boot holt. Dies und ein wahrscheinlich ohnehin recht breit gefächertes Interesse an Musik sorgt bis heute dafür, dass die Gruppe ihren stilistischen Ort auf fast jedem Release immer wieder neu definiert hat, und so kann man auf Phallus Dei-Platten phasenweise rituellen Industrial, Ambient, Crossover oder, wie zuletzt bei „A Day in the Life of Brian Wilson“ melancholische Songs in teilweise akustischer Instrumentierung hören. In einer schwer zu definierenden düsteren Verschrobenheit findet man erst mit der Zeit ein vage verbindendes Element.
Das vor kurzem wieder beim alten Stammlabel Dark Vinyl erschienene „Black Dawn“ wirkt von der musikalichen Gestalt her wie eine radikale Antithese zum besagten Vorgänger, denn während „A Day in the Life of Brian Wilson“ äußerst eingängig war und einen leichten, luftigen Sound hatte, findet sich auf dem aktuellen Longplayer die schwerste Dröhnung, die man von der Band bislang zu hören bekam. Gleich das eröffnende „Slewed“ besteht vordergründig betrachtet aus einer tonnenschweren, statischen Klangdecke von zähem, klebrigem Material. Assoziationen zu mittlerweile klassischen Sunn O)))-Alben oder deren Zusammenarbeit mit Boris liegen nahe, auch wenn man aus Distinktionsgründen sicher obskurere Vergleiche finden könnte. Doch Phallus Dei klingen elektrifizierter, schaffen ein meliertes Amalgam aus Gitarrendöhnen, Beckenrauschen und Elektronik.
Am interessantesten jedoch sind die vielen Beigaben, die die vermeintliche Statik durcheinanderbringen und immer wieder für Dramatik sorgen: kurze, hektische Rhythmen, die so schnell von der Bildfläche verschwinden, wie sie erschienen sind, eine Schuttlawine aus bedrohlich heranrollenden Sounds, desolates, rituell angehauchtes Pochen, seltsame Hochtönereien. Ist „Slewed“ noch mehr „black“ als „dawn“, so ändert sich dies zumindest bei den nächsten beiden Tracks, bei denen sich die einzelnen Komponenten weit mehr an die Oberfläche wagen. Bei „Starman“ ist dies – nach einem längeren Vorlauf aus verrauschtem Pulsieren und hypnotischem Celloeinsatz – das Tenorsaxophon keines Geringeren als Peter Brötzmann, dessen Spiel perfekt mit dem Rest interagiert und zugleich für die emotional entfesseltsten Momente sogt.
Das Cellospiel von Jacqueline Hamelink prägt auch das folgende „Zauberwald“, das mit seiner beklemmenden Atmosphäre fast einen Gegenpart bildet. Durchgehende Rhythmen und die einzigen Sprachfetzen auf dem Album geben diesem Stück vorübergehend die Klarheit eines luziden (Alb-)Traums. Das fast zwanzigminütige „Krieger“, das Phallus Dei wieder im Alleingang bestreiten, knüpft in seinem zähen Bombast an den Opener an. Würde das Album nach der ersten Hälfte des Songs enden, hinterließe es den Eindruck eines äußerst fatalistischen Zyklus, doch entrückt über der Dröhnung schwebende Synthies und das Hauchen einer sanften Stimme lassen schon ahnen, dass die doomige Schwere nur ein retardierendes Moment darstellt – eine Erwartung, die sich im kraftvollen Drumeinsatz erfüllt. „Stigmata“ (das auf der mir vorliegenden CD-Version enthalten ist, auf der 2LP-Version findet ich stattdessen der Track „Corpus“) sorgt mit dem tiefen, ornamentalen Saxophonspiel Niels van Hoorns und verspielter Elektronik für einen ereignisreichen Abschluss. Letzteres stammt aus der Ideenschmiede Merzbows, der dem Charakter des Stücks jedoch keinen derart individuellen Stempel aufdrückt wie die anderen Gastmusiker.
„Black Dawn“ ist ein ungemein intensives Album, das garantiert ganz unterschiedliche Hörergruppen jenseits von Genregrenzen zu begeistern versteht, wenn es denn die entsprechende Verbreitung erfährt. Sanfte Gemüter, die beim Vorgängeralbum gerade die relativ leichte, stellenweise fast poppige Gestalt mochten, sollten sich diesen Brocken jedoch mit einer festen Grundlage im Magen zu Gemüte führen. (U.S.)" [African Paper]
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| PHILLIPS, DAVE |
Sixth Mass Extinction |
LP |
"black vinyl lp in embossed sleeve, edition of 300. comes with a free 8 page newspaper featuring articles that offer a broad view of what homo sapiens has achieved in terms of coexistence and in taking care of its home.
1.
Things Falling Apart 21:12
2.
Radical Hope 20:12
about
things falling apart - composition for three PA’s (stereo version):
the original 6 channel piece was commissioned by bad bonn kilbi festival düdingen switzerland 2018.
radical hope - live action (studio version):
this incarnation of live action was initiated in january 2016 and has developed since. triggered by a broken heart, it’s a critical analysis of subjective behaviourisms, self-reflections, self-criticisms and conclusions thereof. the subsequent translation of derived intentions into ritualised actions include purging, activating learning and healing processes, self-betterment, empowerment and hair-burning. has since morphed into a piece about the relationship of the human as a species with planet earth as a cherished entity, such as a loved one, a friend, a partner, a companion, a parent or a family member, a home or an origin.
all audio by dp. decomposed may to november 2018 for schimpfluch. mastered by riccardo mazza. artwork by brett wagg using photos by dp.
https://totalblack.bandcamp.com/album/sixth-mass-extinction
Dave Phillips INTERVIEW by CHAIN DLK
( By Vito Camarretta - August 11, 2021)
dave dp phillips long story short
fields of re/search: existences and behaviourisms humanimalistically. works that oppose the omnipresent restriction and reduction of life and living, that activate primordial shared emotions otherwise hidden under the debris of civilization, inviting rumination, encouraging intervention, endorsing catharsis, liberating, cleansing. therapeutical stimulation is acknowledged. sonic activism, ritual protest music, humanimalism
methods: audio de/construction, composition, sonic rituals, psycho-acoustics and performance
tools: voice, body, fieldrecordings, electronics, objects, video
reason for this interview: his recent release “to death” (7th July 2021, Misanthropic Agenda)
enjoy the reading!
Chain D.L.K.: Hi Dave! How are you doing?
Dave Phillips: Quite alright. I moved house earlier a month ago, I’m settling in…
Chain D.L.K.: I heard you recent ‘to death’ and I honestly think it’s a listening that I would likewise honestly recommend in this historical stage… but before focusing on it, even if those well-informed readers of our zine, whose memory has not been reset yet, don’t really need any introduction, how would you introduce yourself, your sound art and its direction(s)?
Dave Phillips: Puh. Well. My music is rather free, abstract, “cinematic”, and personal. It sounds more organic than it does electronic. What I seek in sound/music is altered states of consciousness, states of trance and liberation, cathartic and purging kind of highs, some sort of elevation. Sound for me is communication, so I like it to have some sort of narrative, intentionality, something shared. I’m interested in the effect of sound as much as its aesthetic form. Sonically I’m inspired by contemporary (classical) composition, the sounds of insects, traditional music, improvisation/free music, bass music, as much as the energy of radical punk and metal. Literature is a big inspiration too. My sound work is often accompanied by topical contexts that touch on environmental and existential issues but are more driven by the interconnectedness of things, the thing that some call chaos, this enormous ecosystem that we are a part of, the kind of free life that is uncontrollable and beyond our systems of control or scientific measurement or language. I call my music “ritual protest music” – I protest against the reduction and restriction of life – I describe my way of approaching sound as “sonic activism”. Uhm, long “introduction” but there you go…. just open ears…
Chain D.L.K.: The last outputs I vividly remember of yours, who reached somehow my desk (I often don’t know how or why some sonic entities reach my desk, besides the fact someone delivers them to my mailbox), has been a super limited split with Emerge on Nazlo, that was a tribute to Dmitry Vasilyev. Have you ever met him? Which tracks did he leave in your memory?
Dave Phillips: I met Dmitry Vasilyev a bunch of times. The last time was in September 2018 when Dmitry had organized a tour for me and emerge in Russia. We met in Sevastopol before embarking on a tour together. The day before our tour began, we went swimming in the Black Sea and Dmitry drowned. The tape you speak of is a reaction to that tragic loss. Dmitry’s enthusiasm for and energy invested in experimental music was amazing…
Chain D.L.K.: I have to amend… There’s also a CD from Attenuation titled ‘Post Homo Sapiens’, but I honestly haven’t unfolded it yet… What a shame! Can I get excused for that? What should I expect?
Dave Phillips: Of course! Post Homo Sapiens imagines a world where insects and plants rule.
Dave Phillips imagephoto courtesy of Jesse Newman
Chain D.L.K.: I enjoyed the reading of some of your texts (ref: https://www.davephillips.ch/texts), the last of which includes many interesting and praiseworthy ecologist thoughts and reflections, but it dates back to 2015. Are you writing some new text for the recent evolution of human history?
Dave Phillips: “For the recent evolution of human history”, haha. Besides writing, I collect and present texts too, and my texts sometimes take from articles and books that touch me. For the “sixth mass extinction” LP (2019) I collected a bunch of articles that together offer a picture of how humans are doing in terms of coexistence with other beings on this planet. It’s probably no surprise that we’re not faring very well – what we seem to be good at though is causing mass extinction and destruction. Said articles were accompanied by a profound text by professor Jem Bendell on “navigating climate tragedy”. For an upcoming split with sist en 343 called “thinking future coexistence,” I used a text by Charles Eisenstein on what happened since corona blessed us – this should be out in the autumn. I am supposed to write something for an upcoming compilation, but I haven’t got there yet…
Chain D.L.K.: So let’s go back (or forward) to ‘to death’. I remember the words of a Tibetan monk on this subject, who said that we have to notice that when a baby comes to life cries, and we smile, when a person comes to death (let’s say so) sometimes has a smiling expression on his/her face, while we cry. Is this somehow ironic viewpoint close to the meaning of death you were referring to on your last release?
Dave Phillips: Yes, very much so! Accompanying my father on his last journey was a profound experience that demystified death to an extent where it mostly wasn’t this “horrible thing” that people often seem to associate with it, but something quite different…. somehow magical, often peaceful and serene – my father was smiling a lot as he lay dying – and also somewhat unbiased, more to do with “life (in all its stages) never fails to amaze me”, where often opposing angles together make the whole.
Chain D.L.K.: I think that most of the weirdest consequences of this likewise weird pandemic crisis can be interpreted by using the filter of human fear of death. How did this situation influence your ‘to death’?
Dave Phillips: I was living in such intense reality bubbles at the time of the pandemic that the pandemic itself seemed to be happening on a side-stage, it didn’t seem to have that much impact on me. In hindsight, though, I realize it played into my perception more than I acknowledged. It affected my perception of the world. The slow dying of my father seemed to go hand in hand with the dying of something that somehow defines us as humans, as we grow more and more separate and distanced from one another and from purpose and freedom – as we have from the “natural world” at large, a separation that we are imposing on us more and more. That’s a slow dying. I mean, the empire is failing and falling, it will crash, no doubt, it’s just a question of when and how. And it sure won’t be pretty. People, please remove your filters!
Chain D.L.K.: I also enjoyed the fact that in the title, there seems a first part missing. You can expect an ‘Hymn to death’, an ‘Ode to death’ or even a ‘Yell to death’! But it’s as it is… just ‘to death’! How did you draw inspiration for it? I read it was somehow related to your father’s last moments (of course you have my deepest sympathy).
Dave Phillips: Thank you. Yes, it’s mainly inspired by my father’s illness, which was devastating and my being his carer for the last 15 months of his life. I witnessed his person being eaten away by disease – in a way, he was gone before death gave him peace. At the same time, I found myself in a role that made sense on so many levels, and somehow I managed to pull it through – I’m so glad I did. Taking care of the old is like taking care of the young, is like education, is like a purpose in life – outsourcing that to a paid service or a job or some system is missing out on profound experiences, on things essential, maybe on things that define us as animals or mammals or tribal beings. Something that teaches more than schools or universities can, but also demands more. So really it’s more about the journey, the path, the story of accompanying someone all the way “to death” and all that it sets free. My father’s wish was to die at home, and I’m glad that my siblings and I made that wish come true.
But this journey also leads to other related topics. There are many readings of the title. The ode/hymn “to death” is certainly in there, probably poking at the wish to demystify death as the huge taboo that it still is. the title also addresses what we’re doing to planetary life – to plants and other animals. Thus, also what we’re doing to ourselves: when I view my father’s disease in a global context, it’s a common cause – nowadays. The main causes of death in our times show us how sick our allegedly “civilized” way of life makes many of us. So much human waste. We are “civilized to death”. And then there’s what this is all doing to us emotionally and existentially – areas where many of us seem more dead than alive, where we merely function and follow rules. The slow death of human potential through our educational systems and through our imposed “normality” is part of that. The death of freedom through total control of life, as per recent events. I mean, life IS uncertain – that’s the exciting part, isn’t it? All our puny attempts to create “safety and security” are laughable if they weren’t so devastating in what they actually do to us – but we’re like animals born in captivity. Our established political and economic systems seem rather dead too – I mean, an economy that functions linearly is just grossly inadequate for a world and lives that happen in cycles. So there are many paths and pointers “to death”. I can also turn it around: if death is the only certainty in life, then a tribute to death is a celebration of life!
Chain D.L.K.: What are the reversed words in the opening ‘A Cycle Completed’ to say?
Dave Phillips: The tone matters more than the words. What do you hear?
Chain D.L.K.: Death is maybe the aspect of existence that keeps the strongest taboos still on. Do you agree with such a statement of not?
Dave Phillips: Yes, that’s also why I wanted to make an album that demystifies that, that steers us away from this taboo, from this conditioned denial or shame, this refusal to face all aspects of existence. I wanted to describe death as what it is, part of a cycle as natural as birth, something to encounter and to know, not something to primarily fear. On the contrary, I feel the awareness of death is one of the driving forces of life, it brings out deep emotions which frankly make me feel very alive. Death the experience has many beautiful aspects to it, at least in my experience. To reduce death – or this album – to just something “dark and scary” is merely scratching the surface – it’s looking away. If we could include death in the bigger picture as something normal, we may enjoy more freedom in our lives…
Chain D.L.K.: That piercing scary and somehow beastly scream on “To Death We All Go, The Sooner The Better”… how did you grab it, if it can be said?
Dave Phillips: I often start a recording based on notes I made or impulses, ideas about sonics, and sentiments. The tape starts running and… I try to put these sentiments into sound, and then… often things happen, I get carried away…. I go places, I enter different states of being, it’s like I travel like I’m somewhere else. Then sometime later, thump, I land again, it’s like I’ve returned from far… and sometimes it even translates onto tape ;o)
Like this album. I didn’t plan to do something about this particular topic, or about my father. I had a bunch of ideas noted, things I wanted to work into, but nothing like “to death”. Then I started recording. It was like a trance. It just poured out of me. The basic recordings happened within about ten days, basic structures of pieces were completed the following week. When I started listening back to what I had done, I was surprised. Then I realized what it’s about…
Chain D.L.K.: Paraphrasing and quoting the title of one of my favorite tracks of the album, what’s the real catastrophe you wanted to represent or maybe exorcize?
Dave Phillips: “The real catastrophe is that humanity continues”. It refers to the coronavirus and a reason why it might’ve appeared. I mean, we humans have vastly overpopulated this planet, and we are a very sick civilization, we’ve taken a couple of wrong turns too many, and we’re destroying not only our home but also that of all other inhabitants and them with it. It’s time we became extinct, or at least drastically reduced in numbers. We, humans, are the catastrophe… haha… it’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek, my sense of humor, though I reckon part of me means it ;o)
Chain D.L.K.: Is there any moment of ‘to death’ that you want to keep deliberately indecipherable?
Dave Phillips: Honestly, I try to be transparent with all that I do. My intentions, sentiments, feelings, it’s all there really. I don’t try to be cryptic or mysterious. On the other hand, it’s very subjective – I’ve put things out into the world that I thought were obvious and then find myself surprised by very different interpretations. So in this work, there are wordings, for example, that are only my own words for this particular moment, this context, they are subjective and not telling in terms of a narrative, so they needn’t be clear, they are only relevant in terms of opening spaces, it’s your own words or sentiments that take you through those spaces, and that’s fine.
Chain D.L.K.: Any plan to lend or adapt ‘to death’ for other forms of art (theatre or video art maybe)?
Dave Phillips: Not for now. The way this album poured out of me, the way it happened, this format is quite right for now. Emotionally, I’m quite elsewhere now anyway, also thanks to having this album happen.
Chain D.L.K.: Any work in progress?
Dave Phillips: Always :o) I’m currently finalizing two pieces for a 7″ for a young Portland label, and a comp track, but there are other pots cooking too…
Visit Dave Phillips on the web:
https://www.davephillips.ch/about
https://dave-phillips.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/dave-phillips
vimeo.com/davephillips
|
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
| PHILLIPS, TOMAS |
Chuchoter pas de Mots |
CD |
"Chuchoter pas de mots" signifies very little, if anything, beyond the immediacy of its sounds that populate a larger field of hushed silent spaces. The flatline tones that waver and conjoin, sharp, high frequencies seeking only to focus rather than innervate the attention low swells, digital flourishes bouncing off of familiar, acoustic gestures, all emerging without meaning. No installation, dance theatre or otherwise aesthetic, ideological context. Which is not to say "Chuchoter pas de mots lacks" consequence. In its discrete whispers it invites a careful balance between rest and concentration, cajoling at the same time that it releases the listening self to its own way in or out of words. The release is presented with a 12 pages 8” booklet with paintings by Richard di Santo and photos by Stefano Gentile and it’s a limited edition of 250 copies."
13.silentes.it
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| PHRAGMENTS |
Earth shall not cover their Blood |
CD |
"You’ve seen it before. Certain bands or artists delivering their finest work with their first recording. Then, in futile attempts to capture some of the same magic, becoming formulaic and stale, rehashing ideas and never really achieving the same caliber of work. Others, expanding on the elements of their prior releases, and through a natural maturation process, get stronger with each release. That would certainly be the case with Phragments. With their third full length studio CD, this Slovakian duo have made remarkable strides not only in quality but in scope. Equipped with an enriched sonic palate, Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood mixes forceful brass and dark orchestral strings with rolls of powerful tribal percussion, somber wind instrumentation, ominous atmospheres, industrial clangor, and a strong and commanding vocal presence, particularly on tracks like “Over Deadlands” and “The Kin of Cain”. Cohesive, complete, and epic, this is a release that will open some eyes to new found authority of Phragments. Yours to discover. In 6 panel digipak." [label info]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| PILLOW |
From Dusk to Dawn |
CD |
"best known as the keyboarder of italy's premier post rock combo giardini di mirò, wowing fans and sceptics alike with their formidable long players and impressively intense live performances, luca di mira finally returns as a solo artist. "from dusk to dawn" is the second album he pursued on his own. 6 years down the line, pillow's sound has changed quite drastically, yet glows with the same shocking deepness. focusing on a unifying, even more orchestral sound, di mira creates his own melancholic universe. centered around the epic "silent journey", pillow demonstrates in each and every track, how music should be approached in these troubled times. merging subtle piano fragments, overwhelming string arrangements, minimal guitar melodies and even 4/4 beats, pillow has written a soundtrack no one will ever forget." [label info]
www.city-centre-offices.de
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| PIMMON |
Mort aux vaches |
CD |
Der Australier gehört inzwischen zu den anerkanntesten experimentellen Laptop-Musikern dieser Tage.. in der MAV-Serie gibt es abstrakte Geräuschkompositionen mit warmen Untertönen, seltsam quasi-rhythmische Muster & Sphärenharmonien zu hören.. wie immer im speziellen Art-Cover..
“ From all the people with a laptop and who travel, I rate Pimmon as one of the better ones. Not falling in a pure noise mode, or a pure improvisation mode, his music is a combination of melodies, raw chunks of sound and glitchy rhythms. His recent 'Snaps Crackles Pop' (a rather self-explanatory title) for Tigerbeat didn't make it to these pages, but would rank high in my top 10 for 2003. That CD was a studio, to get the full Pimmon picture, one would also need the 'Mort Aux Vaches' CD. Recorded at roughly the same time as the Tigerbeat CD, the live recording on 'Mort Aux Vaches' CD dates from about a year ago, upon his first Europe tour. Of course, the live side is always arranged in a more free mode, small mistakes happen but these pieces bear the Pimmon trade mark allover: grainy yet warm glitch rhythms, amplified static hiss that evolves into small wormholes and crackles and pop all around. However, Pimmon never looses the idea of composition - he never leaps into pure improvisation nor does he let things get out of control, there is always the structure to control. Pimmon clearly has this capacity, both in his studio work, but also in his live work. Finally a very good example of the latter becomes available. “ [Frans de Waard]
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
| PINTO, JOAO CASTRO |
Suntria - Imaginal Sonotopes |
CD |
"Suntria is a soundscape composition orchestrated, fundamentally, through the use of audio fragments captured from distinct locations of Sintra’s forest, near Lisbon, Portugal.
Since remote ages, Sintra’s mountains (in Portuguese, Serra de Sintra) are known as locations of worship and devotion. It is reputed that the Celts, Visigoths, Moorish and Romans were among the people who inhabited and praised these oneiric landscapes before the Lusitanos (the later Portuguese). Throughout the years, Sintra had different toponyms, it is said that the Celts referred to it as Cynthia (meaning the devotion of the moon). It is also given that some Greek and Latin scholars state that Sintra was also denominated as Mons Sacer (Sacred Mount). Ptolemy and the Romans called it Mons Lunae (Mount of the Moon) and, during the Moorish rule of the land, Sintra was denominated as Zintira, Chinra, Xintra, Sentra, until, finally, it was, before its actual designation, named Xentra. From the etymological study of the term there is a curious, but controversial, medieval designation from each Sintra is thought of being derived – Suntria. This possibility presents itself as problematic. The medieval origin of Suntria is supposed to have been derived from the Indo-European (meaning Sun or Luminous Astro). This denomination is controversial because the etymology of the word “Sun”, considering the existing Indo-European branches, puts aside any connection between the term “Suntria” and the significance of the word Sun (except when considering the Gothic [extinct Germanic language] term “Sunno”).
Suntria is the title of this composition because, and foremost, the conceptual purpose of the album is not to mimic the sonic landscapes of Sintra’s physical actual locations but to creatively interpret these spaces. Suntria is a hypothetical toponym of a determined physical location, as this composition is an interpretation and recreation of field recordings captured in Sintra’s soundscape.
The mystical ambience patent in Sintra’s forest is a national symbol depicted in literature, cinema and architecture by Portuguese and foreigner artists as, for example, Lord Byron, which lived there for a brief period.
Sintra’s fauna and flora is as rich as its environment, which configurates a micro-climate totally distinct from the one which predominates in Lisbon, from where it distances not too much. The basilar audio samples that integrate this composition were recorded in the ponds, cascades, forests and beaches of the Sintra-Cascais natural park. Additional sounds were recorded in other (natural / urban) locations of the country (check the cd sleeve for more info).
Suntria’s subtitle is imaginal sonotopes, and it is so because what is at stake in the piece is recreating combinations from elements of the soundscape, i.e., of diverse geophonies, biophonies and anthropophonies. According to soundscape ecology, a sonotope is, precisely, the spatial overlapping units or patterns advenient from these contingent conglomerations, which in their turn result on the blending of sonic elements.
Suntria is a piece that presents plausible soundscapes through the creative electroacoustic exploration and concrescence of samples that even though, in many cases, belong to the same ontic family (for example: geophony – water in streams, ponds and beaches) were originated and recorded, in terms of spatio-temporal coherence, in distinct locations. One of the main purposes of the album is, therefore, to question the sense of identity and place, concerning to the academic established postulates of soundscape composition. Sounding natural, i.e., as we phenomenologically relate to a sonotope, is one of the main goals of this composition: to make plausible the implausible.
One can expect to listen a diverse spectrum of sonic approaches, in between found sounds and abstracted composition, making use of techniques that range from transparent edit, equalization and juxtaposition (phonography) to concrete / acousmatic music procedures (manipulations in the morphological spectrum). In terms of dynamics, the composition reveals subtle quasi-silent moments as saturated and loud events. The same logic prevails in terms of spectral diversity, for Suntria outputs careful sculpting of low, mid and high frequencies, towards a whimsical sound voyage.
Finally, all the audio samples were registered through the implementation of various recording techniques: stereo (XY, ORTF [w. matched pair] and MS) and monaural (shotgun, hydrophone and contact mics). Concerning the audio recording devices, various gear was used, from the enhanced mono (low quality) mic of the iPhone and the prosumer mid-level entry recorders (as the Tascam DR-100 MKII / DR-70D), to the professional standard industry level recorders (as Sound Devices 702).
Suntria reaches for an aural acuity that invites the listener to perscrutate meaning, purpose/intentionality and ultimately to question the sense of hearing and being in the world." (João Castro Pinto, 10 May 2017) |
2017 |
€14.00 |
|
| PITRE, DUANE |
Bridges |
CD |
"Duane Pitre's new album, Bridges, features two pieces taken from a suite of analogous compositions by the same name, and was composed by Pitre in 2012. The two pieces that comprise the album are meant to work together in sequence as a composite work; or they can be isolated and listened to on their own. The title derives its name from the original concept for this work, which was to bring together aspects of traditional Eastern music (such as compositional form and tuning) with Western musical traditions (such as in the church music of the Middle Ages and modern classical music). The result is an album that merges the ancient with the new, while creating a sound that is wholly its own.
CD is housed in a 6 panel digipack on thick board stock with a matte laminate coating & spot-gloss.
Duane Pitre - compositions, cumbus, ukelin, mandolin, computer, & electronics
Oliver Barrett - cello
Bhob Rainey - soprano saxophone
Written/arranged/recorded/mixed August-November 2012
Mastered by Altered Ear." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2013 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Live at the Stone. ED09 for String Ensemble |
LP |
"ED09 is an evolving, long-tone composition by Duane Pitre. The work’s current score calls for 12 or more performers from the string and/or woodwind categories, along with the possible addition of bowed electric guitar (played by the composer).
Approximately half of ED09‘s score instructs the performers to execute specific notated pitches that coincide with conducted hand signs, while the remainder of the score allows the performers to make minor decisions that affect the pace and texture of the piece. These decisions are based on a structure consisting of set playing methods, technique restrictions, fixed pitch classes (the ‘pitch pool’), and spontaneous conduction (aka real-time ‘mixing’)–resulting in slow-shifting harmonic movement over a long duration.
Essentially, the score enables all of the performers to approach a performance of the piece in the same manner, thus creating a group of musicians that thinks and plays as a cohesive unit. 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.
ED09 is an exercise in discipline and freedom, in the refinement of music, and in communal focus. The piece involves a temporary community of musicians with a central goal stripped of self: to become one.
180gr vinyl, edition of 350 (280 black / 70 clear)." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
https://bassesfrequences.bandcamp.com/album/ed09-for-string-ensemble-live-at-the-stone
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| PLOOG, JÜRGEN |
Tapes von Unterwegs 1971-1976 |
LP |
"Recorded & edited by Jürgen Ploog on different flights between 1971 & 1976 on a portable tape-recorder. Final selection, montage & editing by Robert Schalinski.
Like his literary fellow traveler William S. Burroughs who made tape experiments a few years earlier, the German Beat writer Jürgen Ploog (born 1935) began experimenting with tape recorders in the 1970s. Due to his career as a transcontinental pilot Ploog was constantly on the go. “My life was a series of interruptions both geographically (outwardly) and psychologically (state of mind) with exposure to different countries and the constant effects of jet lag.” This 40-minute cut-up is the result of his experiments. Passages of Ploog’s spoken text get mixed with Indian television voices, while sounds of Buddhist rituals are heard through an open hotel window. Radiograms, birds, recordings of airport and street noises, people noise and that of machinery … assembled, superimposed … scraps pulled out/torn, shifted and copied … questioned and documented … an alchemical experiment, a journey of sounds …
“Cut-up as a drug that leads to a different relationship with language, just as a hallucinogen leads to an altered relation with the so-called reality. The result is a fundamental shift of meaning. ‘Shift linguals’ was the motto in a continuous process with an open end …” J.P.
"This tape is a recording of many voices simultaneously under the spell of the urban Moloch. They moan, marvel, murmur and curse in a mixture of sounds that would became independent and found its own cadence. A sound that could turn drunk, melt on the tongue, mingle with the juices of the body and eventually turn into sweat and piss. The traveler lived with it as with microbes sucked up and gulped with every swallow.”
“When I look back now at those years, I see that they were a ground-breaking departure for me, not towards other, newly rising ideologies but into an unspecified way of writing and perception — because reality is based on perspective and seeing, thus opening the possibilities of an enhanced imagination and a vision of life under conditions which are not determined and pre-recorded. It may be said that these were the accounts of only the first steps. That in my case this was related to traveling to far-off continents and may just have been a lucky coincidence. At the same time it is obvious that it was difficult for me to record the exoticism of travel as merely a fortunate occurrence that gave me the chance to slide into remote scenery. The whiskey on the rocks at the beach of a tropical island is after all only the Technicolor-version of the beer in the pub back home. The challenge was to navigate under limitless technical possibilities and across the open space of digital deserts that spread rapidly …” J.P.2014
Jürgen Ploog - born 1935, lives in Frankfurt and Miami. He was a pilot for Lufthansa for 33 years. With Jörg Fauser and Carl Weissner he was co-founder of the legendary little-mag Gasolin 23. A friend and literary associate of William S. Burroughs, he is considered a father figure of the German-language literary underground." [label info]
www.90-prozent-wasser.de
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| 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 & THE HAFLER TRIO |
A pressed on Sandwich |
CD |
Erste Zusammenarbeit der beiden Urgesteine britischer Experimental-Drones / Elektronik, ein one-tracker von ca. 53 Minuten Länge. POTTER bearbeitet die H30-Sounds, das sind organisch-elektronische Oberton-Klangstrahlen, die sich glitzernd & oszillierend ins Ätherische winden, ruhig & klar & zur Versenkung einladend....
"CD is packed in special paper wallet & released as the limited edition of 1010 copies. This nutritious fare was prepared by Colin Potter at IC Studio, Preston, UK in 2005, using the finest Icelandic ingredients supplied by The Hafler Trio." Colin Potter explains: "I attended The Hafler Trio performance of 'How To Slice a Loaf of Bread' in Preston and was very impressed on many different levels. During a discussion with Andrew McKenzie after the event, he suggested that we might try a joint project. Shortly afterwards he sent me some of the original source material from the performance. It was my intention to preserve the overall shape & sense of the material, but at the same time move it to another (sonic)..” [label info]
“Do any of these two artists need really an introduction? I don't think so. Both are big shots in the world of experimental music. Early 2003, shortly after the re-discovery of The Hafler Trio, the trio did a performance in Preston called 'How To Slice A Loaf Of Bread'. The performance was attended by Colin Potter, who lives and works in the same city. Afterwards it was suggested that the two should work together, but McKenzie being Iceland and Potter in Preston made a tete-a-tete not easy. Andrew McKenzie mailed Colin Potter the original source materials for the concert, which Potter happily reworked into 'A Pressed On Sandwich'. The original performance was also released (see Vital Weekly 404), so there is something to compare. Both The Hafler Trio and Colin Potter are masters of drone music, but there are some subtle differences. The Hafler Trio seem overall more monochrome in approach, with so it seems for the listener who doesn't know any better, whereas Potter seems to be using more sound effects to create the soundscapes that he does, maybe less organic and more electronic. As said, the differences are quite subtle here, and there is certainly no hierarchy, both are masters of the genre. Potter's mix is perhaps a bit more dense and obviously more concise (The Hafler Trio release spans three CDs), but it moves as gentle and dark as the original. Great collaboration.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Fucking brilliant. Yeah, you should expect that these two high caliber sound sculptors would manage something great; and they do not disappoint. As for the obligatory introductions, Colin Potter may be best known from his ongoing contributions to Nurse With Wound over the past two decades, but has been privy to some of the finest in British dronescaping thanks to his work in Ora and Monos. The Hafler Trio is the creation of Andrew McKenzie, a sound research project which has been investigating the impact of sound upon the body, mind, and spirit through the lens of a Byzantine gnosticism. A couple years back, Potter had the good fortune of witnessing the Hafler Trio's How To Slice A Loaf Of Bread performance in Preston, England in 2003; after the show, Potter and McKenzie struck up a conversation, whence McKenzie suggested that the two collaborate. Shortly thereafter, McKenzie sent Potter a collection of the source material from that very performance as the foundation for their collaboration. Potter stated his intentions clearly, that he wanted to preserve the shape of the material while pushing it into another space. It's an understatement to say that Potter merely achieved his intention; as A Pressed On Sandwich ranks as one of the best things that he's worked on, on par with his work with Steven Stapleton on the existential void of Nurse With Wound's Salt Marie Celeste. Yeah, it's that good! Of course, McKenzie ultimately stretched out his own material of monumental dronings over a whopping six discs on the twin set of triple cds also entitled How To Slice A Loaf Of Bread (all of which are long out of print); so Potter's redux is a bit easier to digest, but certainly no less an album! You'll encounter the drone supreme here on A Pressed On Sandwich with electrified tonal vibrations, undulating phase patterns, and oceanic gasps of sublime expanses. The album starts off with a very cold, shivering feel but eventually transitions into a dynamic interplay of tones that simultaneously capturing the solemnness of church organ droning (with all of the overtones of holy symbolism) and the unnerving purity of feedback (with all of the allusions of technology on the brink of collapse). We mentioned it before, and we'll mentioned it again: fucking brilliant." [Aquarius Records]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| PSYCHIC TV |
Kondole / Dead Cat |
do-CD + DVD |
Cold Spring are proud to announce “Kondole / Dead Cat” – a double CD and DVD collection, presented in a lavish 8-panel matt digipak with booklet.
CD1:
Features the complete, long version of ‘Dead Cat’.
“…what could be more beautiful that such a sustaining & chronic radical as Gen could have provided us all – in the form of KONDOLE – with a piece of truly necessary Everyday Listening?” (JULIAN COPE / Head Heritage).
CD2:
Contains 3 tracks:
Thee First Part, ‘Thee Whale’ was recorded at Time Square Studios, Chiswick, London, on thee 23rd January 1988. It is thee soundtrack to an unmade 23 minute film called “Kondole (Thee Whale)”, by David Lewis and Andy Crabb.
Thee Second Part, ‘Thee Shadow Creatures’ was recorded at Hyperdelic Studios, San Francisco on 23rd January, 1993.
Thee Third Part, ‘Dead Cat’ was recorded at Time Square Studios, Chiswick, London, on thee 23rd January 1989. It is thee soundtrack to the film “Dead Cat” by David Lewis.
DVD:
The film 'Dead Cat' was released in 1989, and shown only at two film festivals of the same year, including once at the infamous Scala Cinema in London. It was never issued on general release and has only recently been uncovered by David Lewis (writer & director). We present the full film, re-authored from the original source. The film itself features unique starring roles from cult film director DEREK JARMAN, ANDREW TIERNAN ('The Pianist', '300', 'The Bunker', Derek Jarman's 'Edward II') and GENESIS P-ORRIDGE (PSYCHIC TV, THROBBING GRISTLE). The film features the music of Psychic TV, included here on CD1, in its complete form.
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/kondole-dead-cat-csr246cd
|
2018 |
€29.00 |
|
| PUNCTUAL TRIO |
Grammar |
CD |
Lou Mallozzi: turntables, CDs, Microphones, Oscillator
Fred Lonberg-Holm: Cello
Carlos Zingaro: Violin
Recorded by Pete Wenger at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, 28 May 2003.
Mixed and Masterd by Lou Mallozzi and Fred Lonberg-Holm at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, 23 June 2004.
Produced by Lonberg-Holm, Mallozzi and Zingaro.
@2003 Mallozzi / Lonberg-Holm / Zingaro
Lou Mallozzi (b. 1957)
Lou Mallozzi is a Chicago audio artist who has been dismembering and reconstituting language, sound, and gesture on stages, sites, CD, and radio since 1986. His background is in performance, intermedia and installation art, and since 1996 an increasing amount of his attention has been focused on improvised music. Using microphones, turntables, CDs and analog mixing, he collaborates with numerous instrumentalists in improvised frameworks. These collaborators have included Carlos Zingaro, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Michael Vorfeld, Mats Gustafsson, Jaap Blonk, Sebi Tramontana, Terri Kapsalis, Michael Zerang, Guillermo Gregorio, Birgit Ulher, Hal Rammel, and many others. He has performed in this context at the Come Sunday Festival (Munich), the Logos Foundation (Ghent), Podewil (Berlin), The Empty Bottle (Chicago), Candlestick Maker (Chicago), The Renaissance Society (Chicago), Kraakgeluiden (Amsterdam), and others. He has also composed several sound poems and structured improvisational works for soloists and ensembles, including Jaap Blonk, Barbara Lüneburg, and the ensemble Intégrales.
In addition to his improvised music projects, Mallozzi also produces intermedia and sound performances, radio art works, and sound installations. These have been presented at numerous venues since 1986, including the PAC/Edge Performance Festival (Chicago), the Chicago Cultural Center, Experimental Intermedia (New York), the TUBE audio art series at the Einstein Kulturzentrum (Munich), Spritzenhaus (Hamburg), Suoni/Sound 2000 (Isola d'Elba, Italy), The Subtropics Experimental Music Festival (Miami), the Fort Wayne Museum of Art (Indiana), Percorsi 98 Festival (Montegrosso d'Asti, Itlay), the Sound Canopy public art project (Chicago), Donald Young Gallery (Chicago), Gallery 400 (Chicago), the Bechtler Gallery (Charlotte), Randolph Street Gallery (Chicago), Aether Fest (Albuquerque), New American Radio, Bayerischer Rundfunk (Munich), Kunstradio/Radiokunst on ORF Vienna, Sender Freies Berlin, ABC Radio (Sydney), the Resonance FM Festival (London), and others. Among his collaborators in these realms are Sandra Binion, Mark Booth, Heinz Weber, Antonia Contro, and Maurizio Pellegrin.
Mallozzi has two CDs on the Penumbra Music label: Radiophagy (three radio works from 1990 - 1996) and Whole or By the Slice (electroacoustic collaborations with Hal Rammel). A CD of improvised music with Fred Lonberg-Holm and Carlos Zingaro is forthcoming on Rossbin Records (Italy). He also appears on Guillermo Gregorio's Faktura and Cornelius Cardew's Material (both on HatArt, Switzerland).
Mallozzi has received a number of grants and fellowships, including a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study Center (Italy), four Artist Fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, and grants from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and the Governor's International Arts Exchange Program.
In addition to his artistic career, Mallozzi is co-founder and Executive Director of Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, and he is on the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Fred Lonberg-Holm
Composer, improvisor and anti-cellist Fredrick Lonberg-Holm currently resides in Chicago. Defying categorization, his work deals only with the context of the specific musical situation in which he finds/places/builds for himself. A former composition student of Morton Feldman and Anthony Braxton, and cello student of Ardyth Alton and Orlando Cole, his ongoing projects include the groups Terminal 4, The Boxhead Ensemble, Pillow, and the Lonberg-Holm/Kessler/Zerang Trio. He is also currently a member of the Guillermo Gregorio Trio, the Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, XMARSX, and Witches and Devils (music of A. Ayler). He also has been coordinating and directing performances of his Light Box Orchestra, a non fixed structured improvising ensemble utilizing a light based cuing system . In addition he has also performed in ensembles led by Anthony Braxton, Ken Vandermark, Anthony Coleman, Georg Graewe, Wolfgang Fuchs, and John Zorn. As an improvisor he has recorded and or performed with numerous musicians including Jaap Blonk, John Butcher, Gunter Christmann, Axel Dorner, Hamid Drake, Barry Guy, Joelle Leandre, Paul Lytton, Jeff Parker, William Parker, Mischa Mengelberg, Ikue Mori, Mats Gustafsson, Paul Lovens, Paul Rutherford, Sten Sandell, Hamid Drake, Jim O'Rourke, David Stackenaas, Willie Winant, Carlos Zingaro, and many others. He has also performed/recorded with the rock groups God-is-my-Co-Pilot, Wilco, the Flying Luttenbachers, Chris Mills, Janet Bean, Super Chunk, Bobbie Conn, Ahmed Elmotassem's Legal Fiction, L'Altra, US Maple, Freakwater, Lake of Dracula, Plastic Scorpions, Zeek Sheck, Smog and others. Concert works have been premiered by William Winant, Carrie Biolo, Joe Fonda and Bottoms Out, Duo Atypica, the Schanzer/Speach Duo, New Winds, Paul Hoskin, Kevin Norton, the E.S.P. Ensemble and others. He has performed throughout the US and Europe as both a soloist and ensemble member. His scores for dance have been performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Dance Theater Workshop as well as many other venues. Film credits include music for a Playboy Channel short and the independant feature Animals, by Michael DiGiacomo. He has recorded for the Avant, Pogus, Occa, miguel, Explain:, Locust, Meniscus, Nuscope, Curious, Random Acoustics, Skin Graft, Hat Art, Buzz, Knitting Factory Works, Drag City, Ecstatic/Yod, Nine Winds, Atavistic, Rastascan, Box Media, 8th Day, Tzadik, Truckstop and What Next? labels as well as many others.
CARLOS “ZINGARO”
Born 1948 in Lisbon, Portugal; violin, electronics.
Carlos Zingaro undertook classical music studies at the Lisbon Music Conservatory from 1953 to 1965, and during the two years 1967/68 he studied church organ at the High School of Sacred Music. Also, during the 1960s, Zingaro was a member of the Lisbon University Chamber Orchestra. In 1967 he formed Plexus, the only Portuguese group at the time to have developed a new musical approach based on contemporary music, improvisation and rock; the group recorded a 45rpm single for RCA-Victor in 1968.
From 1975 onwards Carlos Zingaro has performed with a wide variety of improvising musicians, including: Barre Phillips, Daunik Lazro, Derek Bailey, Joëlle Léandre, Jon Rose, Kent Carter, Ned Rothenberg, Peter Kowald, Roger Turner, Rüdiger Carl, Dominique Regef, Evan Parker, Günter Müller, Andres Bosshard, Jean-marc Montera, and Paul Lovens. In 1978 he was invited by Wroclaw Technical University in Poland to participate in the 1st Instrumental Theatre Meeting, and in 1979 he won a Fulbright Grant and was invited by the Creative Music Foundation in Woodstock, New York to participate in meetings, classes and performances with such composers as Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, George Lewis, Leo Smith, Tom Cora and Richard Teitelbaum (a regular collaborator). He also gave lectures on New Notation Concepts, Movement and Sound, and the inter-relationship of Improvisation and Body Attitude. As a soloist, or with other musicians and composers, Carlos Zingaro has performed at many of the most important new music and improvising festivals in Europe, Asia and America.
A substantial level of Carlos Zingaro's musical activities are associated with theatre, film and dance. In 1975 he completed Stage Design studies at the Lisbon Theatre High School and later served on the board of directors of the School. From 1974 to 1980 he was musical director for the Lisbon-based theatre group Comicos, being responsible for most of the original music scores performed during the period. In 1981 Carlos Zingaro received the Portuguese Critics Award for best theatre music and in 1988 he worked with the Italian theatre director Giorgio Barberio Corsetti on his Kafka Trilogy. He has also been stage and costume designer for several other theatre productions. He has produced several film scores and worked extensively with dancers and dance companies such as the Gulbenkian Dance Company, the Opéra de Genève Dance Company, Michala Marcus, Aparte, and Olga Roriz.
Carlos Zingaro was a founding member of the Lisbon-based art gallery Comicos, his work has been exhibited, and he has received several prizes for his cartoons, comics and illustrations, samples of which can be seen on a number of CD sleeves, for example, Musiques de
scène.
www.rossbin.com/rs019.htm
"Is there a mode (maybe mood, posture, or circumstance) in which you are required to set yourself in order to appreciate (maybe absorb) freely improvised music? If you are attending a live show, the location, smells, company, and certainly the visual aspects of the show contribute to your "experience." When you are merely listening to a purchased recording, what are the rules for your listening experience?
Do you meditate in a quiet room? Can you listen to it in your car? Walking with an iPod? Washing dishes? How does the experience of the improvisation mesh with your current environs? Don't ask me for answers, but consider all the stimuli that invade your senses every hour of every day. Maybe that's why the relentless beat-beat-beat of pop music is so simple... because no one's actually listening.
My point is this: no two listeners can have the same response to very highly interpretable music like what the Punctual Trio produces on Grammar.
The cast of players includes cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, the newest member of Vandermark 5 (plus Wilco, Terminal 4, The Boxhead Ensemble, Pillow, and the Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, to name just a few); Lou Mallozzi, a sound artist from Chicago who lists Mats Gustafsson, Jaap Blonk, Sebi Tramontana, Michael Zerang, and Guillermo Gregorio as collaborators; and Portuguese violinist Carlos Zingaro, who has partnered with the likes of Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, George Lewis, Leo Smith, Tom Cora, and Richard Teitelbaum.
Simple review: you cannot dance to this disc, but I give it a ten.
The trio benefits from its choice of instrumentation. Lonberg-Holm's cello, which is seemingly at home in a range of settings from jazz standards to rock to free music, mixes well with Zingaro's violin's scraping, plucking, single notes, and complex travels. They are attuned to silence and space, as on the opener, or odd pulse and song forms, as with "Punctuation. Mallozzi doesn't drown you with samples or electronics; he places them in the mix as if he were Treg Brown, the sound editor of 1950s Warner Brothers cartoons. If you listen closely to "Punctuation, you may find yourself actually embedded inside a cartoon.
But then again, your experience with these sounds will probably be nothing like mine." [All About Jazz]
|
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| PYRAMIDS WITH WRAITHS |
Magpie & Raven |
LP |
"Einseitig bespieltes, opakes Vinyl in bedrucktem Transparentpapiercover in PVC-Hülle plus Downloadcode auf Aurora Borealis. Von der Optik ganz eindeutig ein Sammlerstück, musikalisch ein weiteres Beispiel für die Art und Weise, wie Pyramids andere Musiker in ihre Ideen einbinden und dann trotz deutlich erweiterten Musiker-Line Ups fokussierte Werke entstehen lassen können. Wer die „Pyramids with Nadja“-Zusammenarbeit mochte und da besonders diese Stimmung dauernd vor dem Ausbruch, mit hervorgerufen und unterstützt durch diese windartigen Sounds, der sollte sich auch auf „Magpie & Raven“ (musikalisch) zu Hause fühlen: am Anfang sind da diese Klavierakkorde und ein erstes Erscheinen der Stimmen, die für die Stimmung des Gesamtstücks noch sehr wichtig werden sollen und überraschenderweise, kaum dass man sich auf diesen Auftakt eingelassen hat, setzt die volle Orchestrierung ein und steckt das Dynamik-Feld ab. Auf diesem herrscht im Weiteren eben wieder dieser Wind, hier unter einem offenen Himmel voller Graustufen mit diesen einsamen Stimmen und ihren Anrufungen als Zentrum, bald wieder unterstützt durch das Piano des Auftakts. Diese wenigen Elemente (und der Reiz des Wechsels zwischen Männer- und Frauenstimme) reichen völlig, die absolut unwirkliche Stimmung über die gesamte erste Hälfte von „Magpie & Raven“ zu tragen, bis sich der Wind wieder stärker aufschwingt und sämtliche Gitarren und das Schlagzeug ein zweites Mal anruft. Was dann folgt ist ein Beispiel, wie musikalisch Noise klingen kann, wenn er denn so erzeugt wird: ein Mahlstrom von Feedbacks unterschiedlichster Couleur, die so klingen, wie ein Loch in einem Staudamm (vermutet) klingen würde. Darauf irrlichternde Treble-Fetzen, die bald so etwas wie eine eigene Struktur über dem Ganzen bilden und der Rücksturz in die (Un-) Wirklichkeit. Nicht ohne eine letzte Ansage der Priesterin. …Statement." [N / Blackmagazin]
www.aurora-b.com
"Magpie & Raven' sees Pyramids at their most sprawling and with moments of ultimate bombast. With piano provided by Clay Ruby (Burial Hex) as an integral part, the 25 minute plus track weaves around this motif with massive guitars and a spoken word performance that is truly epic before everything dissolves in a maelstrom of organic noise as Wraiths eviscerate the previous musical section to its very atomic particles before all comes together again and the track ends with a sense of calm conclusion.
This amazing release is presented as a limited edition one-sided clear vinyl LP in a signature AB vellum-style sleeve with artwork by noted tattoo artist Simon Erl. The multi-layered artwork can all be seen as one whole when held up to the light. Comes with an MP3 download card. Housed in heavy PVC outer sleeve. Edition of 350." [label info]
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| QUEST |
(an) Exterior |
MC |
Frans De Waard. When he is not writing reviews for the long-running Vital Weekly column he helms, records an incredible amount of music under many different monikers. Each one has a personality. The name Quest (not to be confused with QST) is De Waard's ambient outlet. Vintage synths, wet ware, hiss, harmonics.
The history of Quest goes back to the mid-90 when 'ambient house' was looming large when Frans de Waard got tired of playing the same noise show as Kapotte Muziek and Beequeen and was still deep into the world of everything dark and drone-like. It was time for something lighter, ambient and, why not, perhaps a bit rhythmical.
A drum machine was bought but never understood and only used for a couple of pieces on the 'Questionmark' LP, released as QST in 1994. That was the premature end of QST, but as Quest, the project became more ambient and less rhythm and a bunch of releases on Noise Museum and Lunar in the mid to late 90s. Somewhere in the late 90s new possibilities and techniques came along and it was time to move away from analogue synthesizers, field recordings and four-track machines. It had been a good run.
Fast forward to 2014 and another development in technology. Apps developed for the iPad made it possible to create the rhythm music dreamed off in the mid-90s but that was never realized back then; QST all of a sudden got a restart, with lots of pieces being composed resulting in a 12" released by Inta (2017), a CD for Static Caravan (2017) and Carpe Sonum Novum (2019).
In 2015 Infraction Records raised the question "is this technology also useful for some good old ambient music as Quest?", and never tired of trying new things out, Frans de Waard set to work. In a born again Quest, he decided to combine his newfound love for iPad technology in combination with some of his rusty and trusted synthesizers and with his old four-track machines, walkmans and field recordings. A high meet low sort-of technological approach, if you will. So far that has resulted in an album per year in the last five years. Of these, '(An) Exterior' was the first to get started but the second to finish. In fifty-three minutes, seven pieces of music are played, flowing like a breeze, like a storm and at times without any visible movement. 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.
When looking for a cover that surpasses the prescriptive photography from a landscape, Frans asked his close friend, musician and visual artist Bertin van Vliet if he could use some of his geometric drawings he posted online. Van Vliet invited Frans over and showed the entire collection of these drawings, a whole book full of them, which were all scanned for further inspection, which then resulted in the idea to do a limited edition facsimile reprint of the original Van Vliet drawing book, with a bonus CDR.
All of this resulted in a beautiful release, across various formats;
1. A CD in a digipack, edition of 300
2. A cassette with J-Card in a plastic case, edition of 50
3. A CD and bonus CDR (41 minutes of additional music) in a book bound reprint of the original Bertin van Vliet drawing book, edition of 25 copies
4. All of 1, 2, and 3 with an additional bonus CDR (40'20), with the original Bertin van Vliet book in a signed edition of 1 copy
Mastering by Peter John Nijland
Design by Timothy O'Donnell
https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/an-exterior
|
2021 |
€9.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| R.P.M. |
Circle Line |
CD |
"A very peculiar journey........
It's not often we would say this, but listening to this on headphones is a most unusual experience!
Circle Line initially started life as a graphic score created by Phil Mouldycliff as a piece to be played by Keith Rowe in 1989. Over a period of twelve years this open form composition developed to the point where by 2002 an opportunity arose to make a recording of the work at IC Studio in Preston, using ambient recordings taken from Circle Line Tube stations made specifically for the project by Phil and Colin Potter . Keith effectively solos over the assemble tape collage of sounds from the Underground, starting and finishing with material collected at Edgeware Road. Given that a full circuit of the Line takes upwards of fifty minutes, the individual stations are grouped together to create workable sections delineated by geographical boundaries. Since making the recording the work has been performed live by Rowe, Potter and Mouldycliff on a number of occasions."
https://icrdistribution.bandcamp.com/album/circle-line
"R.P.M. stands for (Keith) Rowe, (Colin) Potter, (Phil) Mouldycliff, whereas the Circle Line is an integral part of London’s complex underground network. On such grounds – pun intended – Mouldycliff developed in 1989 a graphic score for Rowe’s performance; the trio recorded this version of the piece in 2002, accompanied by field recordings captured during a trip on the same route. In synthesis, what we hear is Rowe’s trademark dissection of the object previously known as the guitar mixed with structural sounds of wagons, other mechanical entities and human reverberations (voices, steps and so on) typical of an hour spent on the CL.
Having often traveled with this very medium in the past, the problem was usually having my player’s musical selection smothered or otherwise ruined by the surrounding clangor-cum-hubbub. In this case we have Colin Potter who – fortunately for us – balances the whole’s overall level, skillfully processing where necessary. The advice we are given is to listen with a good pair of headphones, and should definitely be followed. Only in this way does the music reveal its clever microscopy, giving the listener’s hearing apparatus the respect it deserves.
Beyond banal classifications – no, it is not a “drone album” – Circle Line represents an exercise in careful listening aided by sonorities that stimulate the innards of our discernment, although complementary to a day of ordinary commuting. Enjoying these extemporaneous inventions – that is, everything which exists between subsonic engrossment and exploitation of timbral oxidation – is a special pleasure in this particular context. I might look at commuting with earphones from a different perspective, after all." [Touching Extremes]
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| RADIGUE, ELIANE |
Jouet Electronique / Elemental I |
mLP |
"alga marghen proudly presents two sublime pieces by Eliane Radigue, 'Jouet Electronique' (1967) for feedback on magnetic tape and 'Elemental I' (1968) for feedback of natural sounds on magnetic tape. Both works, released at Pierre Henry's Studio Apsome in Paris, were never published before. Between 1967 and 1968, Eliane Radigue was the assistant of Pierre Henry in his studio, mainly for the editing of 'L'Apocalypse de Jean'. He also put her in charge of organizing his sound archive according to different criteria. It was an endless work... there were incredible sounds, a true sound library! Eliane Radigue really enjoyed to do this work, even if it took a long time... So, sometimes, she decided to set the machines of the studio to do some little work on her own. 'Jouet Electronique' and 'Elemental I' were born this way as a kind of recreation during her time as a studio assistant. Working with feedback is something that Eliane Radigue learned through Pierre Henry. Do you remember 'Voyage'? There's that fluid part which is made of feedbacks constructed with a microphone... Everything had to be set at a precise distance from the loudspeakers because that is the specific problem with feedback, you have to be at the right distance... Afterwards, these high tone recordings were slowed down in order to discover the deeper character of their colour. This work with feedback was in the end quite limited and what the composer preferred, as a way to produce sounds, was working with two reel tape machines. The first was set on the recording mode while the other was playing and it was the accidents happening in this phase that made the feedback richer. With some fine-tuning you could reach very beautiful results: low pulsations, very high-pitched sounds, sometimes the two at the same time or long sounds. All of these sounds could be slowed down or accelerated, which gave her a beautiful material to work with. With 'Jouet Electronique' Eliane Radigue had a lot of fun, hence the title... As far as 'Elemental I' is concerned, it was the first attempt at something which was very important to her based on the theme of the basic elements: water, fire, air and earth. Eliane had the chance to record in open air thanks to a small Stella Vox that Arman gave her in the beginning of the 1960s. At the time she was still living in Nice and every now and them she went for a walk to do some recordings: the sea, the wind, the rain, the fire... Eliane Radigue continued this way to built her very minimal sound library, not more than ten reel tapes... This was the starting point and in 1968 she used these recordings for her work with two reel tape machines. First pressing limited to 300 copies, with a text by Emmanuel Holterbach and a photo portrait by Arman." [label info]
|
2011 |
€19.50 |
|
|
Transamorem Transmortem |
CD |
\" “Before the greatest achievement
Before the greatest detachment.
At the limit of the frontier space of the unconscious - tuned waves - \"consonant things vibrate together\".
Where does the change happen? In the inner field of perception or the exterior reality of moving things in the course of becoming.
\"And time is no longer an obstacle, but the means by which the possible is achieved\".
Eliane Radigue - June 20, 1973
\"Transamorem - Transmortem\" was premiered on March 9, 1974 at The Kitchen in NYC, where the music programmer at the time was Rhys Chatham - this was right before his guitar phase. During this period, \"Transamorem - Transmortem\" was presented along with other compositions by Eliane Radigue in a linear mode of listening, although the piece had originally been conceived, during its composition, as a sound installation. Of course, both modes of listening are possible, and each works marvelously in its own way.
In their original form, Eliane Radigue\'s works are magnetic tapes. After being played a few times in public, the tape disappears to its case until a release proposal makes it available again through a disc.
During this period Eliane Radigue\'s compositions became fairly long, some lasting over an hour. Because the tracks could not be edited for some obvious reasons, a vinyl release was unthinkable. It was only in the 90\'s, with the advent of the CD format, that the long compositions of Eliane Radigue were made available (with the exception of the \"Song of Milarepa\" LP on Lovely Music, a work already divided into multiple movements and thus able to be fit onto two sides of an LP). For these reasons, the work of Eliane Radigue remained virtually unknown for twenty years - from the 70\'s to the 90\'s.
It was in 2004, when she accepted my aid in digitizing her archives, along with Lionel Marchetti, that I discovered \"Transamoren - Transmortem.\" Immediately, I was awed by the majestic grace of this very long tangle of frequencies, this set of seemingly unchanging tones, whose variations are of a delicate subtlety. \"Transamoren - Transmorten\" is recognizable as one of the most radical of Radigue\'s compositions, comparable to the first \"Adnos,\" the work that follows \"Transamoren - Transmortem\" chronologically. Very few transformations, an apparent formal aridity that is then contradicted by the physical play of the frequencies as the listener turns her head gently from right to left, or better yet as the listener moves slowly throughout the music space. Moving through zones of specific frequencies, the listener\'s body experiences localized zones of low, medium and treble frequencies which vary according to the acoustic properties of the space. As Radigue wrote of \"Adnos\": \"to displace stones in the bed of a river does not affect the course of water, but rather modifies the way the water flows.\" Here, we find the same meditative tension proposing a peaceful movement through the spaces created by the different frequencies that compose \"Transamoren - Transmortem.\"
Very well-organized, Eliane Radigue\'s archives are a pleasure to explore, and \"Transamorem - Transmortem\"\'s case contained a mine of information. What excited me most was the short text entitled \"Inner Space\", which described the ideal conditions under which \"Transamorem - Transmortem\" should be presented. That is to say as a sound installation.
\"Inner Space - This monophonic tape should be played on 4 speakers placed in the four corners of an empty room. Carpet on the floor. The impression of different points of origin of the sound is produced by the localization of the various zones of frequencies, and by the displacements produced by simple movements of the head within the acoustic space of the room. A low point of light on the ceiling, in the center of the room, produced by indirect lighting. Several white light projectors of very weak intensity whose rays, coming from different angles, meet at a single point\".
Eliane Radigue - 1973
I immediately felt that it was necessary to make \"Transamoren-Transmorten\" available once again, and this time in its ideal form, in trying to follow Radigue\'s recommendations word for word. It was with this idea in mind that the Cumulus collective (also responsible for the contemporary music festival Why Note) organized the Continuum festival in Dijon along with the art space Le Consortium (one of the founders of which had persuaded the goup Circle X to record their first, mythic EP in Dijon in 1979 - but that\'s another story!).
The goal was to correctly present some of Eliane Radigue\'s sound installations, an aspect of her work now completely forgotten. And yet, between 1967 and 1971 her work was often exhibited in galleries of contemporary art, mostly in Paris (Lara Vincy, Yvon Lambert ... ), a reflection of the fact that French people have had a harder time than Americans placing the work of Radigue. She herself hesitated for quite a while to use the word \"music\" to describe her work, a complex that is familiar to this very generation of musicians, and which is now no longer really a problem. Who would claim that the work of Eliane Radigue is not musical? That would be strange ...
The 2006 Continuum festival in Dijon saved four sound installations from the dust (an expression that Radigue uses to describe her archives): \"S=a=b=a+b\" (1969), \"Omnht\" (1970), \"Labyrinthe Sonore\" (1970) and \"Transamorem - Transmortem\" (1973). The first two installations are composed with feedbacks, the two others with the sounds of the ARP 2500 synthesizer. Each one is based on a strategy of specific spatial presentation, but that\'s also another story ...
Now it\'s your turn to enjoy this enveloping electronic space ...\" [liner notes]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2011 |
€16.50 |
|
|
In Memoriam-Ostinato / Danse des Dakinis |
LP |
"Alga Marghen presents the last chapter from the Feedback Works documentation series, a brand-new LP including "In Memoriam-Ostinato" and "Danse des Dakinis", two previous unreleased tracks by Eliane Radigue. Among the works of fixed duration from the feedback period, "In Memoriam-Ostinato" is the link between "Jouet Electronique" (ALGA 029LP) and "Opus 17" (ALGA 045LP), and allows you to understand the evolution of her approach. "In Memoriam-Ostinato" is a game of mirroring symbols which glide into a non-measured, bent and elastic, temporality. Eliane Radigue's working method and her aesthetic direction are evident in this work from 1969: her very own unique temporal space of sonic experiences. Even though it bears the same name as the third part of "Adnos III", "Danse des Dakinis" is a peculiar work in Eliane's oeuvre. Conceived in a short time, with all kind of tapes from the composer's past work, it fluently shows a kaleidoscopic vision of Radigue's sensibility for sound. In 1998 she put together a curious self-portrait in sound. There is a feedback ostinato conceived around 1969 and which refers to "In Memoriam-Ostinato" and "Opus 17". All through "Danse des Dakinis" you plunge into the sound of a creek recorded at Mills College campus that brings you back to the field-recordings from the beginning of the 1960s, made on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Such elements construct "Elemental1" (ALGA 029LP) as well. There are also some discreet interventions on the ARP 2500 synthesizer. It is indeed a peculiar work, which doesn't have the same features of her other compositions, especially at that time of her compositional path. There is an explanation for the composer producing this kind of sound material in 1998, and not limited to the sound waves of the ARP synthesizer. Invited to a workshop at Mills College in 1998, Eliane Radigue could not load herself down with her bulky instrument on such a trip. So, she left with just a few tapes taken from her own collection, drawn from different periods, and composed "Danse des Dakinis" with those old elements. There is tension in this composition, a certain wildness, an unpredictability of elements, those which are recognized as fundamental elements, which give structure to the universe. "Dance des Dakinis" is an intimate and wild symphony, alive and unpredictable, which is to be the next-to-last gesture of the composer before completely stopping her work with electronics." [label info]
"There is no artist, working in the contemporary field of experimental sound, that is more important than the French composer Éliane Radigue. She is a shining light, who, for more than half a century, has quietly blazed trails with a body of work that is as creatively visionary as it is sublime. Back in the 2010s, Alga Marghen launched a crucial archival series, dedicated to some of Radigue’s earliest and previously unavailable works, many predating her first LP, 1983's “Songs of Milarepa”, by more than a decade. Having already delivered four LP of this material, they return with their fifth and final instalment in the series, “In Memoriam-Ostinato / Danse des Dakinis”. Perhaps the most fascinating of the group, the first work was composed in 1969 in the period between the creation of two of her earlier works comprised within Alga Marghen’s initiative, “Jouet Electronique” and “Opus 17”, while the second draws on material recorded during the 1960s and then further intervened with, “Danse des Dakinis” was conceived and created in 1998 by Radigue as a self-portrait in sound. Absolutely essential on every count, we couldn’t think of a better place for this series to end, further illuminating the remarkable beginnings of one of our greatest living composers in truly eye watering ways.
Born in 1932, Éliane Radigue began her musical endeavours in Paris during the late 1950s and early '60s, working under Pierre Schaffer and Pierre Henry, before quickly outstepping her mentors. Initially working predominantly in tape, during the early 1970s she made the radical switch to modular synthesis, beginning a decades long exploration of the ARP 2500 that drew on her practice as a Buddhist and pushed the notions of musicality endlessly forward, taking the entire landscape of experimental sound with her through a series of sonic mediations that bound life and art.
During the early 2000s, Radigue set aside her synth, embarking upon a hiatus from music, before taking the unexpected step of beginning to compose works with and for acoustic instrumentalists. By the the early 2010s, this new phase in her career had begun to emerge as the sprawling work, “Occam Ocean” series, arguably bringing her more acclaim and adoration than any other point in her long career. Fittingly, it was during roughly this same moment, beginning with “Jouet electronique”, that Alga Marghen embarked upon their archival series dedicated to Radigue’s earliest and previously unavailable works, offering a unprecedented and much needed sense of dimension to the breadth of her career. Followed in rapid succession by “Feedback Works”, “Vice-Versa, etc…”, and “Opus 17” - each mining the period when the composer worked predominantly with magnetic tape - it’s been nearly a decade since the last LP appeared, making the emergence of their final instalment in the series. “In Memoriam-Ostinato / Danse des Dakinis”, that much more sweet.
Comprising two free standing works, the first, “In Memoriam-Ostinato”, foreshadows the pacing that would soon come to define Radigue’s unique approach to composing sound. Measured and slow, it is an immersion into an extending state of contemplation, manifested in organizations of sound; a game of mirroring symbols that bend and elongate time, inviting the ear to get lost. As Radigue recounts: “This piece was commissioned for a Happening, Mémorial. It was a sort of secular procession to the castle of Verderonne, a beautiful place. The pools bordering the edifice were lit, and everyone was dressed or draped in mauve. It terminated in one of the grand salons of the castle where I played “In Memoriam-Ostinato”.”
While considerably more concise than many of the durational works through which Radigue would come to make her name, the 23 minutes that make up “In Memoriam-Ostinato” are not encompassing or lacking in depth. Where it differs is within the presence of slighter darker temperament and mood. Across the work’s length, low rumbles of textural noise form a bedrock - feeling a bit like the death knell of dying electronics - into which strange, warbling tones of feedback pulse and dance with a palpable sense of tension. Like so much Radigue’s work over the years to come, “In Memoriam-Ostinato” actively obscures a consciousness of the artist’s hand. It's so elegant and risk laden, that were it encountered by chance, without context, it might be perceived as the generative form of an abandoned radio station within an alien landscape.
Rounding out the collection and not to be confused with the third part of “Adnos III”, which bears the same name, “Danse des Dakinis” is quite possibly the only work of its kind in Radigue’s remarkable body of work. Drawing on a wealth of tapes she created during the 1960s, the work was created in 1998 as a kind of self-portrait in sound; a kaleidoscopic vision of Radigue's sensibility for sound, a memoir, and a hall of mirrors prismatically reflecting the multiples sides of self. The piece, because of the many phases in her career from which it draws, is a fascinating hybrid that uses field-recordings from the beginning of the 1960s, made on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and capturing the sound of a creek recorded at Mills College campus, feedback elements from 1969, as well as later interventions on her ARP 2500 synthesizer.
Standing outside her larger body of composition, while intrinsically bound to it, “Danse des Dakinis” nods toward the dakini, a female deity in Vajrayana Buddhism or a female demon in Hinduism, establishing a curious bond between wrathful female forms and the elements of nature which double, in Buddhism - a central force in Radigue’s life and work - as the absence of ego or mental obstacles, where nature itself is revealed. Here, once again, we encounter the composer in a darker meditative state, weaving the sounds of nature into those of her Arp and feedback to create a complex internal world that blurs the lines between abstraction and raw emotion, electronics and organic sounds.
It’s hard to not feel a little bitter sweet about the long overdue emergence of Éliane Radigue’s “In Memoriam-Ostinato / Danse des Dakinis”. On one hand, it’s a truly incredible and deeply illuminating body of work. On the other, it signals the end of Alga Marghen’s decade long immersion into the composers crucial, previously unreleased body of feedback works from the 1960s. Still, we couldn’t think of a better way to end than here. It’s one of the most intriguing and engaging of the group. Absolutely fantastic from the first to the last." [Soundohm]
|
2022 |
€24.00 |
|
| |
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
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2022 |
€24.50 |
|
| RADIGUE, ELIANE & FREDERIC BLONDY |
Occam XXV |
CD |
In 2018 experimental festival Organ Reframed commissioned Éliane Radigue to write her first work for organ, 'Occam Ocean XXV'. Radigue worked closely with organist Frédéric Blondy at the Église Saint Merry in Paris before transferring the piece to Union Chapel for its premiere at Organ Reframed on 13 October 2018. The recording on this compact disc was made at a private session at Union Chapel on 8 January 2020.
'Occam XXV' inaugurates the very special record series of works exclusively commissioned by Organ Reframed, the organ-only, one of a kind experimental music festival, carefully curated by Scottish composer/performer and London's Union Chapel organ music director Claire M Singer.
Paris-born Éliane Radigue is one of the most innovative and influential living composers of all time. After working under Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry in the late 1950's/early 60's she mainly worked with tape before developing a deep relationship with modular synthesis in the early 1970's. Over the next three decades she pushed her own conceptions of musicality forward developing a deep relationship with her ARP 2500. Through endless exploration and drawing on her personal journey as a practicing Buddhist she created an entirely new landscape of experimental sound. In the early 2000's she made an extraordinary shift into writing predominantly for acoustic instruments.
'Occam XXV' is the latest chapter of Radigue's broader series of works Occam Ocean which she has been composing in the last decade. Carefully selected by Radigue she has closely collaborated with various extremely experienced yet sensitive instrumentalists. For Occam XXV Radigue collaborated with pianist, organist, composer, improviser, artistic director of the Orchestra of New Musical Creation, Experimentation and Improvisation (ONCEIM) Frédéric Blondy, which is their second collaboration in the Occam Ocean series. 'Occam XXV' premiered in 2018, and was later recorded privately in 2020 at London's Organ Reframed headquarters Union Chapel.
"We live in a universe filled with waves. Not only between the Earth and the Sun but all the way down to the tiniest microwaves and inside it is the minuscule band that lies between the 60 Hz and the 12,000 to 15,000 Hz that our ears turn into sound. There are many wavelengths in the ocean too and we also come into contact with it physically, mentally and spiritually. That explains the title of this body of work which is called Occam Ocean. The main aim of this work is to focus on how the partials are dealt with. Whether they come in the form of micro beats, pulsations, harmonics, subharmonics – which are extremely rare but have a transcendent beauty – bass pulsations – the highly intangible aspect of sound. That's what makes it so rich.
When Luciano Pavarotti gave free rein to the full force of his voice the conductor stopped beating time and you could hear the richness in its entirety. Music in written form, or however it is relayed, ultimately remains abstract. It's the performer, the person playing it who brings it to life. So the person playing the instrument must come first. I've always thought of performers and their instruments as one. They form a dual personality. No two performers, playing the same instrument, have the same relationship with that instrument – the same intimate relationship. This is where the process of making the work personal begins. The purely personal task of deciding on the theme or image that we're going to work from.
Obviously, because this is Occam Ocean, the theme is always related to water. It could be a little stream, a fountain, the distant ocean, rivers. Out of the fifty or so musicians I've worked with no two themes have been the same. Each musician's theme is completely unique and completely personal. The music does the talking. This is one of those art forms that manages to express the many things that words aren't able to. Even at an early stage, all those ideas need to have been brought together."
- Éliane Radigue
Since its conception in 2016, Organ Reframed has commissioned artists including Low, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Philip Jeck, Phill Niblock, Mark Fell, Mira Calix, Darkstar, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Sarah Davachi, hailing from London's Union Chapel, ending up also in Amsterdam and Moscow. Organ Reframed will be back this year on September 16--18 with Abul Mogard, Ipek Gorgun, Anna von Hausswolff, Claire M Singer and Cabaret Voltaire's Chris Watson.
"The idea of Organ Reframed dates back to 2006 when I was commissioned to write my first organ piece. At the time I was mostly composing in the studio and was struck by the vast breadth of the instrument and how capable it was of creating timbres that were similar to what I was working with electronically. The lush acoustic quality of the sound resonating in the space was incredible and the sonic possibilities seemed endless. I felt so fortunate to have had the time to experiment and explore the instrument and realised perhaps the reason there wasn’t a huge amount of experimental works being written for organ was because they are mainly housed in churches and concert halls so you really need to know someone with a key. From that point on I started composing almost exclusively for organ and since launching Organ Reframed in 2016 I am now able to give fellow artists the opportunity to explore what an incredible instrument it is."
- Claire M Singer.
Union Chapel's 1877 organ built by master organ builder Father Henry Willis is known to be on of the finest in the world. It is one of very few organs left in UK with a fully working hydraulics (water powered) which can be used an alternative to the electric blowing system. The organ is completely hidden from the listeners allowing to focus solely on the music.
Composed by Éliane Radigue. Performed by Frédéric Blondy. Commissioned by Organ Reframed, curated by Claire M Singer. Recorded on 8 January 2020 by Daniel Halford at Union Chapel on the organ built by ‘Father’ Henry Willis, 1877. Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering.
Distributed by Kudos and Touch.
Cover organ photography: Daniela Sbrisny.
Manufactured by Monotype Pressing.
Designed by Philip Marshall, Berlin, June 2021.
This commission was generously supported by Arts Council England, the London Community Foundation/Cockayne, PRS Foundation and SACEM.
Designed by Philip Marshall this special edition compact disc is the first in the series of Organ Reframed releases. Packaged in a matt A5/DVD style digipack it also includes a full colour 16 page booklet containing text from Éliane Radigue, photographs of her writing Occam XXV in Paris and of the 1877 Henry Willis organ at Union Chapel.
https://organreframed.bandcamp.com/releases |
2022 |
€22.50 |
|
| RANTA, MICHAEL |
Azabu |
CD |
Even though only being fully terminated 50 years after its conception, Azabu can be regarded as the starting point of Michael Ranta\'s creative self-discovery. The recordings that form the base of Azabu were mostly made in the Tokyo district with the same name (Azabu-Juban). Next to abstracted field recordings, Azabu is also pervaded by a rich variety of percussion, string, and wind instruments, all played by Ranta himself. Subsequently Ranta edited, layered, and processed the recordings at the NHK electronic music studio in Tokyo. Both pieces display a vast array of acoustic, electronic, and concrete sound events meticulously sequenced to a complex fusion symbolizing the entire spectrum of earthly and heavenly sounds. Dynamic extremes evoke a restless flight through space, or through the depths of human subconsciousness, between dream and reality. Ultimately the music disappears, like a dot in the sky gradually fading into nothingness -- an \"ascension\" that closes the loop in a ritual of life that can begin anew again at any time. Michael Ranta: composition, performance, mixing (1971). Stefan Deistler: final mixing and mastering (2021). Painting: Wayne Jacob. Production: Timo van Luijk. Design: Meeuw. Gatefold cardboard sleeve; eight-page booklet.
https://metaphon2.bandcamp.com/album/azabu
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2022 |
€14.00 |
|
| RAPOON |
Dream Circle |
CD |
"The long-awaited re-issue of the very first album of Rapoon initially released by now long defunkt Death Of Vinyl Entertainment in 1992. “Dream Circle” was out just after Robin Storey left Zoviet France and it has a lot of common with his former project’s late 80-es/early 90-es sound, especially with the same DOVe label release “Shadow, Thief Of The Sun”, which is now maybe the most sought-after CD of Zoviet France. “Dream Circle” is a bridge between the old and new projects, a kind of a witness to this difficult times. It’s dark, esoteric and dense, with a lot of haunting loops, frightening whispers and subtle trance-inducing rhythms. Though it’s nearly 20 years old, it sounds fresh and actual, as now the spiral of time made its turn bringing us closer to this point of eternal dream circle, just one level higher (or lower, who knows). The release limited to 500 copies comes in a mini LP-like embossed cover with inner sleeve, both printed gold-on-black." [label info]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Cultural Forgeries |
CD |
"In 2013 I was asked by my friend Robert Pepper (Pas Musique) if i wanted to do an "unplugged " album. I was intrigued by the idea and agreed. I thought of ways of constructing pieces that did not involve any "processing". I wanted to make something that was essentially acoustic recordings but which were composed and arranged to give some depth and intricacy to them. I started recording some of my many acoustic instruments on a portable stereo digital recorder (A Tascam DR05..for those interested in such things). The recorder has built in microphones , so I just used those. Sometimes I placed the recorder inside a large Bodhran to get natural reverb reflections. I listened back to the things I had carefully recorded. i listened to them again...they were ok..but something was missing... I added some reverb, delay ..back masking and ....it suddenly sounded fab to me... This album is part acoustic and part processed ..all the recorded parts are live..one take. The treatments and processing are as much a part of composition as are the instruments and the recordings...In a way I failed to make an unplugged album but I did make something which was outside of my usual work process and for that i am thankful. To simply repeat the same processes over and over seems very dull to me. Viva la Difference !
Acoustic Instruments used:
Trumpet, Pocket Trumpet, Bodhran, Banjo, Pungi, Shehnai, Indian flute, Chinese flute, Irish tin whistle, hand bells, cello, accordion, guitar (Hofner Congress 1958), one string slide guitar (nineboys wedge), Ukelele, Kan (Tai bamboo harmonica), mouth harps, percussion, voice." [label info]
"Just like Richard Youngs last week with his 'dub' record we find Rapoon here also doing something out of his usual ordinary. His ordinary would be to play instruments like a drum, or a stringed instrument and then take samples out of that and play around with those, adding sound effects and mixing these into various configurations. Here label boss Robert L. Pepper (also from the PAS Musique group) invited Robin Storey, the man behind this one-man project, to do an instrumental/acoustic/unplugged album. All of the seventeen pieces were recorded in one take, but Storey wasn't entirely convinced by the acoustic quality and added some reverb and delay when needed. It's not a lot, I think. The great beauty of this record lies in the amount of instruments used. We hear a trumpet, a pocket trumpet, bodhran, banjo, pungi, shehnai, Indina flute, chinese flute, Irish tin whistle, hand bells, cello, accordion, guitar, one string slide guitar, ukelele, kan (Thai bamboo harmonica), mouth harps, percussion and voice. Indeed, that much, and with that it comes that none of these pieces seem to be very long; long enough to get the idea across, and keep the piece going, but short enough to present a wide variety of ideas. Sometimes very mysterious like in 'Bells Temple Ask', but also jazzy in 'Donnez-Moi Une Cigarette' or 'Glass', with a smokey trumpet sound. Maybe it's not the kind of unplugged album you would expect, simply because it's not entirely unplugged, but it's surely something different for Rapoon. I'd say it's certainly a route to explore further." [FdW/Vital WEekly]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Song from the End of the World |
CD |
"Robin Storey otherwise known as Rapoon, and ex member and co-founder of legendary northern group Zoviet France, comes back in the frozen lands of Glacial Movements after his vision of an Europe covered by ice in "Time Frost" (2007). The English artist this time faces a theme recently discovered, and that could dramatically change the destiny of our planet.
Evoking visions of mad scientists, French researchers are set to revive a mega-virus dormant for 30,000 years that they discovered in the permafrost of the Russian Arctic. The researchers, from the French National Center for Scientific Research, say they will take precautions to revive the specimen under safe laboratory conditions. They published a paper detailing their research in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The group of researchers is headed by Jean-Michel Claverie, who runs a laboratory at the French center. The French scientists, who awakened another Siberian virus, known as Pithovirus sibericum, in a petri dish in the lab in 2013, warn that climate change may awaken dangerous viruses in areas of the far north where soil or permafrost is melting and believe it is better to ‘know the enemy’. They found it near the same area as the latest discovery, which they named Mollivirus sibericum. This is the fourth prehistoric virus found since 2003. Source: ancient-origins.net
Buried deep beneath the ice lies Armageddon Locked in a frozen world it waits There are songs and myths of the coming end The voices are raised in supplication to gods and nature A cold wind howls the ice slowly melts Without understanding of time It waits This is my song from the end of the world Robin Storey, 2016 " [label info]
www.glacialmovements.com
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
|
My Life as a Ghost |
do-CD |
"The next album in the Rapoon reissue series is "My Life as a Ghost" from 2004. It is suspended exactly between the "Rhiz" with its rhythmic structures and the human voice experiments known from, for example, "Disappeared". Another thing that returned are strong ambient textures which were absent from "Rhiz" coming from the same period and reissued together with "My Life as a Ghost" This is one of the most interesting, if not the most interesting Robin Storey album, from the first decade of 2000s.
The current edition, along with most other Rapoon re-releases in the Zoharum catalog, has been expanded to include an additional disc featuring refreshed unpublished recordings from the same session. On this second disc Robin Storey penetrates more rhythmic regions again, but with a strong melodious backbone. The extra 70 minutes completes the original album in a perfect way.
The CDs are housed in a digipak sleeve and the album is strictly limited to 500 copies. The cover is designed by Maciej Mehring based on Robin Storey's paintings. The album is mastered by Maciej Bartkowiak. The whole production process is overseen by Michał Porwet."
www.zoharum.com
|
2017 |
€15.00 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
Seeds in the Tide Vol. 5 |
do-CD |
Here's the fifth instalment in the series entitled 'Seeds in the Tide' featuring rare and unreleased Rapoon recordings. The next part focuses on 2008-2011 compositions from Robin Storey's project history. These seventeen diverse pieces are a great introduction to Rapoon's body of work, and at the same time they will please all the hardcore fans searching for every recording of the project. On this fifth volume you will find collaborative works, remixes for other projects, the full version of 'Human Energy Field' (from the sold-out compilation 'From Earth to Sirius', which was the beginning of Zoharum collaboration with Rapoon), unreleased track from 'Stray' album and other curios. Three twenty-minute compositions seem to be the highlights at first, although there are a lot of interesting bits among shorter tracks as well.
rapoon.bandcamp.com/album/seeds-in-the-tide-vol-5-2xcd
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2017 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Airstrikes / Easterly Moon |
do-CD |
'Airstrikes' is Robin Storey's brand new album on Zoharum since 'Blue Days' released back in 2015. Unlike the latter, 'Airstrikes' contains longer compositions that combine the different recurring themes from Rapoon repertoire from the past 25 years. These are both inspirations from oriental music and rhythmic structures that derive directly from dance music. The seven compositions on the album are subtle observations of the processes taking place in the modern world.
Airstrikes announced on the news bulletin with the same detachment as announcing a rise in the price of petrol...
A computer game… a dancing crosshairs above a target...
The sound of a dulcimer playing an ancient song careens through the dusty, dry desert air...
Life persists.... we are such stuff as dreams are made on…
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/airstrikes
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Airstrikes |
CD |
'Airstrikes' is Robin Storey's brand new album on Zoharum since 'Blue Days' released back in 2015. Unlike the latter, 'Airstrikes' contains longer compositions that combine the different recurring themes from Rapoon repertoire from the past 25 years. These are both inspirations from oriental music and rhythmic structures that derive directly from dance music. The seven compositions on the album are subtle observations of the processes taking place in the modern world.
Airstrikes announced on the news bulletin with the same detachment as announcing a rise in the price of petrol...
A computer game… a dancing crosshairs above a target...
The sound of a dulcimer playing an ancient song careens through the dusty, dry desert air...
Life persists.... we are such stuff as dreams are made on…
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/airstrikes
|
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Vernal Crossing |
do-LP |
"Vernal Croossing was Rapoon's fourth album, originally released in 1993 by Staalplaat. One of the most interesting records released by Robin Storey (founding member of the pioneering industrial group :zoviet*france) on vinyl now for the first time.
A magic balance between percussion and electronics, creating mind-bending tapestries of minimalistic patterns and quasi-melodic drones fused with occasional doses of well-placed white noise. An approach much in debt to his 12 year stint with zoviet-france. It paints a gossamer diaphanous drifting veil of mood over the top. Other than some moody loops and psychoacoustic dimensions, it sounds authentic - hardly a trace of crude electronics or sampling. The drumming - in soft tones rather than hard hitting ones - does nothing to intrude on the passive mood. The overall atmosphere does not really change throughout the recording making it a cool, pacifying atmosphere while having the madcap tempo which would be very easy to dance to.
This edition includes a new track called Total Crossing, edited/constructed by Colin Potter, who has been in charge of the remastering of the record. A deep drone trance/meditation edit that blew Robin's own mind (and also ours!). The successful experiment explained by Colin: "I imported all the masters to my DAW to make a mock-up of the LP & initially they were all together at the beginning of the multitrack, before I spaced them out in the record's running order. And I thought.... what would it sound like with them all playing at once? Well, it was actually suprisingly interesting, so I did a mixdown."
|
2020 |
€26.00 |
|
| |
Seeds in the Tide Vol. 6 |
do-CD |
4 years have passed since the publication of the previous part of "Seeds in the Tide vol. 5". So it's high time to release the next volume in a compilation series containing rare Rapoon tracks scattered across a variety of smaller releases and compilations. The sixth part contains recordings from the years 2013-2016, mainly from the 7th EPs "Moon and Cups Quarter 1-4", "Calling the Rain" and several compositions prepared for the purposes of variety compilations, appearing in the same period of time. The first album "Keepsakes and Oddities from 2013-2016" is complemented by the recording of the Rapoon concert, which took place in the summer of 2013 during the Gorlice Ambient Festival ..
Two-disc album released in six-panel digipack, limited to 500 copies
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/seeds-in-the-tide-volume-6 |
2021 |
€17.00 |
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| RATKJE, MAJA S. |
Sult |
LP |
Composed, performed, mixed and produced by Maja S. K. Ratkje Based upon Ratkje's music created for the ballet "Sult" ("Hunger") by profiled director Jo Stromgren for the Norwegian National Ballet, this is a departure from records and live settings normally associated with Maja S. K. Ratkje, as we find her placed behind a modified, wiggly and out of tune pump organ, singing songs and improvising. Metal tubes, PVC tubes and a wind machine were built into the organ; guitar strings, a bass string, a resin thread, metal and glass percussion and a bow are also utilized. With little or no previous experience, she had to learn to play the thing live, using both hands and feet at the same time as singing. Maja played live on stage during every performance, but later modified and recorded the music especially for this record, with Frode Haltli co-producing. It's a freestanding document, an entity of its own, but the atmosphere is very much the same as in the play: the dusty city of Kristiania in the 19th century, the street noises and the sounds.
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| RAVENSTINE, ALLEN |
Waiting for the Bomb |
CD |
Allen and I worked for several years together in the second coming of Pere Ubu before we both decided to quit at around the same time. I carried on playing – and running this label; Allen became a commercial airline pilot and designed simulator stress tests for other airline pilots. Now retirement has brought him back to music and modular synthesis and - in this unusual recording - he arrives at a hybrid musical form that is more or less without precedent: discursive, digressive and disrupted by generic and emotional shifts; a music in which real-world sounds and real-world instruments occasionally argue with - or complement - the electronic current; there’s agon here - and narrative. Narrative. Narrative. Narrative. For a largely abstract and instrumental recording, that’s a real achievement. These pieces – and the interactions between them – cumulatively capture an historical moment - allusively and elusively, out of the corner of their eyes - and, I dare to say, that’s not just an achievement, it’s a great achievement.
https://allenravenstine.bandcamp.com/album
/waiting-for-the-bomb
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| REED, RICK |
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 |
|
| REFORMED FACTION |
I am the Source of Light, I am not a Mirror |
3 x CD-box |
Das dritte Werk der ehemaligen 2/3 von ZOVIET FRANCE, die sich nicht mehr "REFORMED FACTION OF Z.F." nennen dürfen und nun kurzerhand als "REFORMED FACTION" weitermachen. SOLEILMOON hat sich wieder eine besondere Artwork / Verpackung ausgedacht: Eine schmucke Alu-dose mit Prägung, darin drei CDs, ein Button mit dem ans RAF-Logo angelehnten R.F.-Zeichen, ein Klamottensticker, Farbbooklet, und eine golden bedruckte Inlaykarte.
Auf den 3 CDs sind ganze 52 (!) Stücke verteilt, das wirkt manchmal wie ein hochkreatives, experimentelles Potpourri, eine Wundertüte aus Ideen, Fragmenten & Skizzen und ist wohl (wie auch früher bei ZOVIET FRANCE) in langen Sessions entstanden. Neben gesampelten Material jedweden Ursprungs & Synths kommen vielerlei Instrumente, auch Drums, Bass & Gitarre zum Einsatz, oft wird es rhythmisch oder loopig (manchmal tribal, dann wieder eher Electronica-lastig), orientale Anwandlungen (Sitar) sind vorhanden, die Fülle von Stilen & Genren, die hier berührt werden ist schlicht überwältigend, irgendwo im multidimensionalen Musikraum zwischen RAPOON, ZOVIET FRANCE und den chaotisch-rhythmischen Sachen von DOWNLOAD oder BEEHATCH. Wow.
"Reformed Faction are Robin Storey and Mark Spybey. Their new release “I Am The Source of Light, I Am Not a Mirror” follows their 2007 Soleilmoon release “The War Against”, and is their third album. Their debut release “Vota” was released in 2005 by Austrian label Klanggalerie. The band has played live in both North America and Europe. Reformed Faction did not set out to record a triple album, but that is exactly what they have done. Reformed Faction do not talk about making music. They make music. They assemble and record and use improvised material to stimulate the development of composed pieces. The music was assembled in the same way that the CD package was: through active collaboration. “What folks probably don’t realize is that we have always embraced technology. We use technology, we aren’t governed by it. We have to learn how to use equipment in our own way, which means that instruction manuals are never referred to. We make music. We try not to theorise, and we avoid interpretation or analysis of our music like the plague.” This is an homage of sorts, to the last 40 years of music making. Robin began as a guitarist, Mark as a drummer. Throughout their careers they have neither deliberately nor consciously eschewed the use of conventional instruments or traditional compositional techniques. They do not regard themselves as an “experimental” band, preferring to leave the laboratory safe in the hands of physicists and technicians. A long time ago :zoviet-france: declared that they could, if they wished, create the perfect pop record or the archetypal country record. Both Mark and Robin were profoundly influenced by the music of rock bands in the seventies while boldly assimilating ideas from world music in the belief that all musical sources exist to be appropriated. In the same way, over the years, they have embraced technology. This is “anti-restictivist” music. “We realized a long time ago that as soon as we left :zoviet-france: our cover was blown. We could no longer hide under the false mantle of anonymity.” For Reformed Faction, each album is an attempt to develop ideas. The three CDs that comprise “I Am the Source of Light, I am Not a Mirror” are collages, each intended to be listened to in their entirety. The contributions of various friends have been assimilated into the recordings. The East German band Scatology and the American band Not Breathing both contributed to the process. Tommy Grenas of the Los Angeles band Anubian Lights, who Mark met through Damo Suzuki, came to stay with the band and also joined in the recording sessions. The recordings took on a life of their own. Picture the backdrop: the rainy landscape of northern England, the collection of classic seventies albums from the likes of Faust and Can, and the band’s preoccupation with the cultural and political legacy left by the dissolution of the eastern block countries. Reformed Faction spent time in the city of Dresden, where they met the artist Ira Tannheuser, who supplied the images used in the booklet accompanying the CD. The finishing touches were generated by Shaya, an enterprising Afghan trader and fan of Reformed Faction who trekked through the fabled Thar desert in the Sind province of southern Pakistan, and there discovered a long-forgotten depository of hand made metal boxes that had been manufactured 30 years ago in the town of Mithi. They were initially made for storing detonators but had never been used. Shaya had them embossed with the Reformed Faction logo by a local metal worker and then shipped them half-way around the world to Soleilmoon and told us to do something with them. The boxes are still partially encrusted with the sand of the Thar desert. “I Am The Source of Light, I Am Not a Mirror” is released in two configurations. Both come with three CDs in screen printed slipcases, a 12 page full-color booklet featuring the work of East German artist Ira Tannheuser, a screen printed insert describing the edition, a metal badge and a sew-on cloth patch.The first edition is limited to 100 copies and is available exclusively via Soleilmoon’s mailorder service. Besides the aforementioned goodies it includes a 3 inch CDR with an unreleased track presented in a hand numbered screen printed slipcase. The box is made entirely of sand-cast aluminum, and features the Reformed Faction logo on the lid. The second edition, which comes with everything included in the first edition except for the 3 inch CDR, is limited to 300 copies and is presented in a box made from sand-cast aluminum sides attached to a sheet metal top and base. The lid is embossed with the Reformed Faction logo. We are Reformed Fraktion. We are from the North of England. We travel. With open eyes." [label info]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2009 |
€44.00 |
|
| |
The World Awake / 11 Stueck |
do-CD |
"The World Awake! / 11 Stueck is a new double album from Reformed Faction, the duo of Robin Storey and Mark Spybey. It follows the triple CD release for Soleilmoon, ‘I am the Source of Light I am not a Mirror,” in 2009.
Robin Storey was born in 1955 in Cumbria, England. He studied fine arts at Sunderland University and took classes in electronic and experimental composition, joining with friends to perform the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen (a key influence, as were the Krautrock bands of the early 1970s). In 1979 Storey formed the pioneering industrial group :zoviet*france:, remaining a member until 1992: The same year Storey issued the first Rapoon album, Dream Circle, its entrancing fusion of Indian ragas, African rhythms and experimental textures anticipating the evocative soundscapes of the many releases to follow. Also a noted visual artist and animator, Storey's work has been exhibited throughout the world and is in the collections of many major galleries.
Mark Spybey was born in North Yorkshire, England in 1961. He has always worked in mental health care. After a long time as a member of :zoviet*france: he moved to Canada and worked under the names Dead Voices on Air and Propeller. He collaborated widely, toured and was vocalist of the acclaimed band Download (ex-Skinny Puppy). He was also a member of Sofortkontakt!, led by the late Michael Karoli of Can, appearing at Can’s 30th anniversary shows. Spybey has worked with a variety of artists who inspired his music, including Damo Suzuki of Can, Faust, Michael Rother (Neu!, Harmonia and Kraftwerk), Dieter Moebius (Cluster and Harmonia), Genesis.P.Orridge (Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV), James Plotkin, Martin Atkins, Mick Harris and The Legendary Pink Dots. He returned to the U.K in 2000. The World Awake! Was originally intended for a vinyl release and recorded from improvisations made on one day in November of 2009. 11 Stueck was compiled from improvisations made on December 1st 2009, with drummer Christian Alderson and bass player Oscar Ruiz Fernandez. The Austin Texas based musician Tony D’Oporto, aka Gnome, also appears on one track. The work references the writing of Henry Miller, in his aptly entitled essay, “With Edgar Varese in the Gobi Desert.” “The World Awake! Just to repeat that to yourself five times a day is enough to make an anarchist of you. How would you awaken the world – if you were a musician? With a sonata for rusty tin openers? Have you ever thought about it? Or would you rather remain asleep?” “We have been educated to such a fine – or dull – point that we are incapable of enjoying something new, something different, until we are first told what it’s all about. We don’t trust our five senses. We rely on our critics and educators, all of whom are failures in the realm of creation.” Varese said, “What should be avoided; tones of propaganda. As well as any journalistic speculation on timely events and doctrines. I want the epic impact of our epoch, stripped of it’s mannerisms and snobberisms…. Imagination is the last word.” This first edition of “The World Awake/11 Stueck” is presented in a high-quality screen printed perfumed sleeve with printed slipcases for each disc. It is limited to 444 copies." [label info]
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| REICH, STEVE |
Four Organs / Phase Patterns |
LP |
"This classic minimal music album is now available again on vinyl for the first time since the 70s.
In recent decades Steve Reich's music has been presented internationally at major venues, performed by high-profile musicians including the Kronos Quartet, guitarist Pat Metheny, and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. But in 1970, when the music on this LP was recorded, Reich's audiences gathered in museums and art galleries to hear his work interpreted by the composer himself and a group of friends.
"I am interested in perceptible processes" Reich had written in 1968. "I want to be able to hear the processes happening throughout the sounding music.' Four Organs is a radical realisation of this goal. Against the steady rattle of maracas, individual tones within a single chord are gradually lengthened. No changes of pitch or timbre occur, and the drawn out nature of the process provoked outrage at some early performances, when audiences found themselves caught up in a decelerating loop, being dragged towards stasis. Phase Patterns, composed a month later, relies on a phasing technique developed during Reich's earlier experiments with magnetic tape recordings, which he allowed to drift out of sync. Identical figures initially in unison shift out of phase, generating unexpected patterns.
When these pieces first appeared, on the adventurous French record label Shandar, they were regarded as defining works within a musical movement that had developed during the late 1960s. Reich was seen as a pioneer of minimalism, along with La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Philip Glass, whose music also featured in the Shandar catalogue. With hindsight the term is inadequate and inappropriate when applied to much of Reich's subsequent oeuvre, which includes rich and varied works such as The Desert Music for voices and orchestra, Tehillim - a setting of Psalms, and his multimedia opera The Cave. But these two works from 1970 are purely minimalist, in a way that the visual artists and sculptors who formed Reich's early audiences would have recognised.
These pieces may have clear affinity with conceptual art as well as the minimalist aesthetic, but Reich's allegiance is to making music rather than sound art or acoustic research. Characteristically, after creating Four Organs Reich looked for antecedents in musical history, and found them in the medieval organa of Léonin and Pérotin. His subsequent work has found acceptance and a substantial following within the established institutions of composed music. He has become a major composer.
In the same year that these Four Organs and Phase Patterns were written Reich travelled to Ghana to study with a master drummer. On his return to New York he started work on Drumming, an hour-long distillation of his interest in African and Balinese music and their polyrhythmic processes. It forms an impressive culmination to his use of phasing technique and is widely acknowledged as a minimalist masterpiece. But if it is the radical edge of uncompromising hardcore minimalism that you are after, this reissue of Four Organs and Phase Patterns delivers two key examples.
"Obviously music should put all within listening range into a state of ecstasy" Steve Reich in 1969." [label info]
www.aguirrecords.com
"Two of our favorite pieces of all time from minimalist composer Reich, available again! Both pieces were recorded in 1970, one at the Guggenheim in NY and the other at the University Museum in Berkeley. This is electric organ overdrive! Four Organs not surprisingly is a piece played on four electric organs (with Reich playing one as well as his good friend Philip Glass...), while beneath the organs is the repetitious shaking of maracas. The short pulsations of the organ gradually stretch out, lasting longer and longer, creating a totally dynamic tension that evokes standing in a massive and grand church that's empty except for the mesmerizing sounds of the organs lulling you into some sort of a trance. Phase Patterns manages to increase the tension with the four players using identical organs and playing to a precise strategy that Reich has calculated. These pieces predate and predict so much of the minimalist electronic and experimental music to come over the next three decades." [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2016 |
€22.50 |
|
| REJECTIONS |
Clone EP |
MC |
"The Clone EP was actually recorded in late 2011 and followed close on the heels of the Concur EP, which was released on Tiny Lights in December 2011. It is therefore a reaction to that first EP, a desire to keep moving forward artistically and a reflection of where my my head was at during the time I was mixing the tracks together. Where the Concur EP was essentially a series of remixes using samples from my brother's band I Concur to create something new while reflecting the spirit and energy of those songs, The Clone EP is very much a fresh piece of work, starting with nothing but an interest to make beat driven music and to keep revising and editing the same samples until I came up with three linked but unique tracks, hence the title of the EP. Therefore the techno rhythms of Clone 1 almost seamlessly morph into the broken beats and noise of Clone 2 which in turn dissolve into the drone soundscapes and reverb drenched percussion of Clone 3. They are cannibal and brethren, feeding off one another and mirror image at the same time.
The sound of the three tracks is again very much a reflection of that period of time as well. I had recently discovered for myself just the potency of Sandwell District, in all of their sounds, images and guises. At the same time I was grinding my way through a number of long term influences such as Mika Vainio, Throbbing Gristle, Public Image Limited, Burial, Ben Frost, Autechre to name but a few, trying to do my best to endure the typically bleak British weather and the tendency for reflection and introspection which typically invades ones consciousness as we near the end of another year. Limited to 100 copies." [label info]
www.altvinyl.com
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| RETARDER |
Enquiries |
CD |
"I’ve been waiting for this one to come for quite a while. The solo debut of Lloyd James, known for what he has done in NAEVUS for the last decade.
Rumors about this commitment found their way to me shortly after ”Silent Life” and I thought to myself that ”gotta sound like Clapton” but no no no. As RETARDER, Lloyd sets out on a very edgy and stormy voyage, full of obstacles to overcome. It’s very experimental, most of this material could possibly destroy a NAEVUS album and sometimes, it’s even more weird than that LARK BLAMES album he did together with Marc Blackie (SLEEPING PICTURES). Not two tracks sound the same but that’s just a statement I establish and, it’s neither positive nor negative, it’s just the way it is.
The intro is a long and exhausting piano improvisation with some horns hidden underneath. Could probably call it arty or something. It doesn’t sound too good, which is probably the whole idea, but it does something with you and you will feel like... Empty afterwards.
The second track has a slightly proto post-punk feeling, a simple, mechanic riff and a vocal loop is the core and I must say it sounds quite cool.
”Tongue in the Wind” takes the listener on a multi-layered ambient trip, where spacey sounds are mixed with something that resembles a theremin.
Track four is called ”Father Duncan” and it’s probably the least experimental one, actually, it could be a NAEVUS song with that strummed guitar and simple drum pattern. We’re also given some Lloyd-singing and pretty nice lyrics as usual when he’s the author. A nice track and a well deserved break between all the madness that went by and that awaits; ten seconds into the fifth track you’ll succumb to the feberish nightmare sounds, could probably go under the parole noise lite. ’Tis really lots of deranged and distorted sounds swirling around and around for about, what it feels like, half the day, and it’s a really scary track if you ask me.
”Superman’s Cave” is another ambient one and once again with lots of mysterious bleeps that sounds like something from my childhood, can’t tell what though, but it’s certainly has a nostalgic feeling.
”Modern Evening” is nice, maybe my favorite, and sounds very apocalyptic and atmospheric and we get some singing again, over slow and brooding electric guitar harmonies and strange effects, and then finally we have ”Chalk is Valuable, Keep it in Your Hand” that could as well be a tribute to CABARET VOLTAIRE and their mysterious ”Exhaust” with a deranged voice popping up at random going ”Chalk... Hand...”, after a while accompanied by some garage guitars and a monologue by Lloyd. The end.
So, that was the album I’ve been waiting for? Did it fill my expectation? Sure did. It’s awesome to hear Lloyd in such a different context than what I’m getting used to. It feels fresh and the entire album is awfully well done. It may not be the first choice for everyone and just because you fancy NAEVUS, I can’t guarantee that this will work you you. Open up all your senses and prepare for a while. Give it a shot. And then another. Personally, I think this shows that mr. James is an artist capable of doing almost anything with success." [review by The Shadows Commence]
more info : www.myspace.com/retarder
www.touretterecords.com
|
2009 |
€6.00 |
|
| REUTOFF VS. DEUTSCH NEPAL |
Kreuzung Vier |
CD |
Der vierte und letzte Teil der KREUZUNG-Serie! Sechsmal flirrender, hektischer, düsterer Elektro-Industrial & Dark Ambient der intelligenten Sorte. Hiervon gibt es leider nur 400 Stück!
"The fourth issue in a series of collaborations between Reutoff and their friends. This issue includes 3 tracks from Reutoff based on the source material by Deutsch Nepal and 3 tracks suite called “Jigsaw Puzzeling With A Dismembered Reutoff” created by Deutsch Nepal using the sounds delivered by Reutoff. The release comes in a special "Kreuzung" series package made of brown kraft carton with a full colour stickered artwork/info cover and Reutoff logo embossed on the back, the CD is housed in the same carton die-cut inner envelope. 6 tracks, 50 mins in total. First edition of 400 copies." [label info] |
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| REYNOLS / DAN WARBURTON |
I am NOT sitting in a room with Reynols |
CD-R |
The REYNOLS are dead! Long live the REYNOLS! Sicher wird es auch nach der Auflösung noch einige Veröffentlichungen der ewigen argentinischen Seltsamkeitsaward-winner geben. Diese CDR ist vom Konzept & Klang besonders skurril, und deshalb lieben wir sie so !! Hier mixt DAN WARBURTON diverse Interviews und Live-Aufnahmen zusammen, bis ein undurchdringlicher Morast entstanden ist, in dem sich atonale Gesänge, Gitarren und Perkussions-sounds und alle möglichen anderen nichtdefinierbaren Geräusche verbinden.....
“Maybe you are familiar with Alvin Lucier's 'I'm Sitting In A Room', in which he speaks a short text and then plays it back in the room,
and re-records it with the room acoustics, and then repeats this a couple of times? Something similar is done here. Dan Warburton
interviewed Reynols and subsequentely adds sounds from other tapes to it, until he has about twelve different recordings on one cheap cassette, which he edits into a 43 minute piece. At the same time a recording arrives from a Reynols concert in France, which lasts also about 43 minutes and then the two recordings are joint on this release (I recall Lucier's original on Lovely Records also lasts
about 43 minutes). The resultant release is indeed a most strange recording. It has the usual ingredients of Reynols live, the
improvised rumbling on guitars and drums which never get me going really, but in combination with the tapes provided by Waburton this
is an even stranger recording of outsider music. Noises that seem to swirl in and out all the time mix nicely with the original Reynols
recording. Now things make more sense...” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
Address:
|
2004 |
€8.00 |
|
| RHEIN_STROM (SIEFERT & RIEK) |
Von der Rheinquelle bis Hafen Karlsruhe |
CD |
How can we as humans in this day and age foster a relationship with the Rhine River, without lapsing back into modes of romanticism, when witnessing its remaining beauty in some rare places; without turning away in frustration and disillusionment, when confronted with the irreparable interventions it has undergone?
What is disclosed if we shift the focus from the dominant sense of vision to hearing?
Would you recognize the Rhine by its sound?
What other senses are helpful here?
Do I have enough senses at my command to answer this question?
Do I have to and can I develop further senses?
With these questions as a starting point Thomas M. Siefert and Lasse-Marc Riek have approached the Rhine acoustically and visually on various locations and seasons during the last seven years. This resulted in the close examination of the ambient sound, the soundscape and the “sound entity” of the Rhine.
The “Rhine-soundscape” does not only sound like flowing, gurgling or slowly bobbing water. The soundscape also includes animals and humans who live by the river, who move and rest there.
In addition to the sound of the present, also the sound of the past was sought out: a listening back to what has remained; a listening forward to what could come.
Siefert’s and Riek’s formal approach to the soundscapes demands from the artist to step back behind the recording. In the foreground of their artistic practice stands the unprocessed sound- and visual-recording of a specific situation.
Tracklist:
01 vorderrheinquelle (region)
02 rhein bei tschamut
03 rheinschlucht nähe versamer tobel
04 kanalrhein bei balzers
05 rheinbrech bodensee
06 stein am rhein
07 rheinfall bei schaffhausen
08 basel hafen (nähe wiesemündung)
09 petit camarque d´alsace
10 staustufe ottmarsheim
11 restrhein bei fessenheim
12 staustufe und schleusenanlage fessenheim
13 staustufe marckolsheim
14 ile de rhinau
15 staustufe rhinau
16 fähre kappel – rhinau
17 kanufahrt im naturschutzgebiet taubergiessen
18 ile de langgrund
19 staustufe strasbourg
20 staustufe gambsheim
21 karlsruhe hafen
21 Tracks (73′25″)
CD (500 copies)
www.gruenrekorder.de
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| RIECHMANN |
Wunderbar |
CD |
"Hypnotisch und sphärisch: das einzige Soloalbum des Düsseldorfer Elektronikers:
Die Musikerlaufbahn von Wolfgang Riechmann (1947-1978) begann in den 60er-Jahren. Unter anderem arbeitete der Sozialarbeiter schon 1967 mit Michael Rother (Neu!) und Wolfgang Flühr (Kraftwerk) in der Schülerband Spirits Of Sound und später in der Düsseldorfer Amateurband Phön-x. Mit der Gruppe Streetmark veröffentlichte er zwei Alben: "Nordland" (1976) und "Eileen" (1977). Im November 1977 begann er, sein erstes und leider auch einziges Soloalbum aufzunehmen. "Wunderbar" enthält Elemente der Berliner (Tangerine Dream) und der Düsseldorfer Schule (Kraftwerk, La Düsseldorf, Neu!), erinnert stellenweise (Titelstück) aber auch an Pink Floyd. Trotz der Einflüsse kreiert der Multiinstrumentalist seine eigenen hypnotischen und sphärischen Qualitäten. Wolfgang Riechmann starb im August 1978, drei Wochen vor Erscheinen des Albums, nachdem ihn ein Betrunkener in Düsseldorfs Altstadt grundlos erstach. "Riechmann hat erkannt, dass die elektronische Musik eine spezifische Ästhetik hat. Er nahm ihr die Kälte, indem er einfühlsame Melodiebögen schuf", schrieb die "Rheinische Post" 1979." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
|
2009 |
€17.00 |
|
| RIEDL, JOSEF ANTON |
Klangregionen 1951-2007 |
do-CD |
"Wie kaum ein anderer hat J.A.Riedl sowohl mit seinen zahlreichen Werken als auch
mit seinen kulturpolitischen Aktivitäten das Musikleben der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
nachhaltig geprägt.
As almost no other, with his many works and his cultural activities, J.A.Riedl has left an
indelible mark on musical life in the Federal Republic of Germany.
ed. RZ 1020-21 2CD
Josef Anton Riedl: Klangregionen 1951 - 2007
Neuerscheinung: Siemens-Studio für elektronische Musik, Studio für konkrete Musik (J. A. Riedl)
Cover Design: Ott + Stein, Berlin; Scan: Christine Berkenhoff
CD 1
* Paper Music I 1961/70
* aus Folge von 4 Studien: Studie 59 I 1959
* Zeichnen - Klatschen/Zeichnen - Zeichnen 1979/81
* aus Landschaftsbeschreibung I 1973
* Mix Fontana Mix 1974/76/79
* aus Silphium Metallophonic 1969/70
* aus Lautgedichtfolge g) 1977/79/98
* Ausfluss, Niederschlag, Spur, Nachhall I 2000/02/07
* Douce-Amère 1972/74/81
* Komposition Nr. 2 1963/65
* Polygonum 1968/70
* aus Leonce und Lena 1963/64
* Vielleicht - Duo 1963/68/70
* Musique Concrète - Studie II 1951/59
* Musique Concrète - Studie I 1951/59
* Leonce und Lena b 1963 ·
* aus Folge von 4 Studien: Studie 62 I 1962
* aus Folge von 4 Studien: Studie 62 II 1962
CD 2
* Komposition Nr. 3 1965/67
* Ideir notna fesoj Radiophonisches Porträt von Helmut Rohm 1996
* aus Folge von 4 Studien: Studie 61 I 1961
* Klangsynchronie I Studie 59 1981
* Elektronische Musik - Studie II 1959
* Elektronische Musik - Studie I 1958
Gesamtspielzeit: CD 1 ca. 68:00 | CD 2 ca. 70:00 | insgesamt ca. 138:00"
"Edition RZ presents a 2CD collection of work from German electronic and multimedia composer Josef Anton Riedl. Spanning the diverse breadth of his musical output from 1951-2007, Riedl has left an indelible mark on music history in the Federal Republic of Germany with his many works and cultural activities. A pioneer in early concrète and electronics, Riedl joined Pierre Shaeffer's Groupe de Recherches Musicales from 1953-1955. He worked at various music studios including the NWDR (Northwest German Broadcasting) studio in Cologne, and was the artistic director of the Siemens Studio For Electronic Music from 1959-1966. During the same period he founded the Neue Musik München/Klang-Aktionen concert series, and established the Musik/Film/Dia/Licht-Galerie, which has presented multimedia compositions ("sound/light/scent-games"), audiovisual environments, events, exhibitions ("Paper Music I," "Optische," "Akustische Lautgedichte") and installations at important national and international festivals. This collection samples some of Riedl's most compelling work, including his "Paper Music" and musique concrète experiments." [label info / credits]
www.edition-rz.de
"Eine fulminante Werkschau in gewohnter EdRZ-Qualität, man muss es so sagen. Schickes Design und informatives Booklet; ein Release mit dem man wahrlich in eine andere Klangwelt eintauchen, eben in neue Klangregionen vordringen kann. Das Beste aber ist: Riedl funktioniert auch nackt! Seine verschwurbelten Wagnisse sind forschender Bruitismus, feinste Punzmunster auf unseren Trommelfellen. Montierte und studiobearbeitete Sprachklänge, sirrende Electroacoustics und erweiterte Kammermusikskizzen sind alle auf dieser Doppel-CD zu finden, die um einige Radioarbeiten und Versuche aus dem Siemens Studio München komplettiert wird." [Zipo, Auf Abwegen]
|
2009 |
€23.00 |
|
| RIEK, LASSE-MARC |
Schwarm |
MC |
"It is our pleasure to present the latest piece of work by Lasse-Marc Riek, a master of field recordings and one of the most distinguished sound artists of our times. We’re following his output for a good ten years now - both his own recordings of bats, birds, snow dogs, islands or harbours, and the countless releases he produced for his (and Roland Etzin’s) outstanding Gruenrekorder label which became probably the most important adres for the art of field recordings. The source of the „Schwarm“ („swarm“) pieces were recordings of a flight corridor Riek made last year in Hanau-Steinheim, near the Frankfurt Airport. He cut and wove them into two 30 minute tracks which are charaterized by a very specific, at the same time documentary and surrealistic, beautiful and uncanny quality. Mindblowing stuff. edition of 80 copies, with download code." [label info]
www.magdeleinebast.com
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| RIMBAUD, ROBIN |
The Garden is full of Metal - Homage to DEREK JARMAN |
CD |
Robin Rimbaud was both a friend and collaborator over the years and this CD is his tribute to an important figure in both his life and others'. Using recordings of Jarman's voice as well as location recordings around his home, he creates a graceful and delicate sculpture in sound. This is a close friend's tribute, backed by a profound understanding of the filmmaker's sense of intimacy, atmosphere and drama.
2014 - on the 20th anniversary of the passing of Derek Jarman and this reissue Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner) reviewed many of the materials in his archive and discovered four selections that were originally off the release but feel now that they offer another viewing.
"This is a creative mind and man I still miss, but who thankfully and finally seems to be receiving the accolation he should have received long ago." (Robin Rimbaud)
"A beautiful and fragile tapestry. Reflective, tactile and emotional."The Wire
"This music operates a certain unsettling, eerie magic on the listener, sneaking out of the speakers surreptitiously and filling the room like a sudden burst of sunlight. Even those unaware of Jarman's flicks will be moved." NME
This album is a collection of memories taking recordings from spaces that Jarman inhabited or experienced - from the walk to the sea's edge from his cottage in Dungeness through to the roar of London congestion around his Charing Cross flat - Robin has attempted to create a fluid, elegiac sound portrait, a form of resonant landscape painting that weaves through recordings of Jarman's own voice. Robin applied the term 'sound polaroids' to describe these intimate, isolated, improvised moments, the same way a polaroid camera captures an image for a moment, almost dispoable, forgotten, a tiny epiphany that dwells within but surfaces at unexpetcetd triggers.
The majority of the sound here is abstracted and processed through modest means, cutting, stretching and editing tape - acoustic data like this once digitised dissolves into a form that one can mould and re-shape in an almost scultural manner.
Derek Jarman 1942-1994
Derek Jarman was one of England's greatest cinematic visionairies. Spanning painting, theatre, film, he comfortably moved between genres, seemingly shape -shifting at will. From designing ballet and theatre in the sixties for Frederick Ashton and Ken Russell, through to his own films in super-8 and seminal features such as Sebastiane (1976), Jubilee (1978), The Last of England (1987) and Blue (1993), Jarman explored a unique and compelling vision until his death from AIDS in 1994.
This record was an homage to film director Derek Jarman. It was released with a short film by Guy Marc Hinant shot on location in Jarman's garden. Published in 1997, it was the second full-length album by Robin Rimbaud / Scanner on Sub Rosa.
FEATURES
ROBIN RIMBAUD aka SCANNER
TRACK LISTING CD - 13 TRACKS
01 Open 5.08
02 Experience 7.49
03 Drop
04 Waterbrush 4.56
05 Their own Space 3.27
06 Fravaer 7.03
07 Rosa Rugosa 7.44
08 A Walk through St James 5.58
09 Always Fading: Sedum Acre 3.22
2014 BONUS TRACKS:
10 Circles of Stone 4'22
11 I Waited a Lifetime 3'19
12 Translucence 2'33
13 Garden (redux) 5'34
www.subrosa.net
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| RITSCH, WINFRIED |
Woodscratcher |
pic-LP |
"This release turns out to be the best way to celebrate little GODrec anniversary: the tenth release of the label! Woodscratcher (Scratching Wood) is a composition and sound generating machine from Austrian composer, media-artist, sound-sculptor and performer, Winfried Ritsch. Already known as collaborator in different projects with Bernhard Lang (pieces from his series Differenz/Wiederholung, Trike), Peter Ablinger (Klavierautomat), Ritsch created 'my own dedication to noise pieces of experimental music from 70s onwards'. This machine cuts a 2-5cm thick disk of a wooden trunk in a circular line along the growth rings of the wood, which makes this nothing else then monumental turntable. At the same time, the wood is amplified with four pickups (sensors) and the signals picked from microphones are spatialized over four loudspeakers in the corners of the room which spans acoustically the slice of the wood. This scratching in the concert is done until the inner part of the disk falls to the ground and the piece ends. The movement of the cutting tool behaving like an over-sized record player needle, has the performing function and is an allusion of the production of records, as well as playing them. The woodscratcher pretends to extract and play the information which resides in the piece of wood cutting it in an excessive performance. The wood is heard as acoustic material with inhomogeneities annual rings by superimposing a loops of the cutting process. With the progression of the cutting process the sounds evolves of the pieces in more and more rubbing and squeezing sounds. The audio signal filter functions of the wood is heard like repeatedly changing formants, almost imaging voices in the noise. Composition : With this performances not only the machine as performer is broached as the issue, also the exploration of unknown material is an artistic statement as also defining the structured and timing of the piece. The aesthetics lies in the excessive performance beyond feasible by a human actor or musician and also, links the many possible associations and associative to the world of music performance. One of them is the sound based on the noise of the experimental music pieces since the 70s and another with ideas of Herbert Bruen's computer music project sawdust from that time, when the rejection of oscillators as a tone generator for free definition of single events down to the scale of samples as a liberation of note-oriented Music generation. The transition in algorithmic composition to the composition of processes as instrument like done in live composition is expanded to the construction of a mechanical machine which is the live composer. The main aspect of this is that the process does the composing and the machine is composed for executing the process of extracting the piece out of the disc of wood, destroying it and defining the audible result of the piece. So composer becomes a mechanical engineer and inventor of machines and the musician the operator as machinist. The picture vinyl release is vinyl simulation of woodscratcher: a vinyl record has a picture of a wood on itself and recorded sound of scratching the wood." [label info]
www.godrec.com
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| RLW |
Tonlose Lieder |
CD |
22 Stücke aus der Zeit von 1990 & 1991, kurz bevor das erste RLW-Album “Acht” erschien.
Brilliante (De)Konstruktionen von instrumentellen & Alltags-Soundquellen (z.B. Piano, Gongs, MIDI-Keyboard & Rhythmen, Staubsauger) vermischt mit Sample-Technik, gescratchten Platten, & obskuren Feldaufnahmen. Eine unglaubliche Fülle von Ideen wird hier schonungslos umgesetzt - meist sehr dynamisches und vitales Material, zwischen Atonalität und Geräuschimprovisation, no easy listening guaranteered !
“After the recent re-issues of the old PD work, it's now time to fast forward in music history and take a closer look at the missing link of disbanding P16.D4 and the first solo works of RLW. Fast forward to 1990. This is the time when the old techniques of tape-splicing,
cheap four track records and such like was replaced by cheap samplers and computer interfaces (midi to control sequences), being an option for everyone. Before this all settled down into RLW's first CD 'Acht' (1992), he experimented with a lot of ideas, using the newly acquired techniques. The abrassive side of P16.D4 became more subtle, more dynamic and at the same time it was also reduced in sound and approach. No less than twenty-two pieces from the sketchbook are to be found on this CD, and each of them is described in the booklet.
Scratching records is for instance a main feature, like was done on the SLP project, but it involves also organ like sounds, sterile factory settings found inside the sampler and much more. In some cases we get the raw version of a piece that ended up on 'Acht', but the majority is unheard. Whereas on the later solo records by RLW it's hard to recognize the original input, we can hear on this CD him freely improvising around with instruments, sampling them etc. Of course not every fragment is great, but it would not be right to say that this album is only for those with a keen ear on history. It bears the collage-like style of P16.D4 with the latter RLW style, but in all its fragmented style it sounds, still after all these years, like a fresh album. Only to be compared, I think, with P16.D4's
'Tionchor' album. A collection of nice short pieces, that make more sense when heard they are groupep together.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
Address: http://www.parallaxrecords.jp
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
|
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 |
|
| |
Herzblutanteil |
CD |
"Limited edition of 432 copies. 'Once upon a time, in far 1794 year, Christoph Schmid wrote the lyrics for Ihr Kinderlein Kommet, which was performed soon after in Thanhausen an der Mindel. He united it then with the melody, composed by contemporary composer Johann Abraham Peter Schulz. In the end of 2001, a few weeks before Christmas, I recorded my daughter Sonja (aged 5 then) singing some of her favourite xmas tunes, including I.K.K. When Jos Moers (owner of Meeuw Muzak label) was asking me to contribute to a series of xmas 7s he is doing once every year, I used 2 of those recordings for 2003's yearly event: merry merry (mm 027 - I.K.K. release #1 in retrospect). Side one has Sonja's singing (Stille Nacht = silent night) unedited live. Side 2 has a funny piece composed from a transformed Ihr Kinderlein Kommet. When the 7 was done i had the impression that the transformed sounds had a quality of their own, so i used them for further transformations and to compose a new piece of about 15 mins length: I.K.K. - Purpur - Scharlachrot. Following my course of collaborative works I invited some friends to take part in this adventure. The result, I.K.K. - Purpur (CD, Sirr 025), was released in 2006, including contributions from Dan Warburton, Andrew Deutsch, Chris Halliwell, then Strotter Inst., Stephen Vitiello, also Johannes Frisch and Bhob Rainey, I.K.K. #2). Two lengthy pieces by Domenico Sciajno and myself followed later that same year as Gelbe Tupfen (CD, Bowindo 07 - I.K.K. release #3; not to mention a version by Reto Mader on his CD Fireproof in 8 parts, Hinterzimmer 2007). But other projects needed their time, so it took until 2008 before I came back to the Kinderlein. The distance made it easier to go back to the sources: an extract from the original recording and the meeuw version are presented here superimposed for your pleasure in the end of this release. And so, the starting point is set by C. Renou (Brume), who uses extracts from almost all the following pieces for a glorious introduction: Merry merry! Don't wish me a merry Christmas, I won't have one.' " [label info]
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| RLW / RICHARD FRANCIS |
R |
CD |
"First collaboration between Ralf Wehowsky (Germany) and Richard Francis (New Zealand)
On a trip from Auckland over Worpswede to Eggenstein Richard Francis visited Ralf Wehowsky on the weekend of September 28th and 29th, 2013. For the recording sessions taking place during these two days Richard used his analogue synth and electronics, while Ralf had a desktop and a laptop for producing digital electronic sounds at hand. For bridging the anatgonistic sound worlds the input of one sound system was fed with the output of the other and vice versa. For this release two of the tracks (Piece 1, Untitled 1) are presented as they were recorded, with only slight pan and volume adjustments. The third track (Piece 3) is composed of fragments of a longer improvisation, time-shifting the contributions of the two artists against each other to constitute a system of non-simultaneity.
RLW/Ralf Wehowsky
Ralf Wehowsky is a german experimental composer, active since the 80s (with the group p16.d4 then). his work is split between solo releases (under the moniker rlw) and collaborations, exploring all fields between media exchange and realtime presence recordings. collaboration partners include among others Lionel Marchetti, Merzbow, Jim O´Rourke, Bruce Russell, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, Anla Courtis, Contrastate, Kohei Matsunaga, Annette Krebs - and Richard Francis.
Richard Francis
Richard Francis is a sound artist from New Zealand working with electronics and found recordings. He's released solo and collaborative albums on Senufo Editions, Entr’acte, Glistening Examples, Korm Plastics and Aufabwegen. Recent collaborators include Ralf Wehowsky, Frans De Waard, Anla Courtis, Bruce Russell, Mattin, Jason Kahn and Francisco Lopez."
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/r
"In 2013, Richard Francis travelled from his hometown Auckland to Worpswede, where he was invited for a residency. He did a stop-over in various places to work, such as Worm (Rotterdam), Extrapool (Nijmegen), and the German town of Eggenstein, where he met Ralf Wehowsky, also known as RLW. They spend two days together recording music. Francis, at the time, had a small mobile modular synthesizer, some electronics, and RLW behind his desktop and laptop. Both systems were connected via in- and outputs. Of the three pieces, the two longer ones were recorded in September 2013, and I assume they also mixed these at the same time; perhaps we could see this as live-in-the-studio music. The third piece, 'Piece 3', is a recomposition by RLW, using the original recordings from 2013. As I hear the two longer pieces, I wonder whether that live-in studio thing results from extensive editing and mixing of an improvised recording. In all honesty, I couldn't say which it is. It has that complexity that we know from RLW, the aspect of multi-layered sound, the collage approach we know from musique concrète, a world of music to which RLW owes much. Francis modular electronics move around like snowflakes, like corroded spaceships, or simply recall what we call 'early electronics'. The collage principles are no strangers to both men, although more applied by RLW than Francis (certainly in recent times), and it takes the material all over the place. The rusty spaceship and
explosions of dark matter cause massive disruption, as noise isn't kept out of the equation. These two long pieces make up for a bumpy ride, neatly going all over the place, from strict noise to sheer silence, from densely orchestrated nightmares to single lines floating about. In the 2020 rework of the source material, some of the density of the 2013 material disappears, and it all becomes an opener. Here the music becomes almost like a cosmic synthesizer scape or something working with sine waves. I was surprised this piece was the opener of the CD, but because it's over seven minutes and much shorter than the other two, the spaciousness of this piece works very well as an introduction to what's coming.
In my Thursday Afternoon Talk (link below), Jos Smolders and I talk about a previous RLW release, 'Satanic Inventions' (Vital Weekly 1365) and I mention that RLW doesn't seem too prolific in recent years. My mistake: take a look at his releases on Discogs and you'll see otherwise." [FdW / Vital weekly]
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| ROGALSKY, MATT |
Memory like Water |
do-CD |
Amerikanischer Musiker & Komponist mit sehr vielfältigen Stücken & Konzepten, hier dokumentiert ist live-Material der letzten 10 Jahre. Vielschichtig schimmernde sphärische Endlos-Drone-Stücke & geräuschhafte Improvisation z.B. mit Violine & Gitarre, sowie eine äusserst merkwürdige Komposition für Radio-Klangquellen...
“The six (or seven) pieces on these CDs document live performance works which span 1996 to the present. Most of the solo pieces are structured improvisations, in that they have a broad form which is repeated from performance to performance while the detail is always quite different. The collaborative pieces are less formalized and depend hugely upon the input of my co-performers. I am very grateful to have worked with them. Conceived as two halves of a single piece, Resonate (noise) and Resonate (tones) seamlessly crossfade from one to the other. Both are sustained-sound pieces, the first exploring noise textures, the second exploring dense, quasi-orchestral harmonic territory. Both pieces employ original software which generates sound using a type of granular synthesis, triggering sampled sources many hundreds of times per second.
The three works entitled Kash are all related in that they employ the same original software instrument (of that name) initially developed in 2001 and still in use today. This software enables me to interact with live performers (or other sound sources) in fluid and lively improvisational situations, accumulating and processing fragments of low-level sounds (the "spaces between the notes"). The three performances with my Kash instrument represented here show how very different the outcomes can be, depending on who (or what) my co-performers are. In each case, all the electronic sound is derived from their real-time input.
Kash (vln) is a collaborative improvisation between myself and violinist Jane Henry, recorded live. Jane is a composer-performer whose performance techniques involve, among other things, use of multiple violin bows made of different abrasive materials. Kash (gtrs) is a live studio recording featuring my brothers Benjamin and Luke Rogalsky on steel-string acoustic guitars. This performance was an improvisation based on a few suggestions as to overall structure. Kash (radios) is a live recording made before an audience at Experimental Intermedia in New York City on March 8 2001. In this case, the "performers" with whom I am interacting are two radios, tuned to talk stations. The radios are faintly heard at the beginning of the piece, but soon the direct sound disappears and only the processed sound remains.
Sprawl (western magnetics) is a document of a live solo performance. As with Kash, Sprawl is a software instrument still in current use, which I developed to be employed in many different improvisational situations. Input from a live performer, or any other sound source, can be sampled and explored at the micro-level using a granular synthesis technique controlled by an computer graphics tablet. Many textural layers of sound can be built up to a dense wall of sound but equally delicate melodic lines can be drawn out as well. On this occasion the input sounds were provided by my brother Luke Rogalsky.
Transform is a manipulation of a live radio signal, tuned to any music station; the frequency content of the source radio program is brought out by a series of tunable delays which create strong harmonic resonances. These harmonies are constantly shifting throughout the piece, which is performed in two sections, the first relatively quiet and the second fairly loud, where the processing used causes the radio to take on the character of an electric guitar constantly on the verge of feedback. Overlaid on the resonant radio in the middle and end sections are sounds of a quite different character generated with electronic feedback loops. The underlying radio signal may sometimes be heard emerging from the dense processed sound.” [Matt Rogalsky]
www.xirecords.org
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| ROSENQVIST, DAG & RUTGER ZUYDERVELT |
Vintermusik |
CD |
"One album, seven tracks, two people. Who are they? Dag Rosenqvist is a Swedish musician releasing solo music under his own name/previously Jasper TX moniker, and Rutger Zuydervelt is prolific Dutch sound artist familiar to most as Machinefabriek, already known to Zoharum followers via ”Dubbeltjes” compilation of his rarities. And what is ”Vintermusik”? Actually, it is another rarity being reissued.
The tracks from this album date back to 2006 and are one of the early tracks commited by both Dag & Rutger. They did not meet at the time of the recordings, they used the Internet to exchange files. And so 50 minutes of music was created. It is contemplative music full of shimmering guitar drones, delicate piano melodies and bits of field recordings. They sound cold, yet warm at the same time. So the time for releasing this music is just right – it is a little bit of winter music for the end of the summer.
The original version ”Vintermusik” came out on a CDR limited to just 200 copies. Due to a popular demand we decided to re-release it. It has not dated in the least bit, it is as fresh as on the day of its release. As a special bonus, another rare gem was added, that is ”Feberdröm” coming from a 3” CDR. It gives you the full picture of those early ventures into duo collaboration between Dag and Rutger.
”Vintermusik” is released in a 3-panel ecopak in a strictly limited edition of 300 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"With some recognition (to avoid the word fame), Rutger Zuydervelt, also known as Machinefabriek, can always lean back and grab an oldie but goodie (and sold-out-ie) from the shelf and have it re-released. This is what happens here: The first six pieces were released in January 2007 on a CDR by the musicians themselves and probably didn't make it to these pages, and 'Feberdröm (Koortsdroom)' was released in December 2007 as a 3"CDR and reviewed in Vital Weekly 609. All of this now compiled on 'Vintermusik', a proper CD version of all the work by Dag Rosenqvist (sometimes also known as Jasper TX) and Rutger Zuydervelt. It's after all these years still not possible to tell who did what on these recordings, as for instruments and mixes that is. The original 3"CDR is placed at the end of this release back then I wrote: "... it's a great work. High static crackles, a mid-range bed of warm drones and a bass that rumbles somewhere below. Much along the recent works of Machinefabriek, and a sound that brought him his fame so far. Maybe there is a risk of repeating, but no doubt the fans will take that for granted. Nice one." The other five pieces follow a similar schematic, I think: lots of drone like sounds, generated by guitars and loop devices (and who knows what else from the electronics department) and all of this creating a solid hour of the finest dark ambient. Nothing new, but what did you expect from a re-issue? Fine quality, through out all of this." (FdW/Vital WEekly] |
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| ROSENQVIST, DAG & SIMON SCOTT |
Conformists |
LP |
"Conformists’ is a soundtrack album to the short film of the same name composed by Dag Rosenqvist (aka Jasper TX) and Simon Scott.
The origin of the album occurred when Dag was approached by filmmaker Juriaan Booij to provide music for a film he was planning to shoot. Before a single frame was committed to celluloid, the overview provided to Dag was to score a film about how group mentality rules us as humans.
Equipped with only this simple brief, access to a handful of storyboard images and stills from the film set, Dag decided to ask friend and colleague Simon to collaborate on the project. Through the long-distance exchange of files, ideas and half-finished tracks, ten pieces were completed for the film score.
The resulting soundtrack is music rich in subtlety and nuance. Matching the overarching themes of the film, an undercurrent of menace is present throughout, evoking the feeling of half-forgotten memories and imagery drained of its colour.
It should be noted that one of the strengths of ‘Conformists’ is that unlike many film scores, the album also works as an entity in its own right. It was uncertain for a time that the film was going to be completed. As a result of the artists’ creative juices flowing thick and fast, the album was completed as a collaboration based on a film they imagined would be made..." [label info]
www.low-point.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| ROSS, LESLIE |
Drop By Drop, Suddenly |
do-CD |
"The first CD starts with the shortest seed pieces that play primarily with the timbral and microtonal differences highlighted between tone-holes, forming a layered, pseudo-multitrack effect while playing with only one fingering, single note or multiphonic. They range from the more strictly tonal or modal pitch-centered to the thicker atonal and dissonant collection of frequencies found in some multiphonics. Pieces progress to longer complex ones by the second CD, some of which have as minimal material as the shorter ones, but make more extensive use of live multitrack recordings and frequency filters to further bring out changes in frequencies or accentuate beatings inherent in specific multiphonics. The electronics used were created explicitly for each composition using the computer-based program MAX/MSP.
Save for the unconventional 15 microphones of the “prepared bassoon”, these recordings include pieces with no sound processing whatsoever, as well as pieces that do involve sound processing and multi-tracking. Importantly, however, any processing (timed entrances of microphones, overdubbing, looping, spectrum filtering, pitch shifting...) is made in real time, not post-recording. All recordings are single-take recordings where four speaker channels along with room microphones have been mixed down to stereo. Key clicks occasionally get picked up in a loop recording to return sometimes processed, sometimes not later; in circular breathing a multiphonic might drop out a moment before sounding again –what might sound like clicks or occasional drop outs on some of the recordings are not overlooked mastering faults but the result of this live processing and playing as would be experienced in performance.
With a formal background in classical music and early performance practice Leslie Ross took a plunge into the free improv scene of downtown NYC in the mid 80’s and has immersed herself in experimental music ever since. Her connected, parallel, work as baroque bassoon builder also opened up into explorations of invented instruments and sound installations at the same time. She has presented solo programs, both acoustic and electro-acoustic with laptops or electronics throughout Europe and the US over the past three decades. In the mid 2000’s she returned her music focus to a detailed exploration, analysis and understanding of bassoon multiphonics, the details of which she has made freely available on her website. It is through this exploration of multiphonics and the subtle changes made when playing with resonance keys that she was brought to the multiple-mic project of this CD." [label info]
https://xirecords.bandcamp.com/album/drop-by-drop-suddenly
"In my desperately insufficient erudition, the sum of “bassoon” and “woman” gave “Lindsay Cooper” as the most likely result until three days ago, when – while rummaging across the piles of promos received in 2018 – I retrieved this 2-CD set by Leslie Ross. Haven’t been listening to anything alternative since. More than the trademark biography-in-pills used by the official specialists to fill half of a writeup, let me urge you to check this article to understand the kind of creative individual we’re dealing with. 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. What’s not to like?
A resort for brains who don’t content themselves with shabby explanations, Drop By Drop, Suddenly comprises tracks of length varying from 5’13” to 27’37”. An attentive look at the program reveals that the pieces are ordered from shortest to longest, as if Ross wished to take the hand of the listeners to gradually immerse them into oceanic clusters to reach mental emptiness. We also noticed that the harshness deriving from certain pitch contiguities tends to decline (not always!) with the temporal extension. What Ross is telling us – perhaps without realizing – is that every apparent strain can be alleviated or, at the very least, considered under different perspectives with the acquisition of fundamental psychoacoustic data. Especially when lulled by such a concentration of upper partials, occasionally suggesting fragments of near-immobile melody (“Closed Circuit, A Pastoral”) or simply lifting us from the chair (“Water”).
Amazingly, everything heard occurs in real time. Even when veritable legions of bassoons (and relative key clicks, and whatever else one can hear, including the aforementioned birds) are perceived in the stereo field. It’s all born from an expert positioning of the microphones – Ross amplifies the unthinkable, besides the “normal” – and loops, natural or less: what do we know, poor guitarists deprived of the chance of circular breathing? The aim of the composer – subjecting the audience to a feeling close to the vibrational totality experienced by the performer – is achieved in full. Equally notable is the cross of inner stability and disregard of corporeal issues generated by the superimpositions; but we’re on Phill Niblock’s label, therefore we were expecting it, in a way.
And so, another case of droning wonderment. However – trust this madman – that’s just the beginning of an utterly enriching voyage. Sometimes being a canary implies receiving incredible rewards." [Touching Extremes]
|
2018 |
€17.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| RUHLMANN, MATHIEU |
This Star teaches Bending |
CD-R |
"In 2012, my mother at the age of 63 was diagnosed with a rare terminal lung disease. She was given a six-month life expectancy at this time. These recordings were created over the same period of time, comprised of amplifying the human body, various medical equipment and devices, as well as location recordings, that were involved, related to, or used during her treatment.
The title "This Star Teaches Bending" refers to a painting on paper by the artist Paul Klee that he completed in the year of his death. Klee lived the last few years of his life in Bern, plagued by scleroderma, a rare skin disease. Although he never recovered from this illness, he always maintained his love of life, facing his suffering with a trenchant ‘so what?’ But by 1940 he had to accept that there was no hope of a cure or any improvement in his health. The star had taught him to bend to the blows of fate.
The track titles refer to titles of paintings that Klee created in 1939-1940, the last year of his life. These recordings are dedicated to Valerie Joy." [Mathieu Ruhlmann]
www.3leaves-label.com
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| RUIZ, MIGUEL A. - & BARDOSENETICCUBE |
Exclusion Zone |
CD |
"A collaboration work of Spanish musician Miguel A. Ruiz (Orpheon Gagarin, Efficient Refineries, etc.) and Russian project Bardoseneticcube. Dangerous zones of sonic landscapes painted with the help of analogue synths and sequences, all sorts of samples, vinyl records and even folk instruments (percussion, gusli, penny whistles and pipes). Schizophrenically twisted ambiental collage of the fragments of the modern soundsphere. Rhythmic excursions into contaminated areas. Industrial psychedelia." [label info]
"... On the same label, but a concert sadly missed is a release by the duo Bardoseneticcube, who have been active for many years, who do a collaboration with long serving Spanish hero Miguel A. Ruiz. The Russians supply 'basic sounds and samples' while Ruiz add 'sounds, track arrangements and mastering'. What can be noted here, in difference with the previous work of Bardoseneticcube is the presence of rhythm, lots of rhythm actually. They form the solid backbone of the music, which otherwise involves field recordings and electronics. The rhythm part is solid, minimal but truly techno inspired. It bangs and it bangs. It reminded me of of the CD 'Electroid' by Sympathy Nervous from 1994. It has that same solid attitude. The field recordings are also sampled while the electronics are used to play around with, to add that somewhat nice krautrock and psychedelic touch to the music. Despite its minimalism there are lots of minor changes going on, that add a really nice edge to the music. Quite powerful stuff going on here, and a solid, fine work." " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.aquarellist.ru
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| RUNZELSTIRN & GURGELSTOCK |
Morx und Kotschlag |
CD |
The legendary Swiss performance-group with an unbelievable sound-collage piece, consisting of short cracks & noise-particles, ugly screams, accordeon-glimpses, whatever...funny & fascinating at the same time.
„Morx & Kotschlag" is not only the title of the CD, but also of the unique 74 min track of the acoustical "Aktions-theater". The piece includes recordings of direct body actions and abstract sounds, the latter often deriving from the first by means of an elaborated short-cut technique.” [label info]
|
1994 |
€13.00 |
|
| S.E.T.I. |
The Sphere of Density |
do-CD |
S.E.T.I. is one of the most important representatives of the dark ambient genre of recent years. Another incarnation of Andrew Lagowski and his most active project, with releases on labels such as Loki-Found (Power & Steel), Touch, Incoming!, VIVO, Ash International and Syntactic (Klanggalerie). 'The Sphere of Density' is his latest album, which consists of two CDs, of which the first contains completely new studio material, and the second is a record of an improvised concert that was very well received at the Wroclaw Industrial Festival.
Both CDs depict various styles of the S.E.T.I. project. Although they were created around the same period of time, they are completely different in terms of sound character or construction of the tracks.
The Sphere of Density is inspired by the vision of Alexander Petrovitch Kazantsev - a russian science fiction writer.
"A whole cosmic laboratory of precision instruments has passed near the Moon and communicated via radio a priceless information about the nature of interplanetary space. Received information expanded cosmic conception of men with daring brains, passionate hearts, trained muscles and sensitive nerves. These men will fly in one of the lunar ships in order to see from lunar observatory, without the barrier of atmosphere, constructions rised by the inhabitants of other planets, to discover other stars, to solve the secret of secrets – the cause of the emergence of stars, of transformation of energy into matter..."
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/the-sphere-of-density
|
2020 |
€17.00 |
|
| SAINT PETERS CROSS / KRABATH / JOAN MIRO |
The Wrath / Arum Rapasopis / Artist |
CD-R |
"6th release of Metarealist Records presents 3 projects from Ukraine. The split is opened by Saint Peters Cross - orthodox death-industrial / ambient project of label owner - K. Saint Peters Cross continues the path of Mental Destruction who started in early 90s, but makes it in his own way, only taking the overall ideological attack vector from the Swedes. Next comes Krabath - with renewed sound and ideas. Now the connection with the same-named Czech animation film is lost, and Krabath tries to develop the idea of descructive discrepancy between educational programmes of modern society and natural impulse of childhood. Musically all compositions are woven from the sounds of various toys and voices of children of various age. Fans of dark experimental ambient should definitely appreciate "Arum Rapasopis". And the closing act is Joan Miro - noisy power electronics, insane brainchild of Pt74 also standing behind Krabath. "Artist" has already been released as a split with Moscow based project Fungoreia. Blind fury, insane atrocity with industrial sounds of a broken meat grinder - all this will bring pleasure to the lovers of formalistic art." [label info] |
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| SAKELLARIOU, YIORGIS |
In Aulis |
CD |
In June 2015 I was invited by Implode, an artistic platform dedicated to new forms of sound and visual arts, to participate in “Sonic Topographies”, an artist residency that focused on locations of major importance in Ancient Greek history. I worked at the ruins of the temple of Artemis in Aulis, an archaeological site closely related to religious history and sacrificial rituals, and responded artistically to the location by composing In Aulis.
The composition explores the connection between myth, sacrifice and music and is inspired by the historical and religious background of Aulis and the temple of Artemis. According to the myth, the Greek fleet gathered in Aulis to set off for Troy and force the return of Helen. While there, king Agamemnon killed a stag that was sacred to goddess Artemis. The enraged deity ceased all winds, thus preventing the ships from sailing. This eventually led the Greeks to agree in sacrificing Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigeneia, in order to propitiate Artemis and ensure a favourable wind for their fleet. At the very last moment the goddess felt compassion for Iphigeneia and replaced her with a stag which was killed instead of the girl.
Iphigeneia’s dramatic story is described by Euripides in his famous tragedy Iphigeneia in Aulis which he wrote in 406 BC. The play was written during a period of conflict, political turmoil and instability and it arguably functions as an allegory in which Euripides – exiled from Athens at that time – warns his fellow Athenians about the consequences of war and the thirst for power and dominance as well as the hypocrisy of military and political leaders.
Is there a connection between the sacrificial act and musical performance? How is sound utilized in ritualistic murders? In his book “Noise: The political economy of music”, Jacques Attali writes that “listening to music is to attend a ritual murder”. He explains that in the physical world a ritualistic murder purifies violence and in the sonic world music does a similar thing. As the story of the Greeks in Aulis shows, sacrifice is performed when a problem requires a radical solution; the wind must blow and Agamemnon’s guilt must be transformed into redemption. With sacrifice a tension leads to resolution. In music, as Attali argues, it is noise and dissonance that become harmony when the chaos of sounds is organized and put into order through the act of music-making, when a sonic condition of anxiety and alert is transformed into joy and exaltation.
Silence
There is not a sound from the birds
or the sea. The winds are hushed
and silence holds the strait of Euripus.
Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis, line 9-11
In these lines Agamemnon describes the sonic atmosphere of Aulis, an eerie silence caused by the absence of wind. For the Greeks, this stillness created discomfort as they were unable to mobilize and sail to Troy. Around 2,500 years after these lines were written, I was at the same location, attempting to listen to the echoes of myth and history resonating in the present-day soundscape of Aulis.
Nowadays there is little left of the ancient buildings. Only their ruins continue to remind the importance and history of Aulis. Any visitor can simply push aside a half-broken wire fence and enter the archaic holy grounds, lying between a highway and a local road leading to a disused cement factory. Walking through the flora that is gradually covering the ruins, one can witness the blending of nature with human-made constructions and the folding of the distant past with the modern era.
In praise of Artemis
In the core of the sacrificial act is the setting of relationships which expand from the world of gods, or the unseen and ethereal, to the world of humans, the rest of the society. Simultaneously, music making is a socially constructed activity that brings communities together. Euripides provides an insightful example of this. When Iphigeneia finally accepts her fate, she addresses the chorus and says:
And you, young
women, sing a propitious song for my fate, a song in praise
of Zeus’ daughter Artemis. Let the Greeks keep propitious
silence.
Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis, lines 1467-1470
These lines reveal that sound is utilized in sacrifice to bridge the divine with the human world. Through singing and listening, music is creating social bonds, manifests a divine presence and establishes a relationship with it.
Ultimately, the Sonic Topographies residency was not a mere study and collection of information about Aulis and the temple of Artemis but an empirical interaction that transmuted it from a field with abandoned ancient ruins to a space for action and contemplation. Field recording and composing was triggering an ongoing dialogue between myself and the explored environment and deepened my relationship with it on a physical and sentimental level. The research about the temple and the fieldwork at the ruins expanded from investigating its history and recording sounds for an electroacoustic composition to a contemplation on passing time and an exploration of the depths of human soul.
(Yiorgis Sakellariou, 23 August 2017) |
2018 |
€14.00 |
|
| SALA |
Shcut enteRing worts |
CD |
Wer auf beschwörenden Okkult-Ambient-Industrial steht, ist bei SALA genau richtig. Geisterhaft tönende Loops & verfremdete Stimmenfetzen, Glöckchen- oder Triangelsounds, alles in sehr hypnotischer Bewegung irgendwo im Hallraum tauchen seltsame Geräusche auf (Akustikgitarren).... gewidmet Jhonn Balance!
“Shcut enteRing worts” consists of two forceful tracks of “ritual ambient” style. They are not distinguished in the compact disk as the ritual couldn’t and shouldn’t be accelerated or perceived in separated pieces. Starting from hypnotic “mantra”, music gradually unravels to the strong and mystical “ambient”, the main feature of which being reiteration transmitted by the sound loops. These are organically supplemented by the tabors, bells, magic spells and mysterious sounds floating from the distance and generating only the strong mystic mood of the audience. Actually, concerning the impact, this music is in line with the works of world’s famous artists acting in this field – Coil, NWW, Omenya, Hybryds, Deutsch Nepal. The “Schut enteRing worts” album was recorded by the participants of SALA project when experimenting with Brion Gysin’s dream machine, which formerly inspired the well-known William S.Burroughs and had a strong psychedelic effect.
Album's tracks listing:
1. His: Entering The Dream
2. The Last Words Of Hassan Sabbah
Album lasts for 36 min. 26 sec. It’s packed in a nontypical black plastic DVD case. We recommend you to listen to “Schut enteRing worts” only on Hi-fi stereo. Limited edition 500 copies. CD is covered with special lackuer which smells like an almond.” [label info]
www.autarkeia.org
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| SALT |
Machiakari |
LP |
"the moment of light is unrepeatable: with his second album, stefan alt pays homage to life in the present moment, any moment, which by nature can never be repeated. the same group of people may get together in the same place again, but a particular previous gathering will never be replicated, and thus each moment always remains a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one to be enjoyed and cherished. this positivity is the overall theme: so embrace the machiakari, the glow in the night, urban artificial light, the modern manifestation of light in times of darkness.
'machiakari' works in the tradition of juxtaposing alluring atmospheres, psychedelic appeal and even occasional melodies with washes of seemingly freeform noise and challenging track structures. so join the ride, enter the 'time capsule' and let go of your standard perception of time. 'assault on precinct 13' is indeed a cover version of (and adoring homage to) the famous score title by john carpenter, the movie and its soundtrack itself being classic examples of the avant-garde making a successful foray and leaving an impact on popular culture. 'absorbed' and 'we never sleep' (referencing the theme of light and the work of john carpenter again, respectively) feature drums by experimental jazz musician gerwin eisenhauer, a contemporary of salt in the city of regensburg, the result being dynamic and intoxicating halfstep tunes with a lot of sonic grit, loaded with urban anxiety and confusion. when you visit tokyo, you will most likely overlook the older quarter 'ueno': outdated, sporting a visible patina, a flair of darkness and decay, fascinating for its sluggishness. the three parts of 'yakushi-do' dive head-on into japanese culture and mysticism, a path leading to purification of the mind, delivered with an industrial attitude, moving from ritual to collage style.
'machiakari' follows the enthusiastically received 'invisible', with which it shares not only it’s concise 45 minute album format, but also it’s artistic reappraisal of visual phenomena and japanese culture. and yet, this sophomore album is an entirely different entity, a focused and confident manifesto shedding valuable light in the dark of night. the moment of light is unrepeatable."
https://ant-zen.bandcamp.com/album/machiakari |
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| SAND |
His first Steps |
LP |
"The present album is a forerunner of GOLEM, the legendary album from the cosmic and psychedelic genius that is Sand. After the split of POT the early SAND submerged as a threesome in the basement of Claudiusstrasse and built up an alchemical assembling shop, where they resurrected the archetypical GOLEM. SAND considered themselves as an exile community in a fascinating area - full of distinctly bizarre energy.
There is something magical and inexplicable in creation, and Sand manifest absolutely these mysterious phenomena. Story-tellers, musicians, shamans, geniuses, Sand were known, at the end of the 60s, as P.O.T. (Part of Time). The music they created at that time has remained unreleased until now.
Two different approaches are evident within this band. The first—which is shown in the compositions of the trio Ludwig Papenberg, his brother Ullrich Papenberg and Johannes Vester—is avant-gardist, experimental and proto-industrial. The second, when this same trio is augmented with a few extra members, reveals a more emphatically “rock” side, somewhat in the vein of Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, perhaps making it somewhat less personal than the visionary and experimental positions characteristic of Sand, a truly unique entity in the history of music.
At that time Klaus Schulze was developing, with engineer Manfred Schunke, a specialised recording process called “Artificial Head Stereo Sound”, which, like “Surround Sound”, created the illusion of the music coming from 360º around the listener. Schulze chose Sand to record in his studio one of a series of records to demonstrate this new technique. Sand’s album Golem was recorded and released on the Delta-Acustic label in 1974.
Sand acknowledge that Manfred Schunke and Klaus Schulze were Sand’s most important mentors.
Although classed as “Krautrock”, Sand are not really in the Krautrock style, despite being part of this movement of German cosmic/psychedelic bands. Instead they take us on a cerebral/cosmic/strange/dark trip all of their own, with a highly original subtlety, elegance and strength. Trapped in the trip, swallowed up by the quicksands, seduced by the unique and innovative combination of acoustic guitars, synthesisers, sound generators, short-wave radios, factory noises, hammers from the shipyards, agricultural machines, whirls of sand and eerie atmospheres, the listener discovers and lives the story of Sand and his Golem.
Julian Cope wrote of Golem in his HeadHeritage’s website’s “Album of the Month” column, “Dig this fucking weird Saxony sound and fill your heart”.
Rotorelief releases, in 2010, a series of unreleased albums by Sand as well as a reissue of Sand’s only album, the obscure and rare Golem, first released by Delta Acustic in 1974, along with related releases by Nurse with Wound and Current 93.
This series of albums from Sand is called “INXOM”, the series title having one letter for each album, explained by Johannes Vester as follows:
“Incoming, Inspiration, (...) In X is OM (Odem) which could mean ‘There is Om/Odem/Atman in the Unknown (X)’ ; this also corresponds to "shem" which is in XOM,—the meaning in the Golem Myth. Last, but not least, for me it sounds like the electronic attitude in symbiosis with Sand's spirit....”
And also called '' INXODEM '' with 5x Sand album (INXOM) from 70's + 1 album of Nurse With Wound (2013) and 1 45RMP twelve inch of Current 93 (1992) :
"His First Steps" (I) / is a previous, unreleased and variety album (1972 & 1973) of "Golem"
"Golem" (N) / legendary album composed in 1972 and 1973 (released in 1974)
"Desert Navigation" (X) / unreleased album, titles composed in 1973, 1975 and one track from 1982
"Sylph Ballet" (O) / unreleased album, titles composed in 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976
"North Atlantic Raven" (M) / unreleased album, titles composed in 1973, 1975 & 1976
(+ bonus 1982)
"Chromanatron" (E), by Nurse With Wound composed in 2013 with sounds and extracts from Sand
"When the May Rain Comes" (D), 2 varieties of the reprise title "May Rain" of Sand by Current 93 in 1992
Today, 40 years later, here the cool sound jugglers, founders and new members, go again (Ludwig and Ulrich Papenberg, Johannes Vester, Christian von der Schulenburg and Richard Pappik) then Sand is active in a creative frenzy timeless...
www.rotorelief.com
|
2016 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
His first Steps |
CD |
"The present album is a forerunner of GOLEM, the legendary album from the cosmic and psychedelic genius that is Sand. After the split of POT the early SAND submerged as a threesome in the basement of Claudiusstrasse and built up an alchemical assembling shop, where they resurrected the archetypical GOLEM. SAND considered themselves as an exile community in a fascinating area - full of distinctly bizarre energy.
There is something magical and inexplicable in creation, and Sand manifest absolutely these mysterious phenomena. Story-tellers, musicians, shamans, geniuses, Sand were known, at the end of the 60s, as P.O.T. (Part of Time). The music they created at that time has remained unreleased until now.
Two different approaches are evident within this band. The first—which is shown in the compositions of the trio Ludwig Papenberg, his brother Ullrich Papenberg and Johannes Vester—is avant-gardist, experimental and proto-industrial. The second, when this same trio is augmented with a few extra members, reveals a more emphatically “rock” side, somewhat in the vein of Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, perhaps making it somewhat less personal than the visionary and experimental positions characteristic of Sand, a truly unique entity in the history of music.
At that time Klaus Schulze was developing, with engineer Manfred Schunke, a specialised recording process called “Artificial Head Stereo Sound”, which, like “Surround Sound”, created the illusion of the music coming from 360º around the listener. Schulze chose Sand to record in his studio one of a series of records to demonstrate this new technique. Sand’s album Golem was recorded and released on the Delta-Acustic label in 1974.
Sand acknowledge that Manfred Schunke and Klaus Schulze were Sand’s most important mentors.
Although classed as “Krautrock”, Sand are not really in the Krautrock style, despite being part of this movement of German cosmic/psychedelic bands. Instead they take us on a cerebral/cosmic/strange/dark trip all of their own, with a highly original subtlety, elegance and strength. Trapped in the trip, swallowed up by the quicksands, seduced by the unique and innovative combination of acoustic guitars, synthesisers, sound generators, short-wave radios, factory noises, hammers from the shipyards, agricultural machines, whirls of sand and eerie atmospheres, the listener discovers and lives the story of Sand and his Golem.
Julian Cope wrote of Golem in his HeadHeritage’s website’s “Album of the Month” column, “Dig this fucking weird Saxony sound and fill your heart”.
Rotorelief releases, in 2010, a series of unreleased albums by Sand as well as a reissue of Sand’s only album, the obscure and rare Golem, first released by Delta Acustic in 1974, along with related releases by Nurse with Wound and Current 93.
This series of albums from Sand is called “INXOM”, the series title having one letter for each album, explained by Johannes Vester as follows:
“Incoming, Inspiration, (...) In X is OM (Odem) which could mean ‘There is Om/Odem/Atman in the Unknown (X)’ ; this also corresponds to "shem" which is in XOM,—the meaning in the Golem Myth. Last, but not least, for me it sounds like the electronic attitude in symbiosis with Sand's spirit....”
And also called '' INXODEM '' with 5x Sand album (INXOM) from 70's + 1 album of Nurse With Wound (2013) and 1 45RMP twelve inch of Current 93 (1992) :
"His First Steps" (I) / is a previous, unreleased and variety album (1972 & 1973) of "Golem"
"Golem" (N) / legendary album composed in 1972 and 1973 (released in 1974)
"Desert Navigation" (X) / unreleased album, titles composed in 1973, 1975 and one track from 1982
"Sylph Ballet" (O) / unreleased album, titles composed in 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976
"North Atlantic Raven" (M) / unreleased album, titles composed in 1973, 1975 & 1976
(+ bonus 1982)
"Chromanatron" (E), by Nurse With Wound composed in 2013 with sounds and extracts from Sand
"When the May Rain Comes" (D), 2 varieties of the reprise title "May Rain" of Sand by Current 93 in 1992
Today, 40 years later, here the cool sound jugglers, founders and new members, go again (Ludwig and Ulrich Papenberg, Johannes Vester, Christian von der Schulenburg and Richard Pappik) then Sand is active in a creative frenzy timeless...
www.rotorelief.com
www.rotorelief.com
|
2016 |
€14.00 |
|
| SANSON, GIL & BRUNO DUPLANT |
Blank |
CD |
"Dabbling in this and that, eager collaborator & french composer Bruno Duplant has gradually nurtured a sensitive style of his own on the border between multi-instrumentation, improvisation, and site-specific recordings…here he teams up with like-minded transgressor and Venezuelan artist Gil Sansón, who already appeared on labels such as Winds Measure Recordings & Con-V, and Lengua da Lava. Often working on the basis of self-imposed premises & convoluted concepts, Gil shapes patiently questioning intense sound forms…
“blank” opens with distant hum, a faraway pervasive sea,
an opaline world,
just a way of falling into line with each fluctuation,
the wobble of things…
marks…scattered objects…traces of passage…
all become the elements of a receptive score…
Urban moans, muffled motion…
a sea yet to surge,
a scraped slate,
refusing all appearances,
“blank” captures the diaphanous, the transient,
the diffuse or dazzling instant…
A script of perceptiveness…
It punctuates, cuts,
incisions drawing unseen reliefs…
“blank” infuses you in revelatory intervals…
::: TRACKS :::
1. foliage, brackets, skidmarks
2. blank
3. detachment
::: DURATION :::
66:20
::: FORMAT :::
CD ltd to 200 copies
all copies come with an additional art card on 300 gr satin paper." [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
"In terms of expectance, this is certainly one of the stranger releases on Mystery Sea in some time. Many of the releases on this label have some connection with 'sea', 'water', 'rivers' and such like, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Although Bruno Duplant may use, perhaps, field recordings of the watery kind in this work, it all seems to be more the work of improvisation music on real instruments. Duplant plays horn, double bass and electronics and Gil Sanson (did I ever hear from him?) plays electric guitar and amplifier, broken mandolin, empty maraca and 'phonographies'. He also wrote the score for the first and the last piece, and Duplant for the one in the middle. So, instead of having improvised music, this is composed music, which just happen to sound like improvised music. Three pieces, as said, and they are all around twenty-two minutes, and they deal with a lot of quiet sounds. A plink here, a plonk there, all carefully played, quiet and spacious. There is a bit of bird sounds, large chunks of unidentified field recordings rumble play an important role. I think (!) I like it, but I am not too sure: I do know that it's all a bit long. I think I would have been equally satisfied with two of these pieces instead of three. Maybe I just lack the right amount of concentration today? Maybe I think it's a bit too much of the same thing? Mystery Sea makes a daring move, however, with this release, making it different from the ones we already know." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| SANTAAGOSTINO |
Operazione Paura |
CD |
"SantAAgostino tell of the Noises from Beyond the Gate.
SantAAgostino play the Journey of No Return from the Death Phase. SantAAgostino sing the Dark Zone of those who met the pain-soaked Demiurge and came back to Earth without forgiveness for their sins. SantAAgostino write about the laments and the looks of those who saw beyond the coma and came back. SantAAgostino feel the return of those who died and are reborn more rotten and foul than before.
Operazione Paura is a tribute to music and cosmos energy: the same energy that santAAgostino trio was permeated with during the opus and the esecution of the pieces.
Operazione Paura is a total turning not just for the band but for dark, ambient music and noise, generally speaking. That’s because santAAgostino is like a meteor crashed onto the Earth disarranging all the balances, rhythmes and cycles. After the crash the planet seems to be perished but, in the inner part, the new fire of life is burning. A brand new energy developed in a new way of living, of thinking and being.
Operazione Paura speaks of the filmic and horrorific fear, mind trap “to kill” atavistic thoughts and all those mental factors that trapped the man into a selfmade cage in his own mind, through the mind itself. Operazione Paura is an awl that, slowly but inexorably, drives the listener to a dimension where there is no thought, no images, no more conceptualizing, nothing still exhists: there is just a huge solitary desert now, where sounds spontaneously flow creating new monster beyond space and time. It’s a place where new divine dynasties born, spreading their seed, in order to bear a brand new reign far from the borders that we can’t even imagine." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| SANTOS SILVA, SUSANA / HAMPUS LINDWALL / TORBJORN ZETTERBERG |
Hi! Who are you? |
LP |
The trio Susana Santos Silva / Torbjörn Zetterberg / Hampus Lindwall emerged in 2015 with their first album If Nothing Else (Clean Feed CF348) which was received with critical acclaim. The unique conceptual approach to composition & improvisation rooted in both free jazz and contemporary classical music was described as “guaranteed a unique listening experience” (JazzIn), “It is art!” (Gapplegate Music Review) and “unique sound and style” (New York City Jazz Record). On their new album “Hi, who are you?” (Matière Mémoire MATME004LP) they have taken the musical creation a step further by adding live electronics for real time sound treatment. Different techniques from experimental electronic music is juxtaposed with simple use of electric guitar effects to obtain tight and highly emotional sound.
Susana Santos Silva - trumpet
Torbjörn Zetterberg - double bass, and electric noise on track 5 and 10
Hampus Lindwall - pipe organ and live electronics
All music composed and performed by Susana Santos Silva, Torbjörn Zetterberg and Hampus Lindwall
Produced by Susana Santos Silva, Torbjörn Zetterberg and Hampus Lindwall
Recorded by Torbjörn Zetterberg in Engelbrektskyrkan, Stockholm, Sweden, January 20-21 2018
Mixed by Torbjörn Zetterberg in Mörbylund, Sweden
Mastered by Mats Äleklint
Cut by Frédéric Alstadt at Ångström studio, Brussels
Artwork collage by Dan Lean (Merciful Stranger Art)
Graphics and layout by Cedric D’hondt
The organ in Engelbrektskyrkan was built by Grönlunds Orgelbyggeri in 1964 and restored in 2013 by the same company. It has 91 stops, 5 manuals and pedal.
https://matiere-memoire.bandcamp.com/album/hi-who-are-you
https://matiere-memoire.bandcamp.com/album/hi-who-are-you
In 2015, Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva teamed up with Swedish musicians Torbjörn Zetterberg on bass and Hampus Lindwall on organ. The combination is relatively unique, as is their sound. Santos Silva is one of the leading voices in contemporary improvised music, often performing together with Zetterberg. Their collaboration with Lindwall is more selective. In 2015 they released "If Nothing Else", and we are happy that the next iteration of their music is now available, albeit in only 300 vinyl copies, so you'd better hurry.
The sound of Lindwall's church organ is critical to the overall feel of the music. Under the influence of his organ teacher, Rolande Falcinelli, he moved to Paris in 2002 and studied at the Conservatoire de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon. He is the Titular Organist in Saint-Esprit, Paris.
In an interview with us about their debut album, Susana Santos Silva explained their approach as follows: "It's improvised music but with a great sense of structure and development within each song. And that's what can be so beautiful in an improvised piece of music, that all the notions of composed music, like the development of an idea, theme and variations, counterpoint, leitmotifs, dynamics, question-and-answer phrasing, different layers, textures, and so on, can just happen spontaneously, in the moment".
Most of the music is acoustic, but frequently altered by live electronics. The result is a strange sonic world, that is at once brutal, haunting, reverent and riveting. The performance was recorded in the Engelbrektskyrkan, a church in Stockholm, selected amongst others for its recently restored organ, that has 91 stops, 5 manuals and pedals.
The resonance of organ, trumpet and bass in the church makes this an even more special performance. In a way, you have to be in the space itself to fully enjoy it, even if the sound quality of the album is also astonishingly good.
Highly recommended!
---
I had the luck to see the trio perform in 2017 in the Saint Jacob's Church in Ghent, Belgium, where I recorded the following video vignettes with my smartphone. Not the ideal quality, but it gives an impression of what this music means in a real church. The trio is of course high up on the balcony next to the organ.
[The Free Jazz Collective] |
2019 |
€23.00 |
|
| SARNO, LOUIS |
Song from the Forest: The Soundtrack |
CD |
"This is the soundtrack album to the film “Song from the Forest”, which tells the story of Louis Sarno, an American who has lived for thirty years among the Bayaka pygmies in the Central African Republic. No outsider has had such access to this beautiful and musical culture, and this selection of the best of his recordings presents the sounds of this amazing people and their environment with a depth and richness never heard before.
SONG FROM THE FOREST: THE FILM /// Premieres in Germany: Showtimes
As a young man, the American Louis Sarno heard a song on the radio that gripped his imagination. He followed the mysterious sounds all the way to the Central African rainforest and found their source with the Bayaka Pygmies, a tribe of hunters and gatherers. He never left.
Today, twenty-five years later, Louis Sarno has recorded over 1,500 hours of unique Bayaka music. He is a fully accepted member of Bayaka society and has a son, Samedi. Once, when Samedi was a baby, he became seriously ill and Louis feared for his life. He held his son in his arms through a frightful night and made him a promise: “If you get through this, one day I’ll show you the world I come from.”
Now the time has come to fulfill his promise, and Louis travels with Samedi, age 13, from the African rainforest to another jungle, one of concrete, glass, and asphalt: New York City. Together they meet Louis’ family and old friends, including his closest friend from college, Jim Jarmusch.
Carried by the contrasts between rainforest and urban America, with a fascinating soundtrack and peaceful, loving imagery, their stories are interwoven to form a touching portrait of an extraordinary man and his son.
A modern epic set between rainforest and skyscrapers.
FROM THE DIRECTOR
In the fall of 2009, I was traveling in the Congo River Basin when by chance I heard tales of a white man who was said to have lived for decades in the rainforest with a tribe of huntergatherers called the Bayaka Pygmies, for decades. I went to look for him. A few days later, I was standing in a clearing when Bayaka came running at me from all directions, brandishing spears and screaming. Suddenly, the noise ceased, and a tall figure detached itself from the undergrowth: a white man, two heads taller than everybody else, a Bayaka baby in each of his arms. Before me stood a legend: a lost, forgotten man, reborn in the Central African jungle. A man who once ate tadpoles for a month, who married a Bayaka woman, who survived malaria, hepatitis, typhoid, leprosy, and has recorded more than 1500 hours of unique Bayaka music. Before me stood the musical Herodotus of the Central African forests, the white Bayaka—Louis Sarno.
When we shook hands in this clearing, I instantly felt that something really big had happened in my life. How could I know that this was the beginning of a journey which would turn me—a writer and journalist—into a film-maker and which would take me across the globe for years to come? To me—a person without a real home, driven from place to place, a passionate hunter-gatherer of stories who has spent the past twenty years traveling to the most remote corners of the Earth—Louis Sarno is the most fascinating person I have ever met. He took a radical leap, accomplishing what I often imagine myself doing when I am on the road: leaving it all behind, starting over, becoming someone else. More than everything else I am impressed by his life’s work: the fantastic recordings of Bayaka music that we are proud to present in this soundtrack from Song From the Forest. (Michael Obert)
FROM THE CURATOR
Beautifully mapping the entire range of music-making of a single community of hunter-gatherers across more than a generation, the Louis Sarno collection of Bayaka music and soundscapes is extraordinary, unprecedented, and unrepeatable. No field recordist has ever matched the depth and sensitivity of Sarno’s commitment to presenting a record of what it sounds like to live with an indigenous community. Sarno has developed a uniquely sensitive recording approach, refined through an acute listening that is only possible through permanent immersion in a culture.
Nearly all of the recordings on this soundtrack have been drawn from the Louis Sarno collection of Bayaka music at the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford. Louis continues to donate his exceptional recordings to the Museum with the long-term intention that they will benefit the community whose musical life they so beautifully present. (Noel Lobley, Ethnomusicologist, Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford University)
FROM THE MUSIC SUPERVISOR
Through Louis Sarno’s recordings, Bayaka music has become famous around the world. I first spoke to Louis about his endeavours in the mid-nineties when I was putting together “The Book of Music and Nature”, which included some of his work. When I heard he was still down there, twenty years later, and that a film wasnbeing made about his life, I knew I wanted to help.
Central to Bayaka music is a sonic integration with the rhythms and melodies of the forest itself. We have tried to include selections from the vast archive that highlight the ways the human sounds fit into the natural sounds, as an inspiration for how human life as a whole might better be part of our surrounding environment, our true home. (David Rothenberg)
TRACK NOTES BY LOUIS SARNO
1. Yeyi-greeting / 4:30
Yeyi just means ‘yodel,’ and this is one of my favorite forms of Bayaka music. They used to go on all night, slowly moving through the village, and at dawn they’d be going on one last time, throwing leaves on the roof of each house. The new generation doesn’t do it the way it used to be done. This is the most recognizable sound in Bayaka music, pure vocal music, very beautiful songs. When they sing you can hear the forest all around them.
2. Women Sing in the Forest / 4:55
This is recorded in a bimba forest, where there is not much undergrowth, so you hear the singing echoing as if you were inside a natural cathedral. The Bayaka have this way of wandering into the forest, taking music from different forms, and improvising together as they collect water or gather mushrooms. I love the sound of women’s voices in the distance in the forest. The forest without that sound is incomplete. These are the most lovely voices on Earth.
3. Tree Drumming / 3:08
There is a certain kind of tree, the gooma that has big buttress roots. You hit it and it really resonates. Whenever the Bayaka come across a tree like this on the trail they hit it and play a little music. It’s kind of irresistible. Then they move on.
4. Bobé Spirits Calling / 5:53
I remember that camp, it was a beautiful one. The first evening, as the sun was setting, I saw this fire in the distance between the bimba trees. But it turned out to be the sun, at ground level in the forest, and you could barely see it through the trees at the horizon. The Bobé were really wild, spinning around and dancing wildly. That was the time when they buried Samedi’s grandmother. I had just came back from America, and I walked fifty kilometers in one day, and I heard she had died. The next day I set up to find this camp. We didn’t know where to go exactly, and it took us three days to find it. I was so moved by the place. The ceremony went on for two or three nights. This is a typical esimé, when the women move on from the usual melodic singing into something polyrhythmic. The Bobé are not human, they are animal spirits, and they use sounds that are beyond language. The Boyobi ceremony is not just music, it’s theater, dance, and myth, all blended together. Sometimes the Bobé spirits are naked in the moonlight, smeared with bioluminescent fungus. No crew has yet been able to film this!
5. Bayaka Night Insects / 4:52
Insects, yes, but also a few birds. That’s a type of cuckoo. I call it the “ngon go go” bird. There are two cuckoos and the rest is insects, with maybe a few tree frogs. Sometimes you get these moments in the forest where everything seems to come together like that. That’s why I spent so much time in the forest, because most of the time nothing much seems to be happening. But once in a while you get these beautiful moments, which you can only get by spending a lot of time out there. Years.
6. Louis Sarno Speaks / 2:32
Ewunji was an incredible guy, Samedi’s great-grandfather. He was known to go very deep into the forest, way into what’s now the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in Congo, and we just wandered around with spears, no hunting nets. You couldn’t survive like that now. The small animals have been decimated by poachers. Taking care of this should be the responsibility of the World Wildlife Fund, but they prefer to concentrate on big charismatic animals like elephants and gorillas, instead of the animals that the Bayaka depend on, small forest antelopes and monkeys. The Bayaka are no longer allowed to go into the park, but the poachers still go in there with shotguns.
7. The Flutes We Hear No More / 5:12
That was the only time I ever heard two flute players playing at the same time. Momboli and Gongé playing mbyo duets on Dec. 22 nd 1992. You are supposed to hear this music in your dreams, that’s why they usually play it alone at night, so it can get into your dreams. They play more or less in unison even though the Bayaka love vocal polyphony. This is a music you no longer hear anymore, since the last flute player died a few years ago. He gave me his flute and I had it in my house and could get a bit of a sound out of it. But when the Séléka raided my house last year during the insurgency, they destroyed everything, and they smashed the flute. This is a sound we will never hear again.
8. Net Hunt / 3:00
Well, that’s not actually a net hunt. That’s actually gida-gida, it’s a gorilla hunting game, they imitate chimpanzee noises. That’s from 1987, the very first time I went out into the forest. Just the men and boys are singing here. They make these fake spears and pretend to kill.
9. Earth Bow / 2:09
To make an earth bow the Bayaka take a sapling and bend it over, then attach a piece of twine to one end of the sapling, tie the other end to a piece of bark and hold it over a hole that they dig in the ground. This was Boungingi, and those are the same guys who were playing the tree drum. Just takes them a minute or so to make this instrument. Usually one person plays it, but there is always some extra percussion in the background.
10. Geedal / 2:28
That’s Balonyona, one of the greatest masters of the bow harp, the geedal. I recorded many hours of his playing, he really was the best player of this instrument. In 1991 he even went to Paris to play. It has six strings, you find it all over Africa. But the Bayaka way of playing is a bit different. They use fewer notes, and more rhythms. They play along with the pulses of the forest. It fits right in.
11. Flute in Forest / 5:16
That is a beautiful melody, the flute sounds so beautiful in the forest in the distance. That sound brings back so many memories of so many good times. Momboli played that melody a lot, and I recorded it often in the distance. You hear the night ambience swelling with insects, frogs, cuckoos, and the distant flute. So many good times… This music is really part of the whole forest world.
12. Water Drumming / 2:55
When the women bathe, they are always playing water drum. And sometimes they get these percussive melodies, this is a music for girls, and they are much better at it than the boys. Women will do it, too, and sometimes I’ve been far away when you can only hear the deepest sounds, and I think it’s the drum, and when I get closer, I realize it is women playing in the water. It is one of the few instruments Bayaka women are allowed to play.
13. Lingboku Celebration / 5:36
Ah, the Lingboku – women’s music. That is the one spirit they still have. They claim all the others have been stolen from them by the men. A lot of the lyrics make fun of male sexuality, it’s really an expression of female power. The men don’t like women to do it. But they don’t stop them. The men are not supposed to be present when they sing it. “The penis has no endurance and dies right away, but the pussy is always ready to keep going.” You ought to mark this song “explicit” on the CD. The dancing is quite explicit, too, the women look like they’re humping each other and if they catch men looking at this they’ll chase them away.
14. Moukouté’s Lament / 1:52
Ah, that’s little Moukouté. He appears in the film. At the time you recorded him for the film, he really wasn’t all that good at the geedal. But since then, he’s gotten a lot better.
15. Yeyi-Farewell / 5:32
What can you say? It’s beautiful. Yeyi. It’s the most pure Bayaka music. I never get tired of hearing these songs. They bring back so much musical wealth of these people. I don’t make recordings anymore. In some ways it’s easier to make recordings with today’s new technology, but I don’t love it the way I love those old cassette recorders. How do you write numbers on those tiny SD cards! They’re always getting lost. Many of the people I used to record are no longer alive. The new generation is just not the same." [label info]
www.gruenrekorder.de
"One of the various releases this week that is supposed to be a soundtrack. Here no film either, but just the recordings made by Louis Sarno, made in Central Africa with Bayaka Pygmies, a tribe of hunters and collectors. Sarno is not a visitor, but he lives there as a member and married, has a son and recorded 1500 hours of music and sounds. That's what the documentary by Michael Obst is about, about this rather unique field recordist. Sarno, who guides us through music from Bayaka and the place they live in, documents each of the fifteen pieces here in word. Flutes, tree drumming, singing, games, celebrations and such like are what we hear on this disc. Sometimes recorded from a distance, with the rainforest adding a whole additional layer of sound, which works very well. The 'Tree Drumming' reminded me of earlier Etant Donnes. I very much enjoy a release like this. Not because I know a lot about the subject of tribes or Non-Western music, and I am the first to admit I can't say
anything worthwhile about this, other than: I think this is a fascinating trip. Maybe it's because I was on holiday just now, and perhaps I would like to evoke the memory of holiday a bit longer? (I doubt whether Central Africa will ever be a point of holiday for me however). Just for now I can really enjoy all of this a lot. Strangely fascinating music. A sound documentary as well as something that you can enjoy from a purely musical point of view. Very nice variation in the world of field recording." [FdW/Vital Weekly #946]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| SATOH, SOMEI |
Mandala Trilogy + 1 |
do-LP |
WRWTFWW Records announce the full official reissue of Somei Satoh's magnificent Avatamsaka Sutra inspired Mandala Trilogy with one additional never-released piece. Sourced from original masters and available on double vinyl in heavy 350gsm sleeve with liner notes by passionate Japanese music connoisseur/collector/critic/DJ, Masaaki Hara. Deep deep deep into the abyss... The Mandala Trilogy blends Somei Satoh's own slowed down Buddhist chant vocalization and early electronics to create a radiant and meditative atmosphere conveying serenity and timelessness. It includes three pieces recorded separately. "Mandala" was recorded at the NHK Studio of Electronic Music in 1982 and was included on the album Mandala/Sumeru, released on Kojima Recordings' ALM. "Mantra" was an NHK commissioned work, recorded at the same studio in 1986. "Tantra" was recorded at Victoria University of Wellington's Lilburn Studios for electronic music and recording in 1990. Included as a bonus is the 20-minute "Mai", a composition commissioned by harpist Ayako Shinozaki and recorded at the Kioi Hall in Tokyo on November 11th, 2004. The piece was conducted by Tetsuji Honna and performed by the Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo. Satoh says: "The harp is one of my favorite instruments. Also, by combining my affectionate percussion instrument, the chromatic gong and steel drum, with the harp's most beautiful tone, I attempted to bring out a mystical sound." Although it is not an electronic music piece, the stunning composition elegantly complements the deep mystical world that Satoh expresses in his Mandala Trilogy. Mandala Trilogy + 1 is reissued in conjunction with Somei Satoh's Emerald Tablet / Echoes LP
https://wrwtfww.com/album/mandala-trilogy-1
|
2021 |
€30.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| |
Aegean |
do-LP |
" “Aegean”is the counterpart of the same-titled CD released in 2014 on Mobilization, the label of the band. Current line-up includes founders Ethan Port and Thom Fuhrmann plus longtime member Alan Waddington (drums) and newer one Kerry Dowling on guitars and bass, plus guests including Blaine Reiniger/Tuxedomoon on violin and other ones on oud, doumbeck; trumpet or trombone..."
www.nuitetbrouillard.com |
2015 |
€28.00 |
|
| SCHAEFER, JANEK |
Cold Storage |
CD |
"Cold Storage is an impressive resume not only of Schaefer's own career as a sound artist, but half a century of theory and practice of electronic music in all its diverse forms." - The Wire
"Cold Storage is one of Janek Schaefer's most refined works of "musique concrete". The original concert was a live improvisation using as an instrument the snippets he had previously collected and assembled. The CD version uses the same sounds, but "keeps it closer to the source material". Luckily, it is not apparent at all that he kept it so "close" to the original source. The five movements are powerful and haunting precisely because the sources are unrecognizable, and, instead, the slowly evolving music seem to hark back to mysterious primitive forces of nature. The first movement sounds like the internal, psychological perception of the composer entering a room. The second sounds like a broader survey of the environment, evoking a multitude of action, from traffic to waves. Its ebullient chaos is balanced by the ghostly and massive moving textures of the third movement, The fifth movement is the most fearsome, unleashing industrial fury and expressionist tension. The whole is exactly the sum of its parts: a multi-faceted experience that describes a continuum of emotions through the inner ear." - Scaruffi.com
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Unfolding Luxury beyond the City of Dreams |
LP |
"Dekorder presents two new vinyl editions composed and designed by UK sound artist Janek Schaefer, who is known around the world for his wide variety of engaging and unpredictable works for installation, concert and composition. Following his highly acclaimed ‘Lay-by Lullaby’ album on 12k [which Pitchfork listed in the ‘Top 10 under-the-radar releases for 2014’], Janek has created and collated a collection of tracks that showcase both his more ambient works [077], and his highly charged sonorities [078]. A beautiful pair of LP’s that ideally should be experienced together for your home listening pleasure. The tracks were mastered by Stephan Mathieu and cut by Lupo at Calyx Mastering.
A1 White Lights of Divine Darkness
By chance I composed this for my brother-in-law the day he passed away. In recent years he had seen the white lights of heavens gate, but returned, and became fascinated by what he called God’s divine darkness in this lifetime.
A2 Unfolding Honey 6:06
A track from my exhibition soundtrack 'Future Beauty, 30 years of Japanese fashion' held at The Barbican Gallery, London. The exhibition featured some amazing folded garments by Issey Miyake, that inspired the unfurling fabric feeling of the composition.
A3 Luxury 3:00
An orchestral drone piece featuring an old French lady singing to her cats with an extra celestial chorus.
A4 Skyline Ascending 3:28
A Carpenters LP piano loop is layered again and again over a high sky recording, which was recorded using a helium balloon floating in the clouds over the city, with raindrops.
B1 Coda (for Sir John Dankworth) 5:00
In my early teens, I used to attend week long music camps, in tents, within the grounds of Sir John Dankworth's home with Cleo Laine. I used to know them, and composed this piece with one of their vinyl's on the day I heard he died. The installation premiered at the Sydney Cooper Gallery in Canterbury, broadcasting a 3 channel version to six 50's radios.
B2 The City of Dreams 8:28
Theme tune for the opening of “The Mill: City of Dreams” a site specific theatre production in a deserted mill in Bradford. Piano motif recorded live with my twin-arm turntable, additional overlays recorded with Mark Robinson on his old family piano.
B3 Beyond 6:30
The Carpenter’s return, sliding piano loops through recordings made in Grand Central Station at closing time when the vast hall was deserted, and the full majesty of the acoustic space could be appreciated. Stilettos pass by forming polyrhythm's, as the last train announces it’s departure...
credits
released 19 November 2014
Biography
Janek Schaefer has exhibited, lectured, and performed widely throughout Europe [Sonar, Tate Modern, ICA, Strasbourg Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art], USA/Canada, [Walker Art Center, Mutek, Princeton, XI], Japan, and Australia [Sydney Opera House 2003]. His foundsound concerts and installations explore the spatial, social and celestial qualities that sound can communicate, through the twisting of old and new technology. The context of each idea is central to its development and resolution, often exploring themes of appropriation, accident, & alteration.
Janek studied Architecture at the Royal College of Art where he worked with Brian Eno, creating “Recorded Delivery” in 1995, and discovered how important sound is in perceiving space, and place. In 2008 he won the British Composer of the Year Award in Sonic Art, and a Paul Hamlyn Award. The Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool exhibited a Retrospective of his career to date in 2009. He is represented by the Agency gallery, London, and is a Visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes Sonic Art Research Unit. He lives and works in Walton-on-Thames." [label info]
www.dekorder.com
"The other LP has seven pieces, shorter pieces of course and it's a pity that there are no clarifications printed on the cover. They are in the press text, so we know why there were created, so we know, for instance that 'Luxury' is 'an orchestral drone piece featuring an old French lady singing to her cats with an extra celestial chorus', or that 'Skyline Ascending' is 'a Carpenters LP piano loop is layered again and again over a high sky recording, which was recorded using a helium balloon floating in the clouds over the city, with raindrops'. Shorter these pieces may seem, they essentially are not unlike his longer pieces: multi-layered sound events that create a beautiful dense, atmospheric field of sound. Careful crackles, computer processed sustaining loops (from instruments, vinyl, field recordings, nothing is sacred in the hands of Schaefer), and carefully placed field recordings in their raw state. There is obviously no reason to pick one over the other, but I think I prefer the second LP to the first, great as that one is. The second LP had more variation and the compositions were better worked out, unlike the more endless stream of sounds approach of the first. The differences are small I know, and it's probably best if you get both at the same time. This is Janek Schaefer at what he does, and what he does best. No surprises here, pleasant or otherwise." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| SCHICKERT, GÜNTER & PETER UNSICKER |
Mauerharfe |
LP + CD |
Günter Schickert, krautrock maestro of echo-driven psychedelia, returns on Marmo one year and half after the release of the Labyrinth LP. Mauerharfe consists of old and special material, which has officially never seen the light before. It is due for release on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Berlin Wall fall, in 12” LP with CD, CD and digital formats. The physical versions contain exclusive pictures, linear notes, a prose poem by Peter Unsicker and some draft writings by the artists with reflections on the project.
Berlin, August 1990, first post-wall Summer. Two friends, the locals Günter Schickert and gallerist Peter Unsicker perform a spectacular yet symbolically intimate interpretation of those epochal changing days by building a sound installation with a damaged piece of the Berlin Wall. They persuade the patrol “Feliks Dzierzynski” of the Western German army to transport and relocate a the piece outside Peter`s Wall Street Gallery on the Zimmer Strasse, in the borough of Mitte, where only a few months back the intact structure actually passed through.
Once the wall was positioned, they bend down the bars of the iron structure that crop out the concrete, bind piano chords to them, stretch the strings down to the bottom base of the construct and connect guitar amplifiers to the set up. The Berlin Wall is ready to be played as a harp.
Günter Schickert`s Mauerharfe are executed between August and October 1990, resulting into three long field recordings.
Side A features a 19` long piece. The tape-induced background noise lays down a carpet of haunting atmospheres and introduces the experiment. Günter starts to test the chords by pulling out, with his fingers, dry and acid timbers. The warm up evolves by investigating wider sinusoidal waves and dilated metallic riffs. The track takes the form of a more conventional music narration, as the artist bangs the harp with a sort of rudimental violin bow creating marching percussive patterns. Layers of psychedelic ambience take over the scene before mixing up with roaring industrial spasms. Lunar sceneries seem to emerge, paving the way to sudden strings feedbacks, crackling distorted clicks and menacing reverbs.
Flipping side, a similarly long take opens up with ferocious urge, like being catapulted into a warfare between iron and cement, sounding like a real military operation. As the strings get hit and pulled, the metal seems to crash into thousands of pieces, dissolving into merciless distortions. Yet it is intriguing to notice how these dynamics of madness occasionally generate wavy and gentle sub-harmonics. This piece adds up intensity in comparison to the previous one, containing enhanced abrasive and distorted frequencies. The final part is marked by monstrous echoing rhythms, before drifting back to a chaotic rumble of fire, metal and concrete.
The third piece, Mauerharfe 3, is a 30 minutes long performance dated August the 13th 1990. As Schickert recalls, 29 years before exactly on that same date, the construction of the Berlin wall was accomplished. This take appears exclusively on CD, with copies included inside the vinyl package and as a separate CD format release. The recording is cleaner than the previous two, giving more width and definition to the sounds. As opposed to Mauerharfe 1 and 2, where the wall of sound is overwhelming, in this 3rd take human presences can be heard : fragments of women voices, a baby crying, the siren of a police car. The compositional approach is more sober, the tones of the harp warmer, closer to an actual one, its notes more gentle, discrete and meditative, sometimes resulting into deep, gong-like percussive timbers.
As Günter Schickert claims, the idea behind the project was the one of representing, in a personal musical way, the feelings and sensations that he – as well as many others experiencing the division and eventually the removal of the Wall - felt through the decades around the presence of this monstrous separator. The wall becomes an instrument, seen both as an object and executor of the experiment, while the human and artistic presence almost vanishes. The atonal and harsh sounds embody the ugliness of an inhuman separation, the terrible echoes of prisons and the lament of its prisoners. The pulling of the strings suggests the repression of a regime, while releasing these it indicates a dash of freedom.
You can get lost into the intensity of the Mauerharfe, find always new sensations and a countless amount of details. If you approach the listening with adventurous spirit and a good dose of curiosity, it can really throw you back into the past, a past of segregation, austerity and suppression, yet of an urging desire of liberation.
https://marmomusic.bandcamp.com/album/g-nter-schickert-peter-unsicker-mauerharfe
|
2019 |
€22.50 |
|
| SCHUMACHER, MICHAEL J. / STEPHEN VITIELLO |
Untitled / Exchange |
CD-R |
Looking for strange stoff ? Here you are ! Incredible sounds derived from field recordings & objects, very concrete but it all has rather a "small sounds"- feel to it... some sounds also seem to be based on electronic devices, its hard to say, quite weird at times, but also lovely...
"It's unclear wether they did each a track, or that both tracks are the result of a collaborative work. Both Schumacher and Vitiello are known for the love of minimal music, that is music with not many changes, usually made with computers. As such this collaborative work is a bit different. Although they still play around with longer, repeating textures, almost in a drone like manner, there are also sounds that swirl in and out of the mix. Sometimes it seems to be a synthesizer, sometimes a guitar, sometimes perhaps the processed version of acoustic objects. Not always this comes across as super structured music, but more like a free flow. Nothing leaps out of the mix, and things move all the time on the same level. This gives the whole release a nice and relaxed ambient feel, even when as such the music has not much to do with ambient music. Not really a big surprise, but throughout very nice." [Frans de Waard - Vital Weekly]
label: www.void.gr/absurd
|
2007 |
€9.00 |
|
| SCHWARZ, ROBERT |
The Scale of Things |
LP |
"Distantly rooted in musique concrète, ”The Scale Of Things” discloses an uncanny, multilayered sonic universe of its own.
The seven compositions are based on the exploration of nature recordings for unheard details and hidden layers, focused on patterns of stochastic order and unique chaos created without musical intention. The harmony we hear is the harmony of overwhelming and collective uncertainty, because this nature is chaos.
Audio transformations that remain hidden, accompanied by modular synthesizers purposely blur most links to the “real” world, in favor of a strange and poetic realm, following the erratic patterns of nature.
Mesmerizing and disturbing at the same time, an ambivalent dualism emerges of a strange world that is dissolving and not dissolving. A world that can only be described by it’s surface. Expulsed from nature, as our brain is expulsed from nature.
Die Natur ist das einzige immerwährende Menschenunmögliche.
Track list:
01 Drift Following The Seam
02 In The Flat Field
03 Frost
04 Self-Propelled-Sound-Particles
05 With The Witch
06 Mabalel
07 From Surface Downwards
7 Tracks (35′42″)
Vinyl (300 copies)
recorded, composed and produced by Robert Schwarz
field recordings from Bale, La Gomera, Mmabolela(*), Naxos, Vienna and Yangshuo
(*) ‘Sonic Mmabolela’ residency/workshop, organized by Francisco López and James Webb
produced in Vienna 2013-2014
r-schwarz.tumblr.com
soundcloud.com/schwarz
mastered by SELF"
www.gruenrekorder.de
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| SEIROM |
Mesmerized |
CD |
'Mesmerized' is a collection of ambient and synth works recorded in 2014. Once again the aim of the material was pure emotion, pure atmosphere. Limited Edition 500 copies, 6 panel digipack
www.ksenzarecords.ru
"When one submerges themselves in as much darkness as black metal/noise maven Mories tends to, it is only natural to need a break every now and then. The need to come up from the murky depths and bask in the sunlight now and again is only human, and despite the otherworldly sounds he produces, the man is only human. Seirom is this breath of fresh air, this ray of sunlight, for Gnaw Their Tongues mastermind Maurice De Jong.
Ofttimes overlooked in favor of his more shocking material like Aderlating or Gnaw Their Tongues, Mories’s ambient synth project Seirom is just as satisfying a listen as any of his other material, and uses many of the same methods of attack, albeit to very different effect. Despite the fact that the project doesn’t seem to garner quite as much critical attention, the intrinsic value of the music contained within is undeniable, and the back-uncatalog is surprisingly extensive with multiple releases dating back since 2011, many of which are available of the artist’s bandcamp page for a ‘pay-what-you-want’ download. The newest Seirom release, the seven song EP ‘Mesmerized‘, is a beautiful and fascinating work which is a perfect place for newcomers to Mories’s lighter world to start immersing themselves.
As I stated in my review of the latest Gnaw Their Tongue’s full length Abyss of Longing Throats, Maurice De Jong is a master of creating moods and forcing you to feel; he understands how to draw certain emotions out of people with sound. Usually, these talents are utilized to terrify and repulse, but on Seirom he creates an atmosphere of contentment and peace, at times intruded upon by a sad, quiet longing. An edge of longing and mournfulness for times past, but one that is at peace with that past. A feeling that conveys the all-encompassing emotions of wistfully looking at days past and remembering beautiful times and contentedly moving forward, despite the passage of those times. Even the album art and track names seem to convey this wistful reminiscence. In this way, Mesmerized is a fitting title for this EP, for it truly does leave one mesmerized upon losing yourself to the beautiful sound and the atmosphere it creates. The base structure of the songs is not terribly different from some of Mories other more ambient releases in bands like Aderlating; however, the tone of the music and the execution is completely different. Still present are synth-laden ambient soundscapes and grand orchestral compositions, at times interrupted by washed-out samples and more conventional instrumentation, but this base formula is turned on its head by the stark change in execution and framing.
Standout tracks include the opener and titular track “Mesmerized,” and the lovely “Desensitized,” which is a beautiful example of everything Seirom does perfectly. The track begins with rhythmic strains of floating synth between washed-out, subtle electronic crunch and a programmed drum beat, and slowly builds in presence and insistence until a crashing finale of emotion, which slowly gives way to ambient nothings before rebuilding itself and then rapidly dying off again. Closer “Something New” is a perfect cap to the album, building upon the themes touched on earlier of wistful remembrance as the beauty of youth gives way to something new – not necessarily something bad, but something that is different than the things you once loved. Hypnotic piano amid light-drenched synth lead you towards the final ambient finale, slowly fading into obscurity and nothing as you leave behind the old and find the way to something new.
Another of Seirom’s releases is entitled and the light swallowed everything, and if there were ever a perfect title to describe a band’s overall sound, I think that would be it. Seirom deals in light, but it is an all-consuming light. Something that washes over you and makes you a part of it. You don’t know whether or not it is a good thing or a bad thing to be swallowed so wholly by this light, but it is certainly a beautiful thing. And as you are being swallowed, that is really all you care about." [Kira / Cvltnation] |
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| SERRIES, DIRK / STEFANO GENTILE |
The Disintegration of Silence |
CD + BOOK |
DIRK SERRIES
THE DISINTEGRATION OF SILENCE
28-page 8" Book + CD, ltd. 250 handnumbered copies
Stefano Gentile and Dirk Serries met almost thirty years ago when Stefano’s Amplexus label released Vidna Obmana’s seminal classic "The Transcending Quest" on a limited 3” CD. Fast forward twenty years later, after the ending of Dirk Serries’ critically acclaimed Vidna Obmana project, Stefano and Dirk, under his own name, regathered with another gem "The Devastation Chant", a limited 8” lathe cut and a 10” vinyl on Gentile’s new label Silentes/13 that featured Stefano’s own impressive collage artwork. Now again, after four years, Dirk Serries, fully operational under his own name as a free (jazz) improviser, frequently returns to his trademark ambient music while continuing to push himself as an artist and sound sculptor. THE DISINTEGRATION OF SILENCE is Dirk’s new album that, partially inspired by the melancholic collage artwork of Stefano Gentile, plays with the sounds he has been recognized and appreciated worlwide for almost four decades, while - so typical for Dirk’s ongoing knack for adventure - expanding the comfort of his ambience with alienating analog and real-time treatments. An album that has been performed solely on electric guitar in conjunction with plenty of pedal effects and absolutely no computers. Enjoy this breathtaking work of melancholy and introspection, marking it another milestone in the collaboration between Stefano Gentile and Dirk Serries.
https://dirkserries.bandcamp.com/album/the-disintegration-of-silence
"The most extensive package is the 28-page booklet, 8 inches squared of collages by label boss Stefano Gentile and music by Dirk Serries. The two go back some thirty years, when Gentile's first label enterprise, Amplexus, released a 3"CD by Serrires, then working as Vidna Obmana. Four years ago, Gentile released some more music by Serries, now working under his own name, on vinyl and 'The Disintegration Of Silence' is their latest offering. In the booklet, we find collages by Gentile from fashion ads, words, and newspapers, all looking quite colourful. As I am playing Serries' music at the same time, I am thinking about his music concerning the collages. Maybe the music resembles black-and-white photography of nature shots, trees and such. Still, the relation between images and music becomes more apparent if you look at the images as worn-out pages from magazines from a long time ago. These days, Serries is more known as a player of free
improvised music, but he occasionally returns to the world of ambient music, and this is what he does here, playing five excellent moody tunes on his guitar. Many guitar effects are used, some of which are a bit hissy, such as in the second part. At times, it sounds like he has been made on a reel-to-reel tape, using various bits of tape stuck together, with the music recorded later. It creates a refined, somewhat unsettling atmosphere and sometimes just a beautiful atmosphere in the longest and final piece. It's always good to hear Serries doing this kind of music occasionally. I understand his heart might be somewhere else, but I assume he also wants to unwind after a hard day of improvising and do what he does very well. A true beauty." [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2023 |
€20.00 |
|
| SHE SPREAD SORROW |
Huntress |
LP |
"The new album by She Spread Sorrow (Alice Kundalini) is the story of a huntress and her morbid and psychotic relationship with her prey. The protagonist is Blue, a girl whose existence is marked by obsession with another woman of the same age and by nightmares that leave her without peace. Between love and psychosis, a tragic story is consumed, which vibrates in the stomach, like the music that accompanies it - dark and hypnotic death industrial, with moments of dark ambient, power electronics and noise.
Inspired by Kundalini’s nightmares and her fervent world of dreams, "Huntress" was born after 3 years of intense recordings. It pursues the need to whisper secret, forbidden tales and to stimulate the deepest shadows of the human being, exploring the boundaries between the delicate and the violent; between love and obsession; between fantasy and madness.
"Huntress" is the soundtrack of a tragic game between opposites in a reality of total solitude.
CD in 6-panel digipak
LP on 180g vinyl in 350gsm sleeve. Ltd x 500
Alice Kundalini: synth, pedals, vocals
Music and lyrics by: Alice Kundalini
Recorded, mixed and produced by: Luca Sigurtà and Alice Kundalini
Photos by: Stefano Majno
Mastered by: Martin Bowes (The Cage)
Layout by: Abby Helasdottir
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/huntress-csr282cd-lp
|
2021 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Huntress |
CD |
"The new album by She Spread Sorrow (Alice Kundalini) is the story of a huntress and her morbid and psychotic relationship with her prey. The protagonist is Blue, a girl whose existence is marked by obsession with another woman of the same age and by nightmares that leave her without peace. Between love and psychosis, a tragic story is consumed, which vibrates in the stomach, like the music that accompanies it - dark and hypnotic death industrial, with moments of dark ambient, power electronics and noise.
Inspired by Kundalini’s nightmares and her fervent world of dreams, "Huntress" was born after 3 years of intense recordings. It pursues the need to whisper secret, forbidden tales and to stimulate the deepest shadows of the human being, exploring the boundaries between the delicate and the violent; between love and obsession; between fantasy and madness.
"Huntress" is the soundtrack of a tragic game between opposites in a reality of total solitude.
CD in 6-panel digipak
LP on 180g vinyl in 350gsm sleeve. Ltd x 500
Alice Kundalini: synth, pedals, vocals
Music and lyrics by: Alice Kundalini
Recorded, mixed and produced by: Luca Sigurtà and Alice Kundalini
Photos by: Stefano Majno
Mastered by: Martin Bowes (The Cage)
Layout by: Abby Helasdottir
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/huntress-csr282cd-lp
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| SHEA, DAVID |
The Book of Scenes |
CD |
Anspruchsvolles Werk für Viola & Piano & Sampler in 29 “Szenen”, die thematisch orientiert sind und sehr stimmungsvolle neo-klassisch-geräuschhaft-improvisatorische, z.T. elektronisch prozessierte Muster ergeben. Uraufgeführt 2003 auf dem „Why Note“ Festival.
"Return of the prodigal son: our favourite New York composer is back home at Sub Rosa.
This new CD consists in scenes with specific atmospheric tracks; a kind of open book, an open music film... and in the same time a true composer work of high level classical sampler music!
The Book of Scenes is a collection of pieces for Viola and Piano. Each piece is a single scene and scored on a single page and places the players and the instrument in different situations and relationships to each other and sampled recordings of themselves as well as the electronic environment the duo perform in. The work can be played in any order and the sequence is chosen before hand by the the players.
The scenes explore solo and duo playing, and musical roles inside of shifting contexts many related to visual references, films and iconic memories. This record presents Book I the first 29 pieces performed live with some scenes constructed electronically from samples and memories of other scenes. Many of the sections are visual in nature, for example where the alto player bows his instrument while the pianist places his hands on the viola neck and chooses the notes to be played followed by the alto player placing his hands inside the piano to mute the pianist notes as well as a scene where the players are blindfolded.
These scenes have been replaced by electronic manipulations of the live performance. The result is a flow of relationships and scored or scripted scenes living between the orchestration of the acoustic instruments and the electronic characters they engage with.” [press release]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| SHEFFIELD, COLIN ANDREW |
First thus |
CD |
Leider immer noch ein totaler Geheimtip, die sphärischen Welten des COLIN ANDREW SHEFFIELD ! Nach einigen schönen CDRs und Vinylen hier die erste volle CD, die eine Art Zusammenstellung von neu bearbeitetem älteren Material darstellt....Vier Stücke, sehr „neblig“ & schwammig“ & analog –elektronisch, dann aber seltsame Harmonien und Sounds darin, eine einzige wabernde Transzension und Auflösung in den Klangäther.....
"First thus" is a phrase used by book sellers, publishers, collectors, etc. to describe a book which may be considered a first edition and/or first printing, but which has been available previously in a slightly different form. A true first edition is the original, first printing of a given book, while a first thus is the first printing of a new version of that book. This classification can come about for any number of reasons, though often times it has to do with a new translation of a particular work, the involvement of a new (different) publisher, or with a new forward or introduction....
First Thus is Sheffield's debut solo album. The recordings on this disc were entirely composed using other commercially available recordings. The goal was to distill the essential qualities of these works and then utilize that essence for new recordings. Only very brief sections of the original works were selected. These raw components were then contracted, expanded, layered, and/or otherwise processed until something new was forged. The result is gorgeous ambient music that gradually shifts and unfolds, offering subtle nuance and quiet restraint. In a sense, it is a collection of other people's work, but this music appears here for the first time in a new setting or, if you will, a new translation.
Packaged inside two elegant printed sleeves of 100% recycled paper, this compact disc has been issued in an edition of 330 copies."
www.elevatorbath.com
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
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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 |
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| SHEFFIELD, COLIN ANDREW / JAMES ECK RIPPIE |
Essential Anomalies |
do-LP |
Colin Andrew Sheffield (sampler) and James Eck Rippie (turntables) began playing music together in Dallas, Texas in 2000 and released their debut LP, "Variations," a year later. They separated soon afterwards, relocating to cities 2,600 miles apart; and though they continued with solo work, they remained inactive as a duo until recently. During this hiatus, Sheffield stayed busy dealing antiquarian books and running his Elevator Bath label; Rippie became an accomplished sound mixer for major motion pictures and television shows. And yet the collaboration between these two friends of a quarter century has always held a special significance (as Francois Couture of AllMusic stated: "The level of understanding between [these two artists] ... commands respect"). So, in 2015, when the two found themselves both living in Austin, a reactivation of their improvising duo was a happy inevitability.
"Essential Anatomies" is the fruit of the pair's renewed efforts. Comprising four pieces originally issued on limited edition cassettes and now widely available for the first time, the double LP is an experiment in audio collage and instant narrative composition. The main tools are sounds from the past: commercially available recordings manipulated and sculpted into a medium with inherent potential. Unlike their plunderphonic ancestors and contemporaries, however, Sheffield and Rippie place a heavy emphasis on atmosphere and a kind of musicality. Their work is surprising and challenging, but it is infused with their keen sense of structure and listenability.
Elements of sound art, drone, glitch, and noise emerge from their altered samples. These sounds have been stripped of any extraneous cumbrances, leaving just the crucial components. The parts that remain, the essential anatomies, form the basis for an ongoing abstract dialogue between two artists with a remarkably developed affinity. The results capture dual streams of consciousness, coursing with a description of nonrepresentational beauty.
"[B]est described as abstract plunderphonics. Sheffield and Rippie use samplers and turntables to sculpt the past into new forms that defy instant categorization; suffice it to say that the old has never sounded so new."
- Richard Allen, A Closer Listen
"Essential Anatomies" has been released by Elevator Bath as a limited edition double LP, copies of which are also available here: www.elevatorbath.com
Mastered for vinyl by James Plotkin
Cover art by Eugenia Loli
credits
released July 7, 2017
Colin Andrew Sheffield (b. 1976, El Paso TX) is the founder of the Elevator Bath recording label. He has released a number of solo recordings on labels such as Invisible Birds, Mystery Sea, Quiet World, and 23five.
James Eck Rippie (b. 1977) is a visual/sound artist originally from outside Nashville TN. His recorded work has been as a turntablist, but he has also worked extensively with other instruments and mediums. He has released his work with the Crónica Electronica and Sirr labels, among others, and has collaborated with sound artists Simon Whetham, Paulo Raposo, and eRikm.
Sheffield and Rippie will tour the US this summer.
elevatorbath.bandcamp.com/album/essential-
anatomies-3
"Compiling recent small-run cassette works into a luxurious double record set, Essential Anatomies represents a reunion for the duo of Colin Andrew Sheffield and James Eck Rippie. Collaborators since 2000 and friends for even longer, the four lengthy recordings here capture their Texas reunion in 2015, and with its undeniable sense of complexity and cohesion, makes it clear that they have not missed a step from their time apart.
On paper, what Sheffield and Rippie do is well-trod ground: processing and recontexualization of samples and other forms of pre-recorded music. But rather than being another pair of John Oswald wannabes, they do so with distinct expertise and precision. To use a slightly abstract metaphor, they are much closer to Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad production, taking bits here and there and using them as elements in a much different whole, than they are Puff Daddy’s wholesale plagiarism and lack of innovation.
The first of the four lengthy pieces (each around 22 to 23 minutes long) is an instant launch into the gloom that is Essential Anatomies. Chilling, piano like scrapes cut through a blackened, churning abyss of sound. Some shrill, sharp bits pierce through the darkness here and there, but the piece largely stays pleasant, even though it is rather bleak and covered in a nicely noisy sheen of fuzz. Tortured, almost melodic tones occasionally shine through a wall of ghostly drifts and heavy rumbles, at times heading toward a bit of harsh crunch, but stays in check. The melodies appear here and there again, acting as a slightly less oppressive counterpoint to the sound of decay that surrounds it. Finally, the duo end the piece on a lighter note, like sun shining through menacing gray skies.
What is abundantly clear right from this start is that Sheffield and Rippie are not only extremely proficient at creating moods and space with their samplers and turntables (respectively), but also a creating dynamic compositions that are quite expansive and varied, changing often but returning to reoccurring motifs that results in a more composed, rather than improvised sound. The second piece allows a bit more of their source material to shine through, mostly in the form of piano notes and what sounds like frozen reverberations of chimes far in the distance. There is the same sense of space, but erratic loops and mangled notes result in a composition that builds in tension, eventually transitioning into haunting church organ like walls that dominate the latter half of the piece.
Comparably, the second record comes across a bit less melodic and a bit more textural in the composition and structure. Part three begins with an almost percussive, crunching machinery like opening that is eventually melded with a batch of wet, almost organic like noises and radio static. Bits of recognizable music still sneak through here and there, but it is less the focus. Instead, metallic sweeps and unnatural field recording like sounds fill out the mix, though it ends on a slightly more ambient note. The final composition first is free and spacious, with some crackling tactile like elements at first, but soon it takes on a decaying sound. More organ and mangled string fanfares give a more conventional signpost here and there, but by the end the duo has already transitioned the sound to one of tension and fright, slowly evolving into an uncomfortable silence to end the record.
While I do not believe I could ever manage to place the source of the sounds Colin Andrew Sheffield and James Eck Rippie utilized in making Essential Anatomies, never does it feel like the two overly processed or from their source. Meaning that, there is some of the original character left from the source material, however subtle it may be. Instead these audio building blocks are obscured but tastefully utilized to construct these atmosphere heavy works. Rippie’s day job is a sound mixer for films and television shows, which surely aided the two in creating the cinematic mood that these two records conjure up. It is that combination of sonic nuance and compositional strength and diversity that make Essential Anatomies so good." [Creaig Dunton/Brainwashed] |
2017 |
€25.00 |
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Exploded View |
mCD (Minimax) |
"Ah, a minimax CD! I haven't seen one of those in quite some time. And if you are wondering what it is, a minimax CD is a CD with a small portion of music, usually, twenty-three minutes (but I know of instances were they are thirty) and the rest of the disc is transparent, which give a great effect for design. Elevator Bath goes to town with a fine digipack around it. It begs, of course, the question: why not a proper full-length release? We aren't told but for some reason, Colin Andrew Sheffield and James Eck Rippie found their piece of enough interest to stand by itself. These two musicians have been going for some time and in recent years have been working together quite a bit, culminating in releases together. They use turntables, samples and processing. Earlier this week,
in a private conversation with a friend of mine I was complaining about turntablism, which is
something that I don't care too much about. Mainly because of its rotating aspect, making a lot of sounds the same; even if you decide to play sandpaper. In the case of Sheffield and Rippie, that aspect is luckily not there. I would believe they pick up the sounds from the turntable and give it the good twice over in the sampler and whatever else they use for processing (be it analogue or digital) and the results are used in a nineteen-minute montage/collage of modern musique concrete. It has that great vibrant feeling of things buzzing, sparkling and flying about, sometimes
staying in a place for a short time, sometimes a bit longer, but new elements are carried in, bashed on their heads and before you know melted down in the microwave into a nasty drone. There is quite a bit of dynamics in there, obviously, I would say as these men know their trade quite well, and that begs the question again: why not a bit more? Please?" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
https://sheffieldrippie.bandcamp.com/album/exploded-view
|
2019 |
€7.50 |
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| SHIFTS |
Branches |
mCD-R |
A quiet powerful one-tracker (almost 20 min.), pure mechanized overtones and shifting poly-waves. Great for microsound-listening.
"Since 1995 Shifts is one of the various projects of Frans de Waard, besides Freiband, and membership of Beequeen, Kapotte Muziek, Goem, Wander and his recent new project with Roel Meelkop, Zebra. All of the work is based on guitar sounds. In the first phase various guitars were played with objects and effects, then, the next phase were computer treatments of the previous phase (the 'Vertonen' series, 22 pieces in total). After that a return to simplicity again; 'Branches' is one of three pieces ('trees' and 'leaves' to be released on LP by entr'acte) based on four stringed, detuned acoustic guitar and motor objects. Loud and drone this could have been a next step, but might very well the final works on Shifts. Previously material has been released on Korm Plastics, Fourth Dimension, Kraak, Elsie & Jack, Meme and other labels." [label info]
"Derrida's idea that the "semantic horizon which habitually governs the notion of communication is exceeded or punctured by the intervention of writing." which "..does not give rise to a hermeneutic deciphering".. is key to understanding the difficulty of locating the 'drone' within the idea of music which is "western" - i.e. teleological, which is written contra the arguments given in S.E.C. And though we have passed through such a teleological epoch we are only now in the light of post modernism reconsidering the alternatives, i.e. 'turtles all the way down'.. the eternal return of the same. and alternative mythologies - Buddhist, Jain, Hindu .. even Wagnerian prior to Parsifal... And so this 'music' is open to the critique of those who wish to enforce a teleology upon us. (And the usual ploy of leveling ethnocentric critiques on musics which are not part of this great tradition of the west! - and its teleological meta-narrative - i.e. Christian / Jewish / Islamic / Marxist).
This piece avoids the latter critique, its very Conrad-esq beginning locates it within modern western culture despite its use of the de-tuned string instrument. Its development, and that's a very dangerous word to use here, is something subtle - it does not so much hide the development but points towards a cyclic anti hermeneutic work - and this is perhaps my only 'valid' point of criticism of this otherwise excellent work, and maybe not that valid - but given a piece of music (normally) has to be temporally located this provides an obvious challenge to the drone work - (unless repeat play is used) - maybe via an mp3 disk this temporality could be extended but never breached, but this is not a significant philosophical challenge to the drone work as its not surprising that our technology supports the western idea of a teleological universe even though there is a likely alternative - eight track tape as the anti-Christ!" (jliat)
www.taalem.com |
2006 |
€5.00 |
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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 |
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| 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 |
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| |
Tropical Amnesia Two & Three |
do-CD |
"In November of 2007 I was part of a group of eleven sound artists who journeyed to Brazil to participate in the Mamori Sound Project, an annual residency/workshop under the direction of Francisco López that convenes in an isolated area of lowland lakes and rainforest, perhaps around 4 hours' journey outside of Manaus, right in the heart of Amazonia.
I had some very limited experience with tropical rainforests from travels in South East Asia, but nothing like the immersion that was central to what Francisco had organized: direct access to a staggeringly diverse bioacoustic environment unmatched anywhere else on Earth.
Over the course of the two weeks we spent at Mamori lake exploring and recording, there was never a pause in the stream of curious animal sounds.
Not even during sleep, as the nighttime would roar to life and pass into dreams. I had come prepared with the equipment that I could afford to bring: a pair of condenser microphones, several homemade contact microphones, and a single hydrophone. With these I was able to capture all of the sounds used to make the three Tropical Amnesia parts.
While assembling the field recordings, I was immediately drawn toward the idea of imagining the rainforest, and the bodies of water contained within, as an unfathomable void of sorts, and something beyond thescope of enduring memory. Reflecting on my own memories from Mamori Lake and the surrounding area, I can of course picture the individual ant or frog, but it is the sheer multitudes and abundance of life that persists in my mind as a consuming, evolving abstract." - Matt Shoemaker - March, 2010
Nine years later after the release of Tropical Amnesia one, Ferns Recordings is proud to be able to discover the rest of this trip with a certain sadness. Ferns Recordings wanted to pay a tribute to Matt Shoemaker by not letting these magnificent recordings remain in oblivion.
All sound recorded November 2007 in/at/around Mamori Lake, Amazonas, Brazil.
Material culled and assembled December 2007/January 2008 in Seattle.
https://mattshoemaker.bandcamp.com/album/tropical-amnesia-two-three
"In 2017, Matt Shoemaker passed away and yet somehow there is still new music from him to
be released, which is a good thing. Ferns already released the first instalment of Tropical Amnesia (not reviewed in these pages), and maybe they had the second and third part from Shoemaker, but not yet the resources to release it earlier. These two discs contain sounds recorded in the Amazon area in Brazil in November 2007 and in December of that year and
January 2008 this has been used to create the two-hour works that span these discs. I couldn't
tell if these works were made out of single events, or perhaps also with the help of loops; I assume there has been sort of layering of sound events in both these pieces. It works in two different ways here. 'Tropical Amnesia Two' is a rather straight forward work, once the ball gets rolling; from there on it stays in a fairly loud and oppressing volume but throughout it changes and moves through what I think is probably the whole range of animal life; insects, frogs, birds. In 'Tropical
Amnesia Three' there is a less straight forward approach and while the piece moves through
the same animal sounds, there is a different build-up, within one point birds leaping out of the choir of cicadas and ending with something that is close by the microphone making a popping
sound, as if Shoemaker was close to the pond in a rowing boat. Towards the end of it all, there
is a sign of human life and perhaps also the best example of this being construction of organized sound, rather than straightforward documentation of an event. This, I thought, was very delicate work, even in all it's considerable presence, volume-wise that is. It reminded me of the movie 'Monos' about the life of guerrilla’s in the Colombian rain forest and which I thought was one of the best movies I saw this year." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| SHRINE |
Nausicaä |
CD |
New album by Shrine and his signature sound design this time based on the "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind", a Japanese manga from the 80's by Hayao Miyazaki and the subsequent anime of the same name. "Nausicaä" is a story of Earth's future a thousand years after the collapse of industrial civilization, when most of the planet is covered by a toxic jungle filled with deadly spores that choke all human life. An ode to the relationship between humanity and nature, and a call of awareness to the environmental crisis we all face.
Edition fo 300 copies in 4 panel Digipack. Matt Lamination. 8 Tracks. Running Time 52:23
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/nausica
|
2022 |
€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) |
For Einar Jonsson (1874-1954) |
BOOK & CD-R |
"Perhaps by now a somewhat forgotten fact, but Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson may be best known as a member of Stillupsteypa (and for their collaborations with BJ Nilsen), but he's also a visual artist and once the 'owner' of a record label, called Some. He tells me this package is a sort of revival of that label. The book at hand is a catalogue of artwork from the years 1997 to 2014. Lots of drawings, photos of performances, but also photos of objects, pictures of the artist as a child, letters, and some words, but no expert insight essay. Which I guess is a good thing. It leaves some of the mystery in tact and has a fine naive impact on the viewer, perhaps establishing him as an outsider. The book is published in an edition of 100 copies, half of which are sold and the other half comes with a fourteen-minute piece of music, called 'For Einar Jonsson (1874-1954)'. He was Iceland's first sculptor, who drew inspiration from the Icelandic folklore heritage, but also using mythological and religious motifs (I am quoting a website here). Later on he rejected all classical art tradition and enamoured theosophy. The fourteen-minute piece is a way too short for my taste - and for the book. I wanted to sit down, play the music and all along look at the images, but I had to put the piece on repeat. Sigmarsson uses what seems to me the sound of a church organ, and turns it into this heavily processed piece of drone music. A bit stretched out, many layers and all along the source material can be recognized, which gives the piece, perhaps, also a religious motif. It's the kind of drone music we know Sigmarsson do very well, and here he doesn't disappoint us either. Except of course that it could have been twice as along - at least. Putting it on repeat is not the same thing, but will do as well. Hopefully more to come!" [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
So Long |
CD |
"Soundartist die Zweite. Nach Mathieus genialer Traumvertonung nun mit So long das zweite Album des Genres in den Top 20. Anders als bei Mathieu gehts hier nicht surreal, träumerisch zu Werke, hier gibts brummelige, elektroakustische Drones bis zum Anschlag. Wer sich bei diesen langen, ständig sich ändernden, schlichten Drones an The Hafler Trio erinnert fühlt, der liegt sicher richtig. In seiner Zeit in Island hatten Haflers Andrew McKenzie und Berg Sigmarssons Band Stilluppsteypa engen Kontakt. Berg Simarsson hat an diesem Meisterwerk jahrelang herumgeschraubt und so kommt am Ende das wahrscheinlich beste Album des Genres seit Hafler Trios grandiosem „No Man Put Asunder: 7 Fruitful And Seamless Unions“ von 2003 heraus." [Sibylle Bölling]
"A journey through time, perhaps, for a daydreamer floating in a small boat amidst the radiant hues of a midnight sun. That daydreamer in this instance is the Icelandic artist Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson, best known for his electro-surrealism in Stilluppsteypa. He has long been an artist of extremes and absurdities -- mania fueled performances, wildly scribbled drawings, and Haflerian audio shock-therapy, on one side; and on the other, a profound meditation on austere shape, form, and mood cast through similar media. Sigmarsson will intermingle these sentiments in slippery juxtaposition and assemblage, with beguiling, haunting, and / or charming results. So Long aligns itself firmly within that latter aesthetic of crypto-minimalism which began to germinate some 20 years ago. At that time, Stilluppsteypa was a trio who had recently eschewed their art-punk trappings, drunkenly scheming to corner the market at Documenta with deconstructivist drone and 21th century circuitry. Sigmarsson would find himself in his own studio, crafting sympathetic works to Stilluppsteypa; but these were directed inward as wounded, naked, and vulnerable concoctions reflective of Sigmarsson getting lost in his own little world. So Long quietly simmered in his head over the years; and with the completion of this album, we now have a sublime gesture of polar impressionism flecked with hallucinatory ambience, Vaseline-smeared crackle, and hauntological displacement. This album had originally been planned for release through the impeccably curated Intransitive Recordings, but that publishing house shuddered its doors before this could see the light of day. Sigmarsson self-released a condensed version of the album on the artbook / cassette If You Have Any Questions, Let Me Ask. The Helen Scarsdale Agency is delighted, honored, and humbled to publish this dronescaping threnody in its full radiance and blur." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"What a strange and wonderful trip it has been for Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson! Despite a journey that currently extends into its third decade, Sigmarsson's course as an artist has never lost its youthful charm, emotional resonance, and Scandinavian grandeur. Since 1994, he has been the crux for the Iceland outfit Stilluppsteypa. Once, a damaged art-punk trio of drunken Dada noise, Stilluppsteypa effortlessly reinvented itself into one of the more adventurous of glitched, fizzed, and digitally abraded outfits right before the paranoiac lapse of Y2K, only the shed those clothes for taciturn sound design of radiophonic drone and polar spelunking which earned them more than their fair share of exemplary dronological recordings often joined by the esteemed BJ Nilsen. Dotted throughout Stilluppsteypa's catalogue of recordings, you will find a few recordings from Sigmarsson on his own, occasionally reflecting a similar aesthetic course to Stilluppsteypa; but often veering even further towards austere minimalism and colder than cold electronics. The ice that is in Sigmarsson's veins belies some of the summery poetry that he has affixed to his solo work. His early masterpiece Ship ripples with sepulchral organ tones and rumbling frequencies that were in many ways the personal soundtrack for Sigmarsson's excursions of floating in the sea around Rejkyavik, while staring at the sun daydreaming about clouds, girls, booze, etc. What could be better? So Long is an album that began around the same time as Ship, in the form of extracts of luminously dark organ drones whose pools of sound never made their way on to any other recording. Slowly over the years, Sigmarsson began shaping those lumps of aural clay into a somber wanderings of soft noise, gorgeous hypno-mesmerism, radiant black drone, and elegantly subtle melodies buried under six feet of snow. Until, the next Thomas Koner record, we can delight in the heavy drones from Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson!" [Aquarius Records]
"Following a bunch of releases in the late summer of 2014, mostly on cassette, Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson (one half of Stilluppsteypa) returns with a full length release for The Helen Scarsdale Agency, following the fact that the original label to release this, Intransitive Recordings, stopped shop a while ago. These three pieces were made over a long period of time, 1998-2013, of course not being worked on a daily basis, but evolving slowly. Sigmarsson himself published a shorter version of this on cassette - see Vital Weekly 935 - about which I wrote: "these two pieces (fifty minutes in total) are more collage like yet also maintain the trademark drone character of the music of Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson. Various pieces are cut together in one long piece (Sigmarsson also mailed me the WAV files for these pieces to be included in the podcast). Beautiful dark drone music, using computer techniques no doubt and on the other side we find field recordings of natural sounds, church organs and who knows what else. It's the music I very much like, and perhaps also can't be critical about. Yes, I heard this before, as good as this etc., but I just like this a lot. Highly inspired ambient drone music with a strong bite. Not lulling the listener to a deep sleep but transporting him to different worlds. Excellent!" As a bonus we get here another fourteen minutes of processed organ sounds and likewise processed field recordings adding more mood to the previous fifty plus minutes. It makes it all quite a fine release of one of the best drone meisters." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| SIGUR ROS |
Von |
CD |
"Wieder lieferbar, die erste SIGUR ROS von 1997, damals noch weitaus experimenteller und droniger als heutzutage...in einer hyper-sphärischen, frei fliessenden Art und Weise verbinden sich auf vielen Stücken dunkles Grummeln, field recordings, Instrumentalklänge und z.T. mehrstimmige Elfen-Gesänge zu geräuschhaften Dronescapes...
daneben gibt es Stücke die schon typische Song-Strukturen und klassische SIGUR ROS Harmonien andeuten ... aber vieles klingt noch reichlich anders, rauher, z.T. auch heftiger rockend, mit extremen Studioeffekten & Cut-Ups versehen, wunderschön das folkige Titelstück VON." [Drone Rec.]
"I remember the feeling that enveloped me the first time that I heard Sigur Ros - a copy of Agaetis Byrjun played over the loudspeakers at Vintage Vinyl in Fords, New Jersey (bless 'em) - my knees quivered, my jaw dropped, and I had one of those all too rare musical epiphanies. Subsequently, I worried that once acquainted with their lovely and idiosyncratic music, it would never elicit quite the same genuine and fresh response again. The reissue of the group's elusive debut, Von, on One Little Indian, puts those misgivings to rest. It may be Sigur Ros's debut, but it is as ambitious as albums come.
Yes, Von is a sprawling work - 72 minutes of sprawl - reveling in sonic experiment, diverse in texture, and somewhat ambling in formal design: so what? When layers of choir-boy vocals are added to the group's singing ("Hun Joro"), when feeble, naturalistic sounds are used in questing improvisations ("Sigur Ros"), or when acoustic instruments coalesce with a swath of electronics ("Dogun"), you'll find your jaw on the floor, too, stunned as ever." [Christian Carey / Junkmedia]
www.xl-recordings.com
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| SILK SAW |
Imaginary Landscapes |
CD |
"After 9 years of silence, here’s the 11th album from the unclassifiable Brussels-based duo. With their usual tamping drums (just mention the two parts of “The Decision to Exist” or “Same Area”, led by a ferocious 808), a regular bass guitar hammering, some bare minimum poor voices, threatened violins, skinbound flute and oboe here and there, a distorted furious piano everywhere and finally some tiny cautious optimism (the extra-human guitar in “Enough Slaps”), the whole is carefully assembled in order to obtain an accurate picture of life on Earth. “Pain” and “Pleasure” are different aspects of the same mental construction." [label info]
www.kotaerecords.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Parallel Landscapes |
LP |
"Limited edition of 300 copies with unique artwork made by Russian street artist (Grisha), which were carefully adapted to sleeve design by Mikhail Myasoedov. The vinyl LP contains 4 selected tracks from the full 8-track album.
After 9 years of silence, here’s the 11th album from the unclassifiable Brussels-based duo. With their usual tamping drums (just mention the two parts of “The Decision to Exist” or “Same Area”, led by a ferocious 808), a regular bass guitar hammering, some bare minimum poor voices, threatened violins, skinbound flute and oboe here and there, a distorted furious piano everywhere and finally some tiny cautious optimism (the extra-human guitar in “Enough Slaps”), the whole is carefully assembled in order to obtain an accurate picture of life on Earth. “Pain” and “Pleasure” are different aspects of the same mental construction." [label info]
www.kotaerecords.com
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| SIRIA |
Boa-Lingua |
MC |
Boa-Língua is the second album by Síria. It departs from her former work, Cuspo, using it as a foundation for structure and duration, while following very different pulses. Boa-Língua was made from recordings of practice sessions that were not originally intended to be used or worked as songs. Boa-Língua means “good tongue”, used in opposition to “má-língua”, literally “bad tongue”, a Portuguese expression for “tittle-tattle”.
“Canção do Gato” is a version of a song recorded by Tiago Pereira from A Música Portuguesa a Gostar Dela Própria. “Nos Montes” was remixed by @c (Pedro Tudela and Miguel Carvalhais). “Senhora dos Remédios” is a version of a song as sang by Catarina Chitas and features a sample by Maile Colbert. “Belgian Shepherd” is a remix of the track by Rui P. Andrade from his album All Lovers Go To Heaven, it combines original sounds with recordings and voice, and it was previously released in Island Fever by Colectivo Casa Amarela. “Ay Işığında” is a version of the song as sang by Nərminə Məmmədova . “For Ghédalia” and “Boa-Língua” feature recordings by Los Niños Muertos (André Tasso and Bruno Humberto).
Síria is Diana Combo, who in this project joins her voice to the usual practice of combining vinyl records, field recordings, and other sound sources, in a gesture of appropriationism that she has been presenting as EOSIN.
----
Like my previous album, Boa-Língua was born and developed as a result of a subconscious will and energy, rather than a clear idea that was intended to be seen and heard.
During a season in the studio, the voice was given way to freely exist in a context of exercises of improvisation. These sessions were recorded and later heard as a tool to analyse vocal practice. Spontaneously and intuitively, these recordings began to be edited, combined and mixed, until a sequence of 9 proto-songs emerged.
Each theme waited for the sounds that intertwined with the voice. As it had happened in Cuspo. This time, however, the voice was mostly used in its original version of vocal exercises, because the work was anchored in this spontaneity and unintentionality. And it developed by itself, with me being an attentive vehicle, an open channel for the work to flourish. The sounds beyond the voice come from various sources: percussions were recorded by me in the studio, other sounds were collected from archives.
The space for introspection and self-examination that the studio provided came at a time when I felt it was necessary to find an answer to the perceived tendency for obloquy, reproach, gossip, voluntary misunderstanding, etc. I asked myself: What happens when we find ourselves in the midst of people who behave in this way, sneaky or directly? Do we become, sooner or later, the same? Do we silent ourselves as a response? Or do we resist this tendency through the opposite attitude? That's where the album’s title came from.
The repertoire of Boa-Língua consists of versions of traditional songs and chants, a version of one Azerbaijani song, two originals (one in Turkish, one in Portuguese) and two original songs in which the voice does not take the form of words.
Voice and percussions: Diana Combo
Recording, editing and first mix: Diana Combo
Post-production: Tiago Martins at Fisgastudio
Mastering: Miguel Carvalhais
Artwork: Miguel Carvalhais with photos by Diana Combo
https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/boa-l-ngua
"So wie einem die besten kreativen Gedanken oft beim Gehen oder in der Badewanne kommen, entstehen die Releases von Sängerin Diana Combo alias Síria meist als Nebenprodukte kleinerer Arbeiten, die ganz unerwartet ein Eigenleben erhalten. So wie sich ihr erstes Album aus einer Auftragsarbeit heraus verselbstständigt hatte, ist “Boa-Língua” das Resultat einer der Stimmübungen, die Combo regelmäßig aufnimmt, um die Resultate zu analysieren. Dabei greift sie oft auf bekannte Songs in ihrer portugiesischen Muttersprache zurück. Bei den letzten Sessions dieser Art sammelten sich eine Reihe von Songs an, die gerade wegen ihres provisorischen Charmes schon fast nach einem Coveralbum klangen. Dieses musste dann nur noch um die Gesangsspuren herum produziert werden und liegt nun vor.
Dass Combo theoretisch gefällige Singer Songwriter-Alben machen könnte, das vielleicht irgendwann auch mal zum Spaß machen wird, aber bis auf weiteres nicht will, weil sie das herausfordernde, immer noch sperrige in schönen Songs mag, merkt man auch hier wieder, und so hat gerade das leicht zusammengeschustert wirkende Konnex zwischen Gesang und Soundkulisse seinen besonderen Reiz. Im “Canção do Gato”, dem Katzenlied (für Hinweise zu den Originalen den unten eingebetteten Bandcamp-Link befragen), tritt ihre Stimme über mehrere Tonspuren in Dialog mit sich selbst, was auch a capella funktioniert hätte, doch die vorwärts und rückwärts eingespielten kratzenden und schabenden Loops sorgen für die betongraue Hintergrundfärbung, die den hellen Gesang umso deutlicher exponiert.
Die schwindelerregende Orchestralsounds von “Nos Montes” mit ihren aufgeklebten Trommelwirbeln wiederum lassen das ungekünstelte des Gesangs umso mehr durchscheinen, der sich zur düsteren Pauke des hörspielartigen “Danse Macabre” geradezu trunken gibt. Beim metallenen Klappern und Hämmern von “Belgian Shepherd” und “Yarin”, aber auch beim unbestimmten Rauschen und Knistern von “Senhora dos Remédios” kommt eine dezente Spannung zum Vorschein, der den bisweilen chorartigen Gesang wie aus einer verwunschenen Anderswelt herüberwehen lässt, so wie sich beides immer gegenseitig charakterisiert.
Combo sagt, dass sie das Studio gerne als Fluchtort vor dem allgegenwärtigen Sprachgewirr der sozialen Wirklichkeit aufsucht, als Ort, der keine Antworten verlangt. In ihren dort entwickelten Songs findet sich mehr von der Flucht als vom Ziel, was “Boa-Língua” spannend macht. Ich wäre aber auch gespannt zu wissen, wie ein geplantes Síria-Album klingen würde."
[African Paper] |
2020 |
€9.00 |
|
| SISTER LOOLOMIE |
Signals |
CD-R |
"Sister Loolomie is one of the offspring of [S]ergey (or just [S]), a musician from Moscow region, known for his projects Exit In Grey, Five Elements Music and some others, as well as for his labels Still*Sleep and Semperflorens. The musical style of [S] is notable for its delicate and gentle approach to sound, the keywords for its definition are: ambient / drone / experimental / electroacoustic. In Sister Loolomie [S] utilizes deliberate sonic "digitalizing" and at the same time manages to keep the warmth and cosiness of sound in his own way, resembling tape drone music.
[S]ergey uses guitar, electronics, radio and computer processing in creating his soundscapes, both abstract and sensuous at the same time. The compositions move calmly and slowly, sound loops draw in attention like spirals and dissolve it in their textures. Shivery signal waves and soft generated rasp form an aerial atmosphere, in which crackle the discharges of digital interference, and bright yet slightly melancholic melodies bring serenity and tender contemplative sadness." [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
| SIYANIE |
Mystery of Life |
CD |
The third full-length album by the project of Sergey Ilchuk (ex-Vresnit, ex-Vetvei) and Dmitriy Shilov (Neznamo, Peal Grim, Magickal Things) has gathered materials recorded at three live gigs in 2012-2013 and completed in the studio in 2012-2015. This album is for lovers of live textured ambient. Almost 80 minutes of powerful yet tender sound submerging the listener into bright dreaming and at the same time awakening crystal clarity within. An experience of the mystery of life expressed in artistic form. The call, the revelation, the transformation, living through your own self. These canvases are woven from a manifold of acoustic and electronic threads: droning and vibrating guitars, flutes, voices, a sitar, electronic sequences, field recordings and found sounds - all this is interlaced into multidimensional structures, the depths of which can be endlessly explored with every new listening. The CD is packed in a matte 6-panel digisleeve with artwork by Sergey Ilchuk. Sound mastering performed by Sergey Bulychov (Kshatriy). The edition is limited to 300 copies. Digital copy can be purchased at bandcamp... Special collector edition - 24 copies in envelopes with 17 cards of A5 size printed on silver cardboard featuring reproductions of Sergey Ilchuk's artwork made in 2012-2016 - available for ordering directly from the author by e-mail: siyanie.art@gmail.com.
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| SKY BURIAL |
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 |
|
| SLEAFORD MODS |
UK GRIM |
CD |
Krieg, steigende Energiekosten, Inflation. Eine politische Klasse und ein gespaltenes Land. Das Unbehagen nach dem Brexit, Akte nationaler Selbstbeschädigung und verhängnisvolle Realitätsfluchten. Verzweiflung, Wut und Entfremdung. War es jemals schlimmer da draußen? Willkommen bei "UK Grim". Das zwölfte Album der Sleaford Mods baut auf den einzigartigen, aufrührerischen Stärken früherer Alben auf und verfeinert sie gleichzeitig auf eine neue Weise. Es handelt sich um nichts Geringeres als eine Band und eine Stimme ihrer Generation, so wie es The Jam, The Clash oder Public Enemy zuvor waren. Begonnen haben die Arbeiten zum neuen Album in den Lockdowns von 2021. Schließlich setzte man die Arbeit im JT Soars fort, dem Arbeitsraum und der Kreativzelle der Band, und vollendet "UK Grim" dann im Heimstudio des musikalischen Kopfes Andrew Fearn. Das Album präsentiert die Band in ihrer makellosesten Wut, gepaart mit wilder Poesie. Nach "Spare Ribs" von 2021 (ihrem dritten UK-Top-Ten-Album seit 2019 und ihrem bisher erfolgreichsten) ist es, wie alle ihre Platten, eine Diagnose der Krankheiten der Gesellschaft. Obwohl "UK Grim" größtenteils vor den Turbulenzen des Jahres 2022 entstanden ist, nimmt es die Erschütterungen einer Gesellschaft, die den Verstand verliert, auf unheimliche Weise vorweg, erzählt von einem Mann, der entschlossen ist, sich mit Heucheleien auseinanderzusetzen, insbesondere mit seinen eigenen. Die 14 Tracks klingen nach knarzigem Punk, widerspenstiger Elektronik und Elementen von Hip-Hop. Sie beschreiben die Realität in zu brutaler Unverblümtheit, um nur einfache Protestsongs zu sein. Sie sind zu Vinyl gewordene Wut, aufgekocht von den Großmeistern des pointierten Zorns - den Sleaford Mods! Wie bei den "Spare Ribs" Kollaborationen mit Billy Nomates und Amy Taylor helfen auch bei "UK Grim" Freunde aus: Florence Shaw von Dry Cleaning ist auf dem schaurigen "Force 10 From Navarone" zu Gast. Williamson ist ein Fan der Band und sagt: "Sie erinnert mich wirklich an die frühen Sachen, die ich gemacht habe, einfach die Art und Weise, wie sie ein einziges Wort benutzt, um eine ganze Geschichte zu erzählen." Perry Farrell von Jane"s Addiction rappt auf dem bizarren "So Trendy", einem Song, von dem Williamson sagt, er sei "sehr vorsichtig... ein wirklich seltsamer Track". Seit ihrem Durchbruch-Album "Divide and Exit" von 2014 hatten die Sleaford Mods immer mehr Gelegenheit zum offenen Austausch, sowohl im In- als auch im Ausland. Sie sind eine unermüdlich arbeitende Band, die mit ihren minimalistischen Liveshows unter anderem 2021 in der 10.000 Zuschauer fassenden Nottingham Motorpoint Arena auftrat. Zu den weiteren Meilensteinen ihres Erfolgs gehören Auftritte im US-Late-Night-TV, Headliner-Auftritte auf Festivals und Chart-Platzierungen in ganz Europa mit "Spare Ribs". Ein großer Bewunderer ist Iggy Pop, der der Band mit einer persönlichen Version des Drogenrausch-Grand-Guignols "Chop Chop Chop" Tribut gezollt hat. |
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| SMALL CRUEL PARTY |
Cervorum Simulacra |
CD |
"Cervorum simulacra" was originally released as a lathe-cut LP limited to 30 copies ; "Pour Eric S-W" has never been released.
https://fernsrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/cervorum-simulacra
"Following a long period of absence, Small Cruel Party is now fully back on track. At least, from my point of view, that is. In the 90s, Key Ransone's music project delivered several great records with distinct packages. Blending electronics with acoustic sounds and natural elements (sticks, leaves, grass), the resulting combination was ambient and industrial. There were a few 7"s, which did not always grasp the minimal power, but on 10", LP and CD, with room for the music to evolve slowly and naturally, this works pretty well. This new CD shows this very well. Both pieces are older live recordings. The title piece is from 2008 and recorded in Paris, Ransone's home country these days, and the second is from Everett (Washington) in 1992. Back in the day, I saw various concerts of his and listening to the title piece, and this is how I remembered it best. 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, yet there is also a soothing effect. Think of the calming impact visual overload can have. You don't see (or hear, in this case) an easy pattern, but the overview is great. The piece from 1992, Small Cruel Party recorded on Radio KSER, is quite different. At the piece's core is an organ-like sound bordering on the quiet distortion. This feeds into the usual delay and reverb pedals, which offer the same manipulation as his other pieces. Perhaps, this isn't an organ but captured feedback? I said that it borders on the edge of overload, but there is also an element of quietude to be noted. It was a beautiful piece that kept me in it for the entire twenty-four minutes. These two pieces show two different sides to the work of Small Cruel Party. I wonder what more is hidden in the archives." [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Hσυχασμός / Hesychasmus |
10inch |
"Small Cruel Party's rebirth is complete and has found a home with Ferns Recordings, who have already released a few of his works. Here's a new one (actually a re-issue of a cassette from 2019 by Banned Productions), with a Greek title, 'Ἡσυχασμός', which means 'thank
you' (according to Google translate). Each side contains one ten/eleven-minute piece of music. 'Propagation d'un phénomène ondulatoir' (meaning 'Propagation of a wave phenomenon') and 'Quemadmodum cevi ad fortes aquarum' (meaning 'In the same way I came to the strong waters'). The thank you's on the cover are also in Latin, and I think it also says that he recorded the music last year. As always, everything with Small Cruel Party things is very cryptic here. A nightmare for the reviewer but also a good part of the fun. Everything becomes a form of poetry within the whole body of work that Small Cruel Party presents. The first piece consists of rhythmic flickering that finds its way through various delay pedals, which, as these things go with delay pedals, go in overdrive. I assume many musicians would find this out as unwanted distortion, but William Ransome, mister Party, leaves such things in; all part of the minimal process of the music, I assume. The minimalism of the other side works differently. On the first side, these are waves followed by quieter parts, but on the second side, the minimalism is continuous, with a slow variation. The music does a very slow phase-shifting, and further on in the piece, there is also a loop of percussive sound (a metal cup being struck) and the delay pedals working their magic over time again. Music that is the result of direct action or, perhaps, part of a ritual that happens to also involve music? I don't know, but as with so many works by Small Cruel Party, I found this fascinating music, and it could have easily had an LP-sized length." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2023 |
€16.50 |
|
| SMITH, CHAS |
An Hour Out of Desert Center |
CD |
Auf dem aktuellen Werk klingt SMITH wesentlich leichter und soft-ambienter als zuvor, eine Nähe zu VIDNA OBMANA ist unverkennbar, aber mit stärker metallischem Einschlag. Sphärenklang, der IST.
"An Hour Out of Desert Center is scored for pedal steel guitars, composer-designed-and-built crotales and sound sculptures, zithers, and a 1948 Bigsby lap guitar (a one-of-a-kind instrument that was owned by famed steel player Joaquin Murphey, who played with Spade Cooley, Tex Williams, Sons of the Pioneer, and other classic country artists). Here, Smith’s musical texture, evolving slowly and continuously over the course of the piece, is without dramatic flourishes. Like the spare landscapes around Desert Center, California, it simply exists in its muted beauty. Absence of Redemption and Albuquerque 5402 are scored for the same instruments as the first work, but with the addition of Smith’s self-designed-and-built three-neck steel guitar, "guitarzilla," which he prepares (a la John Cage’s prepared piano) with metal rods and plays with hammered dulcimer hammers. Absence develops in the linear fashion of the first piece. Albuquerque 5402 is a large-scale, two-movement piece constructed from dense, shifting textures that slowly taper away in the first movement and interweave in the next. " [label description]
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
| SOL, EDWARD |
Wrong Action |
mCD-R |
EDWARD SOL ist der Betreiber des emsigen ukrainischen Labels QUASI POP aus Kiev. Seine "Wrong Action" mCDR ist eine ziemlich absurde & durchaus witzige Klangcollage über eine Pop-Diva in vier Teilen (z.B. "inside Kylie"), basierend auf Analog-Synths, Loops, Plunderphonics, Tapes, Objektklängen, Noise-Feedbacks, etc.. sehr schön verpackt in ein handgemachtes Digipack..
"Tape collages, audio-objects and wild psychonoise in surrealistic cinematic mood. This is the tragic (and funny at the same time) story of Pop Diva working and partying hard. Audio tabloid in some sort, inspired by the early works of Pierre Henry, but Inland Empire and The Hafler Trio as well." [label notes]
"Music by Edward Sol has been released by Quasipop before and reviewed here. Here he presents another four tracks on 3" format in a nice little package. Apparently the theme is about 'This is the tragic (and funny at the same time) story of Pop Diva working and partying hard', although it's not sure which diva is meant here. Maybe Kylie Minogue, as suggested by the track title 'Inside Kylie'? Unlike some of his previous stuff, Sol goes out to old fashioned tape collages, cutting, splicing and pasting of tapes to create his music. At times he wanders out in the rich field of noise, but stays in true spirit of the good ol' musique concrete. It's at times loud and vicious, but the collage element of the music prevails. Influenced by say Pierre Henry (voices are spliced together) and Merzbow, makes this his most refined statement so far. Not in every subtle, but created with great care." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
label: www.quasipop.org
|
2007 |
€6.00 |
|
| SONIC YOUTH |
Bad Moon Rising |
LP |
2022 repress. LP version with download code. "Sonic Youth's second full-length LP Bad Moon Rising was originally released on Homestead and Blast First in 1985. The album is a fascinating examination of 'the junction where hippie idealism [meets] the cold hard world,' says guitarist Lee Ranaldo, 'where Woodstock [meets] Altamont -- Death Valley, Charles Manson, Brian Wilson, musicians, murderers, heroes and villains.' Its original eight-song tapestry of droning guitar feedback, distant clattering percussion, and sullen vocals, all held together with interstitial noise loops and shadowy haze, ambles through a long, dark night before the feverish 'Death Valley '69,' driven by runaway guitar riffs and a frantic Thurston Moore/Lydia Lunch vocal duet, pounds the capstone into place. Sonic Youth's big leap forward from Confusion Is Sex and Kill Yr Idols 'reflects the spirit of the time,' to quote All Music Guide. Bad Moon Rising views 'American gothic through the glassy eyes of willful moonlit paranoia.' Back in print on Goofin' Records, this reissue includes bonus tracks 'Flower' and 'Halloween,' both from a 12-inch single of the same era. The sound collage morsels 'Satan Is Boring' and 'Echo Canyon' are your cue to begin moving toward the exit and get out while you can." |
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| SONS OF GOD |
The Sons of God perform a Miracle |
DVD |
" 'For each and every person, we now want to reestablish the direct link with the devine within ourselves... the driving force behind everything... which, through its limitless openness, allows our dreams and fantasies to be realized in that part of life which is shared with others.' So lautet die simple Botschaft von Gods Söner, THE SONS OF GOD, auf The Power Is Yours. Diese, wie alles bei Leif Elggren & Kent Tankred, hintersinnige Frohe Botschaft ist Teil der DVD The Sons of God (FYDVD1001), die einem die Augen aufgehen lässt über die Magie der beiden schwedischen Prätendenten auf den Himmelsthron auf Erden. Ihr zentraler Zauber ist ein ritueller Tanz, den sie bei Dance aufführen in einem achteckigen panoptischen alten Anatomiesaal, mit spastischen, zeitlupigen Verrenkung, bis zur Erschöpfung, bis das Telefon klingelt. Dieser seltsame Totentanz zweier älterer Männer im Sonntagsanzug kehrt wieder in Before the Miracle, einfach in einem leeren Raum, und in Transients, in einer Rohbauruine. Seine quasi Beckett‘sche Endform findet dieser Tanz in The ons of God Perform a Miracle, der in einer Duo- und einer Quartettversion zu sehen ist. Sieche Grauhemden, Kandidaten für ein Lourdes-Wunder, winden sich in extremer Zeitlupe aus ihren Stühlen und sinken wieder zusammen. Dazu gibt es Tänze mit eisernen Besen (New Way), besonders sakral und erhaben als Version im Grand Theater in Bourges und, genial simpel, The Sons of God Drive Chairs. Besonders mysteriös jedoch ist The Arm, ein, anders als die von Noise gepeitschten Tänze, lautlos ausgeführter Schnitt an Tankreds Oberarm, im Chiaroscuro alter Meister visualisiert. Unerklärliches, Traumhaftes, wird körperlich, Absurdes wird spielerisch, Spielerisches zum heiligen Ernst, zu Lebens-Werk." [Bad Alchemy]
"The Sons of God work in the borderland between performance, installation and music; everything contributes to the whole and provides the basic structure for that inquisitive and expansive spirit which is apparent in The Sons of God´s working method. Sound objects, pre-recorded compositions, physically demanding movements, the voice, the staged meetings and conditions, the objects: all of this constitutes the foundation for an attempt to achieve those obscure moments where daily life unites itself with the heroic nature of our inner lives."
This DVD includes a selection of works by the group The Sons of God (Leif Elggren and Kent Tankred) from the years 1988-2007 - video documentations of performances as well as films and slideshows, in all over two hours of material. The DVD also includes a full colour 24 page booklet with texts by Daniel Rozenhall.
[label info]
www.fylkingen.se
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Object |
CD |
"The Sons of God, who serve the aims of civil defence and whose motto is to instil strength and courage and who have previously conducted investigations into materials and media, within the realm of the psyche as well as the social, have now taken it upon themselves to investigate "the object" using the means at their disposal. With the aid of a diaphragm in the shape of a 130-by-200-millimetre piece of sheet iron and microphones taken from the mouthpieces of Swedish Army telephones dating from the period in question, we will search the boat and, applying the methods of analogue telephony with regard to electromagnetism and its effects on matter, attempt to extract "locked", "frozen" or "dormant" information from the complex interior of "the object". A condensed version of the results of our investigation is presented on this CD release. Anyone who listens to and partakes of it will be placed in the same position as we were in our work on "the object", perhaps only with a change of perspective. We are therefore pleased to pass on the material, in the hope that new layers will be discovered and other information extracted." [label info]
www.fireworkedition.com
|
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
| SPECTRES |
III - Ghosts in the Machine Book |
BOOK |
The expression "ghost in the machine" emerged within a particular context, namely as a critique of Cartesian dualism's separation of soul and body, and thus served to revive a certain mechanistic materialism. In simple terms, this critique denies the existence of an independent soul (the "ghost") contained in a corporeal organism (the "machine"). It asserts, on the contrary, that the "soul" is just a manifestation of the body -- that ultimately, they are one and the same. The artificial always brings with it the fantasy of emancipation and autonomy, and a break with a supposedly natural order of things. In a certain respect, the domain of musical creation constitutes a kind of front line, at once a terrain of exploration for possible applications of AI and a domain that boasts an already substantial history of the integration of machines and their calculative power into creative processes. From algorithmic composition to methods of resynthesis, from logical approaches to the creation of cybernetic systems, from the birth of computer music to neural networks, for more than half a century now music has been in continual dialogue with the binary universe of electron flows and the increasingly complex systems that control them. Each of the texts included here, in its own way, reveals a different facet of the strange prism formed by this alliance. Each projects its own particular spectrum -- or spectre; each reveals a ghost, evokes an apparition that is a composite of ideas, electricity, and operations. This book, then, does not set out to cut the Gordian knot constituted by the question of the possible mutations and becomings of binary logic, and in particular its most recent avatar, AI. On the contrary, it seeks to shed a diverse light upon the many possible ways of coming to grips with it today, and upon the dreams, promises, and doubts raised by these becomings, whether actualized in the creation of codes and programs to assemble sounds or infusing a whole compositional project. Above all, though, what is at stake here is to discover how these developments resonate together, and how this resonance manifests itself through all these approaches, all these reflections, all these modes of creation and of living. For the artificial, the artefact, is always the extro-human brainchild of a human, all too human dream. Authors: Keith Fullerton Whitman, Émilie Gillet, Steve Goodman, Florian Hecker, James Hoff, Roland Kayn, Ada Lovelace, Robin Mackay, Bill Orcutt, Matthias Puech, Akira Rabelais, Lucy Railton, Jean-Claude Risset, Sébastien Roux, Peter Zinovieff.
https://shelterpress.bandcamp.com/merch/spectres-3-ghosts-in-the-machine-fantomes-dans-la-machine
|
2021 |
€19.50 |
|
| SPIRACLE |
Ananta |
do-CD |
"Hitoshi Kojo (aks Spiracle) professes to have some difficulties in falling asleep. When sleep comes to him, it can often arrive at dawn, when the colors of the sun begin to break through the darkness of night and when some are just rising after their own good night's sleep. Ananta is a twin set of compositions that urge the listener toward a dreamless sleep-state, while reflecting the glowing warmth of a blossoming sunrise. In constructing the two variations of Ananta, Kojo began with finely tuned drones extracted from a Dilruba and a Sarangi, and applied a process of merging sympathetic field recordings and other tonal interferences alongside those instrumental sounds. The resulting pieces are elliptically static drone compositions that brightly shimmer with hues of gold, crimson, and aquamarine.
One of the two variations of Ananta was published back in 2006 as a micro-edition CDR through Mystery Sea. In composing the Mystery Sea version, Kojo purposefully eschewed the representational sounds of the "Night Ocean Drones" espoused by the label, opting for these aforementioned concepts. On this piece of tiny churning textures streaming along a linear path, Kojo's piece nearly achieves infinity, which happens to be the translation from Sanskrit of "ananta." While other works from Kojo enjoy the darkly elegant arches found in select recordings from Organum and Lawrence English, the Mystery Sea Version of Ananta fits more of the tradition of the Roland Kayn, Yoshi Wada, and Charlemagne Palestine in constructing pieces which require endurance, lest you succumb to Kojo's audio hypnosis. The Strato Version of Ananta is a previously unreleased composition, that bends and undulates around a fundamental drone, all the while still maintaining the sun-flecked glints magnified in the Mystery Sea version. Limited to 300 copies."[label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"We missed out completely on the Ananta cd-r that Spiracle first released through the Mystery Sea label a few years back. It was limited to 100 copies and quickly disappeared, much to our chagrin. Fortunately, Helen Scarsdale in her sage wisdom has just reissued that static drone opus with a second disc that reworks the original material while keeping the same intent.
Hitoshi Kojo is man behind Spiracle, having wandered from his native Japan to Central Europe where he's been collaborating with the likes of Michael Northam, Maurizio Bianchi, John Grzinich, and Murmer. Much of his work deals with acoustic drone construction, with some of his records taking up the mantle of beautiful tactile noises like those generated by Organum, Jonathan Coleclough, and Andrew Chalk. Ananta, now presented as a double disc, is an album with a purpose; or at least it has a purpose for Kojo as he's one who has trouble falling asleep. So he composed this album as a narcotizing agent to lull him into a deep sleep. But this is also a man who is a night owl, so the time when he's usually falling asleep is when the sun is just beginning to rise. So for this composition, Kojo tuned his drones to match the ruby reds and golden yellows of daybreak. The Mystery Sea Version of Ananta is a linear construct of softened static with wisps of sustained tones spiralling in and out of the mix. The composition shimmers along this focused path with few variations, reflecting a rigor of process much like the champions of minimalism (e.g. Charlemagne Palestine, Roland Kayn, Yoshi Wada) but with a delicate approach found in the likes of Stars Of The Lid. The Strato Version found on the other disc smoothes out the static into a rich undulating surface of warm golden tones, that could easily be an ambient lullaby to accompany a daydream whilst napping at the beach. So, so beautiful!
The Helen Scarsdale reissue does increase the distribution of this disc, although not by much... there's only 300 of these beauties kicking around!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| SPK (S.P.K.) |
Despair (digitally extracted) |
DVD |
"After being hidden in time for more than 20 years this industrial milestone of the infamous 1st generation got renovated extended and digitally overworked. A true statement and monument for the outstanding band S.P.K. who gathered together under so many names like: SoliPsiK, Selektiv Pornography Kontrol, Sozialistisches Patienten Kollektiv, System Planning Korporation just to name a few.
Twin Vision, Cat TV and Tesco Germany proudly bring you a band about nothing could be said, the only group in industrial musics history that stands on the same level as Throbbing Gristle, for some even above. Influence to so many followers. The project ideal is to express the content of various psycho - pathalogical conditions, especially schizophrenia, manic - depressive psychosis, mental retardation and paranoia. Information Overload supersedes normal, rational thought structures, forcing deviation into less restrictive mental procedures of so-called 'mental illness'. SPK is trying to be a voice for those individuals condemned to the slow decay of mental hospitals and chemical / electro / surgical therapy, without fetishising them into blatant entertainment product. 'SONIC FOR MANICS' aims to be a vehicle for sharing mental experiences through sound.
This DVD compiles material that marked the genesis of the group . The members at that time were known as Operator, Ne(H)il and Tone Generator. Like rare live moments of the bands, energetic performances covering music from “Leichenschrei” to “Information Overload”, Live rehearsal footage from “ Auto Dafe”, slide shows, documentary and a filmed interview with Tone Generator aka Domink Guerin founding member and man behind Twin Vision." [label info]
|
2007 |
€18.00 |
|
| SPOONBENDER 1.1.1. |
Stereo Telepathy Academy |
CD |
Die Zahl 3, Synchronizität, Telepathie, David Cronenberg, „Third Mind“-Technik: San Francisco’s SPOONBENDER 1.1.1 ist eher ein Projekt zur Erforschung parapsychischer Phänomene als eine reine Musikgruppe.
Hier enthalten ein 40 minütiger one-tracker mit elektronischen Sounds & Film-Text-Schnipseln, der ein Experiment dokumentiert, das auf Burroughs / Gysins – Third Mind-Technik basiert, wo zwei Filmquellen miteinander verbunden werden, die eigentlich nichts miteinander zu tun haben, um synchronizitäre Verbindungen herzustellen. Nummerierte Auflage von 333 Stück, und bereits weg beim Label !
“Spoonbender 1.1.1’s Stereo Telepathy Academy is fucking mental. And essential. Truly alien, Truly progressive, and likely to be misunderstood by all but the committed. A true classic on par with COILANS and NWW’s Soliloquy For Lilith. I’ve listened to it obsessively for weeks, and i’m afraid to go near this whilst on drugs! DEEP AND ESSENTIAL!..” [UKDave, KFJC Reviews]
“In 1913, Marcel Duchamp dropped three pieces of string, each a meter long, from a height equal to their length. He then cut shapes into pieces of wood in order to document the rumpled line of his three fallen strings. In essence, Duchamp conceived his 3 Standard Stoppages as a preservation of chance, which he viewed as a means to combat logical reality. In addition to Duchamp's self-proclaimed antipathy to the rational world, he was quite particular in how he contextualized and executed his ideas through readymade objects, chance operations, and his notorious psycho-sexually charged dioramas. It is this dualism between the chance operation and an absolute intellectual/technical control which brings us to the present age, and to Spoonbender 1.1.1 in particular, where the acceptance and integration of opposites results in the 3rd option: everything.
The San Francisco-based Spoonbender 1.1.1 outlines itself as the 'tele-ambient dream self' of the critically-acclaimed, 'populist avant-tronics and media group' I Am Spoonbender. It is important to note that Spoonbender 1.1.1 declares itself not a side project of I Am Spoonbender, but a psychologically immersive extension of the central IAS concept. Both projects uncover the hidden connections that lie beneath the surface of reality by delving into the arenas of paranormal research - the exploration of the occult significance surrounding the number 3 and its strange laws, for example - but the intended outcomes for these concepts are decidedly different. For Stereo Telepathy Academy, Spoonbender 1.1.1 exercises psychic community through the architecture of the soundtrack.
At the beginning of the first transmission of Stereo Telepathy Academy on November 3rd, 2004 - a performance where the group supported Genesis P-Orridge's PTV3 - 1.1.1's Dustin Donaldson announced that "tonight's Spoonbender 1.1.1 show is governed by chance operations and the 'third mind' technique. Spoken text was taken from one film, overlayed onto images from another film, and the score was composed while viewing a third (and secret) film source. The synchronistic results appear to be intentional." Such was the strategy of Duchamp's aforementioned piece nearly a century ago; but Spoonbender 1.1.1's collision of artforms also employs the technique found in the William S.
Burroughs / Brion Gyson classic The Third Mind. As the images of David Cronenberg's rarely seen film Crimes Of The Future flickered, Spoonbender 1.1.1 radiated an inverted telekinetic minimalism of undulating tones supporting the third piece of the puzzle: spoken text from Cronenberg's Stereo, a faux-documentary detailing a surgical procedure for the advancement of telepathic communication. The result is a sort of Wizard Of Oz / Dark Side Of The Moon for the mimetic engineering mindset.
The same principles and elements apply for Stereo Telepathy Academy, the group's long-awaited debut studio recording (1.1.1 has existed solely as a live group for years). This marks the second of three editions to be released. The first was an edition of 111, documenting the aforementioned live performance; the second is this edition of 333, sporting handsomely letterpressed artwork; the third and final edition will be a unique art piece in an edition of a mere 3 copies.” [label notes]
"Edition 2 (studio version) of the Spoonbender 1.1.1 Stereo Telepathy Academy trilogy...
Simply put, this is a weird-as-hell, warped, late night, difficult-listening 'trip' for all you aQers looking for truly strange atmospheres... Okay, first things first; Spoonbender 1.1.1 is not a side-project of I Am Spoonbender. The duo of Dustin Donaldson and Cup consider Spoonbender 1.1.1 to be a self-contained project that ventures outside the 'populist avant-tronics' of I Am Spoonbender into the realms of sidereal soundtrack music, the transmission of ideas through subliminal means, manifestations of 'third mind' techniques, and the non-logic of chance operations. Not so different on paper, but put another way: there are no drums, singing, or 'songs' in the 1.1.1 project. The material for Stereo Telepathy Academy was debuted during a live performance in which Spoonbender 1.1.1 performed with (appropriately enough) Psychic TV; however, for the second edition of Stereo Telepathy Academy, Spoonbender 1.1.1 recomposed all of the material in the studio -- expanding and elaborating on their live performance, and making for a distinctly new and different listening experience that stand on its own with or without the visual accompaniment. That said, as in the first edition, Stereo Telepathy Academy features "text taken from one film, overlaid on images from another, and the audio score was written around a different, third film... the results appear to be intentional" for a sort of 'Wizard Of Oz/Dark Side Of The Moon' for telekinetics.
The J.G. Ballard-esque text was taken from David Cronenberg's 1969 student film 'Stereo', a faux-documentary detailing the work of a Dr. Luther Stringfellow, which concerns surgical procedures for the advancement of telepathic communication, while the visuals came from 'Crimes Of The Future' (another Cronenberg film, which transpires in an urban dystopia populated by pedophiles and oozing victims from a female-eliminating cosmetics related catastrophe). As creepy and sterile as the images were, we have to say that its Canadian-ness was positively charming, somehow. In their score, Spoonbender 1.1.1 lunges ominously forward with an otherworldly radiance of slow motion electronic pulses and melodies that retain an even darker hue than that of Klaus Schulze, Coil (e.g. Coilans / Time Machines), and Alan Splet, who are probably Spoonbender 1.1.1's closest sonic neighbors. Given the nature of their intense, masterfully detailed sea of electric sound, Spoonbender 1.1.1 hedged their bets that Cronenberg's pseudo-scientific spoken text would situate nicely against their audio. And indeed, this freakish document of prepared-chance context, atmosphere and appropriation works exceptionally well.
PLEASE NOTE: In keeping with the numerological-binding-of-3 theme, there will be 3 released versions of Stereo Telepathy Academy, all with different packaging. The first version arrived as a cd-r edition of 111 copies sporting a white glove as an allusion to 'Crimes Of The Future' (now out of print). This is the second edition, a proper disc that comes with letterpressed artwork in an edition of 333. The final edition will be in an edition of only 3 copies!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| 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 / RICHARD RAMIREZ |
Hideous Bliss |
LP |
"Christian Koehler was the motivating mind behind the project, Stabat Mors. Fusing thematic concepts and philosophical ideas based on Althusser, Mishima, Derrida, Artaud, and Cioran, the accompanying noise is a confrontation with distorted accordian,
metal, piano, and microphone to tube; a farewell release that is a sharp feedback orgy and celebration of despair.
"Hegels Tod" is the first track: a solo recording from 2006. Very isolated, sad, and extreme, the mix is an infusion of trying to bind the theme of death into sound. It was the last track recorded before he died the same year.
The second piece is a documentation of Stabat Mors' first live show at the Neues Museum Bremen in 2004, featured here as a trio. Etuede 2 & 3 of "Bild & Tod nach Derrida" is a mixture of lecture and noise-cacophonia.
Richard Ramirez appears on the other side of the LP with long track recorded in 2006.
"Error Strike" is a barrage of dynamic, crushing noise; an enduring wall that spans twenty minutes!
This lp is pro-pressed in a full-colored record jacket with paintings by Christian Koehler. Additionally, the album comes with a huge insert featuring the text, to "Bild & Tod nach Derrida"." [label info]
www.scrotum-records.de
The lp is the memorial to Christian. It is sad that he will never see the final result.
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| STAHLWERK 9 |
Sebastian im Traum |
7inch |
"Stahlwerk 9 schaffen hier eine äußerst bedrückende Atmosphäre mit tiefen Stimmen und düsteren Worten zur Endzeit. der Soundtrack für einsame, dunkle Nächte... dies ist der letzte Teil von unserer limitierten 7"-Reihe - Abonnenten des Zyklus 2 Boxsets, bitte meldet Euch." [label info] |
2006 |
€9.50 |
|
| STALNOY PAKT |
Russias Awakening (Probuschdenie Rossii) |
CD |
Debut-CD des St.Petersburger Projekts von ALEXANDER LEBEDEV-FRONTOV. Pompös-orchestraler Industrial, Maschinen-Noise, Propaganda-Zitate & Musik aus (konter)-revolutionärer Zeit....
“This is the first full-length CD release of the new project of A. Lebedev-Frontov (Linija Mass, Vetrophonia) after the brilliant 10” release in Prometheus series and the split 10” with Rasthof Dachau, both issued by Der Angriff. This time it is dedicated to those Russians who, being in European emigration, still tried to fight for the freedom of Russia after the Bolshevik revolution has happened. The music is in the same vein as on the previous vinyl releases – deep profound ambient with analogue noise touches and phrase samples. Non-standard sized silver-on-black printed cover, limited edition of 500 copies. 10 tracks, total time: 53.43.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| STANISLAVSKY, K. |
End of all Things |
CD |
Zoharum opens new serie IYHHH-CDs in limited edition 444 pieces. The main idea of this serie is to show interesting, remarkable music projects, which usually have their debut by this release.But we also wish to remind You about rare, unavailable materials of these projects, which have been existed on the music scene from longer time and their side-projects etc. We can say that the main purpose is to protect this wonderful, original music from the oblivion, but also to recall and refresh it to new audience and collectors.. Albums signed as IYHHH are released on CDs, packed in unconventional ecopack in format similar to occasional card with added post card. Each part of the serie will be the same design but different cover and catalogue number.
"Debut material of polish composer Krzysztof Stanislawski- the artist who says that he’s inspired by movie music. There’s no doubt that in his works we can hear the echo of: Clouser, Zimmer or Goldenthal. All orchestral sounds are mixed with industrial bits and grates which gives new quality.
„End of All Things” could be it the same line with soundtracks of „Pi”, „Saw” or „Even Horizon” and there’s no exaggeration in it.
Imagination of this musician and his own insight in illustrative music leads listener to new, different dimension of thriller. In his works you will find no exaggerated pathos and boredom. This album is full of emotions, passion, action, tempo changes, surprising atmosphere changes.
We recommend this material to those who like classical soundtracks but also to everyone who like industrial music." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| STANISLAWSKI, KRZYSZTOF |
End of all Things |
CD |
"Debut material of polish composer Krzysztof Stanislawski- the artist who says that he’s inspired by movie music. There’s no doubt that in his works we can hear the echo of: Clouser, Zimmer or Goldenthal. All orchestral sounds are mixed with industrial bits and grates which gives new quality.
„End of All Things” could be it the same line with soundtracks of „Pi”, „Saw” or „Even Horizon” and there’s no exaggeration in it.
Imagination of this musician and his own insight in illustrative music leads listener to new, different dimension of thriller. In his works you will find no exaggerated pathos and boredom. This album is full of emotions, passion, action, tempo changes, surprising atmosphere changes.
We recommend this material to those who like classical soundtracks but also to everyone who like industrial music.
Out on 31th March 2010
Zoharum opens new serie IYHHH-CDs in limited edition 444 pieces. The main idea of this serie is to show interesting, remarkable music projects, which usually have their debiut by this release.But we also wish to remind You about rare, unavailable materials of these projects, which have been existed on the music scene from longer time and their side-projects etc. We can say that the main purpose is to protect this wonderful, original music from the oblivion, but also to recall and refresh it to new audience and collectors.. Albums signed as IYHHH are released on CDs, packed in uncoventional ecopack in format simlar to occasional card with added post card. Each part of the serie will be the same design but different cover and catalogue number." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| STATISCHE MUSEN |
Diskretion . Funktionsmusik Für Verrichtungsboxen |
CD |
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/diskretion-funktionsmusik-f-r-verrichtungsboxen
Nach dem Ende des selbst so betitelten „death lounge project“ Hematic Sunsets mit dem Album „Aroma Club Adieu“ folgt mit Statische Musen ein weiteres ebenfalls aus weitgehend anagrammatischen Alter Egos Asmus Tietchens‘ (neben ihm Senta Steumisch, Suse Mittach sen. - M’Pei fällt da etwas heraus) bestehendes Projekt.
Der (Unter-)Titel des Albums wird in bierernster Diktion in den Linernotes erklärt: „Der Senat der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg begann 2021 nach dem Vorbild anderer Großstädte mit der Aufstellung von Verrichtsungsboxen.“ Von dem „Staatsrat Dr. Kurt Euler“ sei angeregt worden, „die Verrichtungsboxen mit therapeutisch wirksamen Klangtapeten auszustatten.“ Von den vier, zwischen 12 und 16 Minuten langen auf der CD enthaltenen Stücken wurde lediglich eine Version („Box 2“) akzeptiert, die anderen drei abgelehnt. Die angenommene Version habe „auf alle Beteiligten außerordentlich wohltuend und anregend“ gewirkt.
Auf „Box 1 (abgelehnt)“ hört man in Hintergrund ambientes Dröhnen und im Vordergrund fast so etwas wie erratischen Rhythmus. Das Stück ist durchzogen von einer gewissen Unruhe, so als ob sich undefinierbare Entitäten an verstimmten Gitarren versuchten. Bei der (angenommenen) „Box 2“ wird man zwischendurch durchaus an die sogenannten Hydrophonien der “Seuchengebiete“-Reihe erinnert, was vielleicht bzgl. der “Funktion” der Klänge nicht unpassend ist, vor allem dann, wenn man an den oben angesprochenen „anregenden“ Charakter des Stücks denkt. „Box 3 (abgelehnt)“ knüpft an die Vorgänger an, beeindruckt auch hier im Changieren zwischen Abstraktion und Melodik. Beendet wird das Album von „Box 4 (abgelehnt)“, einem Track, der leiser und zurückhaltender beginnt.
Die Hematic Sunsets-Aufnahmen waren voller kurioser, aber zum Teil natürlich durchaus „catchy“ Tracks“. Verglichen damit ist die Musik von Statische Musen näher an anderen Werke Tietchens der letzten Jahre. (MG) AFRICAN PAPER
"You never heard of Statische Musen? Me neither, but see it as an anagram (wait for it, think about it), and then it will read Asmus Tietchens. It's not the first time Asmus has used an anagram for a side project, as there was the Hematic Sunsets project, which he ended some time ago. The new project is not along the lines of Hematic Sunsets but more along the work he carries under his own name, but with a difference. The music is more ambient here, with more transparent sound, complex layers, and a bit of what is probably not a synthesizer but an abundance of sound effects. Maybe also ingredients you'll find in his regular music, but over there, it is usually very sparse and here, well, it's not sparse at all. Each of these pieces is a slow burner with slow development. Musc you start playing, which you ignore or enjoy - just as Brian Eno once proclaimed ambient music should be. As such, Tietchens succeeds very well. I was working on my boring accounts stuff because a new quarter started, and I had this CD on repeat all along. I may not have always discovered new things in there, but I found this music the perfect backdrop to an otherwise tedious chore. It is an interesting new development for Tietchens. Of course, I have no idea if this is a temporary thing or if this is something he intends to develop a lot, but time will tell. So far, I am enjoying this a lot, and I would love to see further developments." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ |
Mantra |
CD |
"With its exotic, gamelan like timbres (the result of electronic processing) and its deft balance of meditative stasis and kinetic repetition, Mantra is one 60's piece that has survived its era." [The New York Times]
"From its headwaters in the small, southern German town of Donaueschingen, the river Donau runs through Bavaria, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Rumania, into the Black Sea. There is one thing that probably no one who was present at the world premiere of "Mantra" in Donaueschingen on Sunday evening, October 18, 1970, was aware of: "Mantra" is a key work in the development of Karlheinz Stockhausen's music.
More than twenty years after its premiere, "Mantra" occurs as Stockhausen's first "Formelkomposition," and therefore as a keywork to almost all of his following pieces, such as "Inori," "Tierkreis," and "Sirius," as well as his music-theater cyle, "Licht." The basis of the piece is twelve-tone motive, where every note has a specific duration, rhythmic value and intensity. In connection with this, Stockhausen mentions that he has quite free images or sounds, just as in "Aus den Sieben Tagen," a meditation piece based on verbal notation which was created in California in 1968, and also in the piece "Fur kommende Zeiten" that was written at the same time as "Mantra." Although in interviews Stockhausen talks about how he uses rigid and free forms in mixed ways, all the works following "Mantra" are nevertheless "Formula" compositions, or even -- as in "Licht" -- "Superformula" compositions." [label notes]
www.newalbion.com
|
1990 |
€15.00 |
|
| STOLLERY, PETE |
Un son peut en cacher un autre |
DVD-A |
"Onset-Offset (1996). Peel (1997). Shioum (1994). Altered Images (1995). Shortstuff (1993). ABZ-A (1998). Vox Magna (2003).
When I first became involved in electroacoustic music, I was fascinated with the way that technology could allow the composer to work directly with sound, in a similar way to how a sculptor or potter works with his-her materials. The ability to manipulate material at this basic level is a central aspect of my music and this can be seen most obviously from pieces which are concerned with the interplay between the meanings associated with sounds and these sounds as pure sonic material, divorced from any mimetic connotation. There is little in my music which can be likened to broad brush-work - attention to detail and the exact positioning of sound objects within composed space is of the utmost importance to me. This allows the listener to become aware of the intrinsic qualities of the sounds themselves, and how they behave. There are many uses of, and references to, real-world sounds in the pieces on this disc; the key in the lock opening the door at the beginning of Onset-Offset is, on one level, metaphorical, but at the same time, provides an opportunity for the listener to enjoy the spectro-morphological behaviour of this gesture. Playing with the potential ambiguities of listening is central to all these pieces; a door slides open to reveal a new sound space, but at the same time, the listener dwells on the texture and shape of that slide; a street scene is recognised initially, but with the subtle inclusion of other sounds, and gradually mutates into the unrecognisable - the boundaries between what is known and what is unknown become blurred. A roulette wheel is stretched and the outer surface peeled back to reveal new sounds beyond.'
Pete Stollery studied composition with Jonty Harrison at the University of Birmingham, where he was one of the first members of BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre) in the early '80s. He now composes almost exclusively in the electroacoustic medium, particularly acousmatic music. He has collaborated with practitioners from other artistic disciplines, particularly dance and sculpture and has produced music and sound design for a number of UK visitor attractions including Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, Magna in Rotherham and St Patrick's World in Downpatrick (Northern Ireland). He is Reader in Composition and Electroacoustic Music and Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studio at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland), delivering courses on the creative applications of technology in music and music education to students, schoolchildren and the general public. He is a board member of Sonic Arts Network (SAN), the national organisation promoting electroacoustic music in the UK, which he chaired in 1996-99 and again in 2002-03. In 1996, along with Alistair MacDonald, Robert Dow and Simon Atkinson, he established the group invisiblEARts whose aim is to perform acousmatic music throughout Scotland and to promote Scottish acousmatic music to a wider audience, both within Scotland and abroad." [label info / credits]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| STRAFE F.R. (STRAFE FÜR REBELLION) |
Shadow Position |
LP |
"There are 4 tracks, 4 different windows to look out from our studio in Düsseldorf into the street and their different layers of sound.
4 horizons, 4 spy holes in the door, 4 eyes and 4 shopping windows. 4 landscapes.
Witness the electric city and the power house. Strafe F.R. is sitting inside the fuse box. The electric chirp of the night. The socket in which we sleep. The dog comes, in order to devour Strafe F.R. First he eats the rebellion and next he bites the Strafe.
The house and the body, both are earthed and the veins are vibrating. Between the 3rd and the 4th hour of the morning we enter the realm of insomnia. You fly by not using an airplane.
An old woman is cleaning the door bells with her own spittle. The old man is distilling schnaps in his back garden. The swimmers are gliding through the day on top of a greasy film. The reception is a flare into seconds until it fades away into noise again. The kettle drum gives the rhythm of breathing, the bass determines the time. You stumble forward, forward into the next day.
From our window we see a public building where there exists a toilet, its porcelain shows the most beautiful craquele fissures. There is an historic poster of Lenin. It is fixed on a garden fence in the landscape and the stinging nettles grow over it softly swinging in the wind.
There are shadows but there is also brightness, this means there are complementary colours and contrasts, movements and reflection until there is stillness. We see the back-breeding of cattle in the Neanderthal age and at the same time we look into the large heating room of an art museum, where we observe tubes and their upstream pressure regulators.
All sounds and music instruments recorded by Strafe F.R. – Bernd Kastner, Siegfried M. Syniuga. “Shadow Position” was mixed by Rasmus Zschoch. “Nachtmaschine”, “Every Day XXL” and “Isabella B.” were mixed by Strafe F.R. at Strafe studio in 2019 / Düsseldorf. Thanks to Detlef Klepsch for additional technical support. Female vocal by Anna Nettra."
https://strafefr.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-position
|
2020 |
€20.50 |
|
| SUDDEN INFANT |
Psychotic Einzelkind |
CD |
"Founder Joke Lanz has paired up with Bill Kouligas & Christian Weber to create the most musical & realized Sudden Infant studio recording to date. Psychotic Einzelkind clocks just over 71 minutes & features three remixes by Z'EV, Lasse Marhaug, & Thurston Moore." [label info]
www.blossomingnoise.com
"Eine CD mit einem solchen Titel, am vorderen und hinteren CD-Cover sind Flecken abgebildet, die als Rorschach-Test durchgehen könnten. Und dann: diese Musik. Joke Lanz, Bill Kouligas und Christian Weber aka Sudden Infant rauschen und dröhnen sich durch elf Nummern, zu denen sich drei Remixe von so illustren Gästen wie Z'EV und Lasse Marhaug dazugesellen, Thurston Moore drangsaliert die Gitarre, als ob er Bandmitglied bei Ramleh wäre. »Psychotic Einzelkind« versammelt Tracks, die zwischen Noise, einer Art von Industrial Metal und recht konventionellen Schlagzeug-Rhythmen angesiedelt sind. In unerwarteten Momenten brechen sich diese Texturen wieder selbst, abstruse Sounds und Geräusche drängen sich in den Vordergrund. So gesehen also eine typische Sudden-Infant-VÖ, man merkt wieder mal, dass diese Entwürfe weit mehr seltsamer Soundart (NWW, HNAS, …) geschuldet sind als dem hermetischen System des Noise. Rudimentärer Lärm mit Unterhaltungswert und Persiflage." [Skug]
|
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
| SUGIMOTO, TAKU & KEVIN DRUMM |
Den |
CD |
Abstrakte live-Improvisation der beiden Gitarristen mit viel Raum für (fast) Stille und nicht-nach-Gitarren-klingende-Sounds, für uns wie eine ausgewogene Mischung aus Elektronik und Organik. Schon in zweiten Auflage (300 Stck).
“ An album that documents the concert by two guitarists (of which one also plays electronics) held on April 5th, 2000 in Japan. Sugimoto is known for his improv style in which silence plays an extensive role. He strums a string, waits, strums the same and waits again. The space in which he plays becomes an important factor. Drumm is kinda similar, but he's responsible for the electronic part, so he fills his guitar strums, with occasional feedback, crackles and glitches. Yet, Drumm is a controller, so he never lets things out of control. Listening to these 41 minutes you feel the air of the Gallery where this was recorded, so much silent interludes, delicate
strumming, isolated cracks and more silence. If you try listening superficially, then the whole thing go lost. This requires your full attention, or better play something else. Zen in music.” (FdW / Vital Weekly)
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| SUN RA |
Media Dreams |
do-CD |
"This is the companion to Disco 3000, made on the same classic Italian quartet tour with John Gilmore, Michael Ray (trumpet) and the minimal but perfect Luqman Ali (drums). Ra himself plays piano and electronic keyboards, including the mysterious Crumar Mainman, which Ra describes as ‘like a piano, organ, clavichord, cello, violin and brass instruments’ and which also, importantly, has a facility for pre-programmed bass-lines and electronic percussion, which Ra uses constantly and to great effect in this small ensemble setting and seldom, if ever, elsewhere. The best of this collection (most of CD1) is luminous: very electronic, often rhythmical and melodic, always economical and making every sound count. These tracks are like no other jazz ensemble and, although recognisable as Ra – who else could think of, and then get away with, this – unlike any other Ra ensemble either. Ra makes the machines do amazing, visionary things while the band exercises restraint, remaining always in focus. In between, there are piano, saxophone, trumpet and drum vignettes, fresh and perfectly judged; this real was a fine band. This places the original vinyl release (and related releases, Sound Mirror and Disco 300) back into the context of the concerts, from which they were drawn. An important addition to the Sun Ra canon, since it is a rare document of an unusual Ra project that produced three classic late ‘70s LPs. Beautifully packaged and well annotated." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2008 |
€17.50 |
|
| SUN RA & HIS MYTH SCIENCE SOLAR ARKESTRA |
The Antique Blacks |
CD |
"Another much sought after and long unavailable title recorded in 1974 with a smallish ensemble consisting (probably) of stalwarts Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Danny David, James Jacson, Akh Tal Ebah, Clifford Jarvis, Artakatune, and new electric guitarist, Sly, that was released on Saturn in the same year. This sounds like a studio recording, carefully thought out - most of the compositions appear only on this record (apart from versions of Nature's God and Space is the Place), and include a chain of very interesting accompanied /interpolated) spoken texts: There is a Change in the Air, The Antique Blacks, The ridiculous "I" and the Cosmos "Me" - as well as a very long and scary coda to Space is the Place. Ra plays Rocksichord and Moog throughout (solo on track 7 and at the end of track 8). Theatrical and political; this is a fascinating release." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| SUNN O))) |
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 |
|
| SUNN O))) & ULVER |
Terrestrials |
CD |
"Oslo, Norway, August 10th, 2008. Following their 200th gig, playing before 2000 people at the Oya festival, SUNN O))) teamed up with Norwegian legends ULVER at their Oslo studio, Crystal Canyon. They recorded three "live in improvisation" pieces, starting that evening and ending at dawn, as Northern sunlight seeped in through the windows. 'We were sitting in the console room, early in the morning, listening to the takes. Someone said, ah, sunrise over Crystal Canyon,' as if the night had been a dark one. We all laughed and Greg proposed it as a title. In that setting it sounded perfect. The boys had mentioned wanting the music to orient towards the light, like some lost pilgrim stretching before the sun. We kept that mental picture for the processing.' - Kristoffer Rygg That take became the album's opening piece, "Let there be light," which builds up from silence and darkness and proceeds - ceremoniously, coruscating - O'Malley and O'Sullivan creating the backdrop for Rygg's Basso Profondo chants. The music unfolds over eight minutes before reaching a crescendo of bass and brass, introducing both Anderson and ULVER as we know them. The Sunn has risen. "Western horn" accelerates on a single and austere note of sustained bass and low end, evolving gradually into a haunted soundscape. Crying violins, clusters of Fender Rhodes, guitar pickups, and metal plate drones are gradually layered beneath Anderson's augmented bass feedback. "Eternal return" introduces Rygg singing a lyric evoking ancient Greece, Egypt and the Biblical lands. The song is palindromic, echoing the lyric, beginning and ending with the same bass line and musical pattern, though the guitars are ultimately reversed as the song implodes upon itself. "Terrestrials" is three movements which are fluid like the flow of magma beneath the Earth's crust, sonically uninhibited, unpredictably cosmic, haunting and stirring yet simultaneously ceremonious and beautiful." [label info]
www.southernlord.com
"Naheliegendes wird vermieden, statt dessen eine zähfließende Düsternis mit fast fragiler Aura: das Sunn o))) & Ulver Kollaborationsalbum “Terrestrials” schickt die Hörer (nicht nur) mit dem Opener “Let There Be Light” und seinen verlangsamten Mariachi-Trompeten fast ein bisschen in die Irre, lässt dieselben zumindest lange im Unklaren, welche Richtung das Stück wirklich einschlagen will… Als “ewiges” Intro hinter verwaschenen Staubwolken der Wüste? Ein Akustik-Drone?
Erst das letzte Viertel, wenn “Let There Be Light” schon fast zu ersterben scheint, bringt die Auflösung: wenn sich typisch Sunn o))) artige Harmoniebögen zu manifestieren beginnen und die weiterhin präsenten Bläser mit einem deutlichen Maß an Schwerkraft versehen. Das dann folgende, düstere (und düsterere) “Western Horn”, im Kern eine windende Schichtung von sich reibenden, spröden Gitarren, dabei nach außen so etwas wie die musikalische Umsetzung eines langsam aufkommenden (oder abflauenden) Sandsturms, versenkt die Hörer nach “Let There Be Light” wie unvermittelt in eine ebenso unwirkliche wie unwirtliche, auch ohne ebensolche Soundästhetik zerrende, schwarze Welt. Die, ganz nebenbei, ein weiteres Mal beweist, dass “Heavy” eben auch ganz anders gehen kann.Und dann die größte Überraschung: “Eternal Return”, in den allerersten Tönen noch wie eine direkte Fortsetzung von “Western Horn” klingend, durch die hier stärkere Präsenz eines E-Pianos und ganz besonders die Art der Harmonien aber letztlich in eine ganz andere Richtung weisend: wie eine Art geisterhafter Widerhall, eine eigene Interpretation der Stimmung von oder eben gleich eine Kollaboration mit Bohren & Der Club Of Gore… zumindest rund 6 Minuten lang, bevor das Stück einen völligen Twist macht, Gesang über tragenden Synthstreichern, als Break. Und zurück fällt in die Düsternis des Beginns.
In der musikalischen Schattierung so vielfältig wie “Monoliths And Dimensions”, möglicherweise. Und eine Elegie in schwarzer Akustik, sicherlich. Insgesamt betrachtet." [N, Blackmag]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| SUPERSILENT |
8 |
CD |
"Inzwischen sind wir bei Supersilent 8 (RCD 2067), Dazwischen liegt ein beständig sich verändernder Klangfluss von harschem Free Noise (1-3) über Electrojazz (4) zu ambienten Soundscapes (5 & 6). 8 entstand, wie schon die Rune-Grammofon-Klassiker 1-3, Luggumt oder
Raus Aus Stavanger, im Athletic-Sound-Studio in Halden. Alles ist improvisiert, aus 5 Stunden wurden 66 Minuten ausgewählt und von 1 bis 8 durchnummeriert, es gibt keine Overdubs. Abstraktion, oder nennen wir es besser Absolutheit, und Kollektivität sind Trumpf. Als Klangquellen dienen Audio Virus & Gitarre, Keyboards & Synthesizers, Drums, Trumpet, Voice & Electronics. Neologismen wie FutuRhythMachine (K. Eshun) oder SonicFriction (T. Berne) sind notwendig, um der Nowness von Supersilents Trips halbwegs gerecht zu werden. Mit Supersilent unterwegs sein, heißt Niemandsland
durchstreifen. Das Neuland hat gemeinsame musikalische Grenzen allenfalls mit Ektroland und Neuseeland. Fremdartig monotone, oder krumme Sun-Ra-Takte (8.3!), raues, rockfernes Gitarrengedröhn, Gebrabbel und Singsang, als ob der Geist von Leif Elggren unter einem Bett hervor kröche (8.5). Der Hall einer Possible-Worlds- Trompete von weit draußen, der Hauch einer ‚Flöte‘, immer wieder ‚psychedelische‘
und ‚spaceige‘ Raumzeitverformungen durch Keyboards und Electronics. 8 ist wie eine Prellung, die schillernd aufblüht,
gleichzeitig zeitlupig und gerafft auf eine Stunde, vielleicht weil der Bluterguss einen ganzen Raumquadranten verfärbt. Manchmal
bleibt nur ein Zwitschern und aleatorisches Zucken wie von einschlagendem Sternenstaub, dazu Kopfstimmengesang (8.6). Plötzlich ein Freerock-Blitzgewitter, ein donnerndes, schneidendes Inferno (8.7)! Mit einem finalen Gerumpel. Als Epilog dann wieder Getröpfel. Und enigmatische Spaceharmonik. Die pure Alienpoesie." [Bad Alchemy]
"Helge Sten, Ståle Storløkken, Arve Henriksen and Jarle Vespestad celebrate 10 years as a groundbreaking quartet with their first studio album in almost 5 years. Their music lives in a no-man's-land between the genres, somewhere between rock, electronica, jazz and modern composition. Yes, we say composition because when listening it´s not far fetched to think it could have been, although everything here is improvised, as it has always been with Supersilent. With ”8” they have yet again re-invented themselves, exploring more abstract and mysterious pathways and ending up even further away from traditional categories. The album is produced by Deathprod and mastered by US mastering guru Bob Katz." [press release]
".... Another excellent, original Supersilent effort, with the use/abuse of vocals opening up some new dimensions to their sound. Parts of Supersilent 8 give us the idea we're listening to some sort of really strange field recording, the documentation of the fracturing of an iceberg, the swarmings of bugs, or the language of birds or bats, when in fact this is a very human-activated, machine- mediated, far-from-natural audio document. Of course at other times on this album that fact is quite evident! Indeed, Supersilent 8 also is the closest these "death-jazzers" have come to making rock album, especially when the super distorted, hazy murk of psychedelic howling almost garage-rock-improv pummel of track 7 is taken into account." [Aquarius Records]
www.runegrammofon.com
|
2007 |
€15.50 |
|
| SUTCLIFFE JUGEND |
Slaves no more |
do-CD |
"This double album connects the dots between Sutcliffe Jugend and Slaves No More (SNM), highlighting the transition from one to another. The decision to end Sutcliffe Jugend was officially announced in end 2019 and Slaves No More formed in early 2020. This release bridges the 2 acts and showcases the somewhat different music styles between them, especially from the former’s earlier power electronics sound. Consisting of material recorded right after S L A V E S was released back in 2016, this is the sequel to that release, albeit reduced to just 2 discs instead of the initial planned multiple discs (as a follow up) to S L A V E S 6xCD Boxset.
This release has been aptly titled Slaves No More for obvious reasons of paving the new direction of the band of the same name. Remnants of the earlier Sutcliffe Jugend style can be identified on Disc 1 with more vocals parts and noisy elements (especially in Noise Factory), and the slightly more ambient and complex soundscapes of Slaves No More (SNM) on Disc 2. Both discs contain unreleased material, and they continue to feature layers of noise and sound elements unique to the Sutcliffe Jugend style. With the release being reduced to just 2 discs, the recordings have been particularly curated to showcase the best tracks Kevin and Paul want to present as the final Sutcliffe Jugend release post S L A V E S. This release encapsulates the best and final Sutcliffe Jugend moments, and showcases that connective lead up from S L A V E S (the album) to an era of new sounds and creative direction, Slaves No More (SNM)."
https://4ibrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sutcliffe-jugend-slaves-no-more |
2020 |
€18.00 |
|
| SWANS |
The Seer |
do-CD |
"MICHAEL GIRA, Bandleader der SWANS, merkt zum neuen Album an: "THE SEER nahm 30 Jahre in Anspruch. Hierin gipfelt nicht nur jedes bisherige SWANS Album, sondern auch jegliche Musik, die ich jemals gemacht habe, an der ich beteiligt war und die ich mir jemals vorstellen konnte.
Und dennoch ist es unvollendet, wie die Songs selbst. Es ist ein einziger, lose schwankender, Rahmen, welcher verschwimmt, sich vermischt und letztendlich verschwindet.
Am Anfang der Lieder war nur eine Akkustikgitarre, dann kam die (unschätzbare) Hilfe meiner Freunde hinzu.
Anschließend wurden die Songs weiter gequält, während der Proben, der Live - Konzerte und im Studio verführt und nun erwarten die Lieder ein weiterer zwangsernährender Kannibalismus, weil wir uns darauf vorbereiten, einige davon live zu spielen.
An diesem Punkt werden sie entweder weiter mutieren oder für eine Weile zur Seite gelegt.
Egal, was ihr vielleicht gehört habt oder mutmaßen mögt, mein Anliegen ist, Licht und Freude in dieser Welt zu verbreiten.
Meine Bandkumpanen sind alle ausgezeichnete Menschen. Ohne sie bin ich bloß ein kleines Kätzchen.
Unser Ziel ist und bleibt das gleiche: Ekstase!" +++ Das Zustandekommen der Songs beschreibt GIRA wie folgt: "Auf THE SEER, AVE.
B BLUES, AVATAR und APOSTATE hört man den Songs an, dass wir uns während der Proben und den Tourneen ganz natürlich zu einer Gruppe entwickelt haben.
Die Songs haben während der letzten SWANS - Touren konstant entwickelt, was wiederum während der Studioaufnahmen eingefangen und abgöttisch liebevoll umgesetzt.
Die für das Album übriggebliebenen Songs wurden von Grund auf im Studio entwickelt. Unter Teilnahme und Einsatz aller beteiligten Musiker wurde alles von einer unsichtbaren Hand geführt. //
The Seer took 30 years to make. It’s the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I’ve ever made, been involved in, or imagined. But it’s unfinished, like the songs themselves. It’s one frame in a reel. The frames blur, blend and will eventually fade.
The songs began on an acoustic guitar, then were fleshed out with (invaluable) help from my friends, then were further tortured and seduced in rehearsals, live, and in the studio, and now they await further cannibalism and force-feeding as we prepare to perform some of them live, at which point they’ll mutate further, endlessly, or perhaps be discarded for a while.
Despite what you might have heard or presumed, my quest is to spread light and joy through the world. My friends in Swans are all stellar men. Without them I’m a kitten, an infant. Our goal is the same: ecstasy! —Michael Gira " [label info]
www.younggodrecords.com |
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Leaving Meaning |
do-CD |
SWANS Leaving Meaning is the band’s fifteenth studio album, the follow up to 2016’s The Glowing Man and due for release by Mute / Young God Records (N America) on 25 October 2019. Leaving Meaning will be released on double vinyl in a brown chipboard sleeve, double CD in a brown chipboard digipack and digitally.
Listen to the first track from the album, ‘It’s Coming It’s Real’:
https://youtu.be/3ZVZo30M8Lc
Written and produced by Michael Gira, the album features contributions from recent and former Swans, members of Angels of Light as well as Guest Artists Anna and Maria von Hausswolff, Ben Frost, The Necks, Baby Dee, and a Hawk and a Hacksaw – full personnel list below.
Michael Gira explains, “Leaving Meaning is the first Swans album to be released since I dissolved the lineup of musicians that constituted Swans from 2010 – 2017. Swans is now comprised of a revolving cast of musicians, selected for both their musical and personal character, chosen according to what I intuit best suits the atmosphere in which I’d like to see the songs I’ve written presented. In collaboration with me, the musicians, through their personality, skill and taste, contribute greatly to the arrangement of the material. They’re all people whose work I admire and whose company I personally enjoy.”
“Here below are the primary contributors to Leaving Meaning:
Michael Gira – Vocals, words, acoustic/electric guitar, production. I started Swans in NYC in 1982 and have been the primary songwriter, singer and producer throughout the years. In the early years I played bass, but later switched to guitar. During the years of Swans hiatus (1999 – 2010), I released several albums by and toured with a group called Angels of Light.
Kristof Hahn – Lap steel, various guitars throughout, backing vocals, generous and insightful advice on mixes and arrangements. Kristof first became involved with Swans in 1989, was a principal contributor to Angels of Light, and a core Swans member 2010 – 2017. Kristof’s other musical ventures have included the Rock ‘n’ Roll Noir band Les Hommes Sauvages and Kool Kings (with Alex Chilton). He’s currently working on an instrumental record for Lawrence English’s label, Room 40. He holds a master’s degree in Political Science, and when Swans doesn’t pay the bills, he translates books for a living. Kristof’s presence, on and off tape, is pivotal to this record. Kristof lives in Berlin, Germany.
Larry Mullins – Drums, vibes, orchestral percussion, Mellotron, various keyboards, backing vocals. Larry (AKA Toby Dammit) is a trained symphonic percussionist and all-around consummate musician. He played through the 90s with Iggy Pop and later with The Stooges. He played with Swans in the late 90s and was a main contributor to Angels of Light. He is rumored to have been involved with The Residents. His varied and numerous credits also include a stint with Silver Apples as well as recently, Shakespears Sister. His current main job is playing keyboards with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I decided immediately to ask Larry to contribute to Leaving Meaning after watching the German TV series Babylon Berlin, and suddenly, unbeknownst to me, there was Larry as the main focus of various cabaret scenes, drumming behind a huge kick drum in his inimitable style. After laughing in shock for perhaps half an hour, I decided to contact him. We hadn’t been in close touch for a long time and I’m elated I reached out. Larry lives in Berlin, Germany.
Yoyo Röhm – Electric bass, double bass, various keyboards, piano, backing vocals. Yoyo came to my attention through his work with Kristof and Larry in Berlin. In addition to his excellent bass playing, Yoyo’s ears were invaluable in helping to sort out many of the arrangements. Yoyo plays with numerous left field musicians around Berlin and also works with Mick Harvey on his Serge Gainsbourg recordings and tours. Yoyo, Larry, Kristof and I rehearsed in Berlin for 3 weeks prior to recording. Yoyo is a true Berliner – gruff and determined on the outside, a marshmallow inside. He was a great musical resource for this record.
The Necks – (Chris Abrahams – piano, organ; Tony Buck – drums, percussion; Lloyd Swanton – double bass). I have been an avid Necks fan since I first saw them perform at a Big Ears Festival in 2010. They subsequently played with Swans at a few shows in Australia. Their live performances and recordings are just about any superlative you can think of – mesmerizing, transcendent, sublime. Their music is entirely improvisational – it’s my understanding that they have no idea what they’re going to play before they start. And yet, mostly using rudimentary jazz trio instrumentation, they manage to fashion burgeoning and ever-evolving, immersive clouds of sound that utterly envelop the listener as the music unfolds. I’m beyond honored and humbled that they agreed to perform the basic tracks for 2 of my songs (The Nub and Leaving Meaning). Their performances were then delicately, and (I hope!) tastefully further orchestrated upon in Berlin. Tony lives in Berlin, and also played drums on the song Some New Things.
Anna and Maria von Hausswolff – Choral backing vocals. Anna is blessed with a soaring voice, lyrical acuity and increasing facility with the church organ. I was impressed recently to learn that she often travels around Europe and visits churches unannounced, where she talks her way into being allowed to use the resident organ – some of them rather massive, I imagine – and plays and explores for hours. Her searing records and live shows reflect the courage of her imagination and have garnered her increasing, much deserved recognition. Maria is an accomplished Swedish cinematographer and director of photography. In 2017 I heard Anna and Maria singing together at a sound check for a special song they were doing in Anna’s set, was instantly enthralled, and resolved at that moment to ask them to participate together on a Swans recording. I’m delighted they agreed to come to Berlin and record for me. They were a joy to work with! They live in Scandinavia.
Ben Frost – Guitar, synthesizers, sound manipulations. Ben’s adventurous sound-craftings, sometimes harrowing and sometimes delicate and quite musical, and his powerful live shows, have afforded him much recognition of late. I’ve also been highly impressed with his soundtrack work for the HBO series, Dark. He’s an extremely talented arranger and composer. His mission for this record was intentionally ill defined. I basically wanted his ears and sensibility, with no particular part or instrument in mind. I arrived at his studio in Reykjavik, Iceland, put up the songs, and he played what he thought a song needed. I was pleasantly surprised to discover his unique approach to the electric guitar as well as his synth work. Ben also was quite helpful with arrangement and mixing ideas. Ben lives in Iceland.
Baby Dee – Lead vocal on The Nub, supported by her friends Fay Christen and Ida Albertje Michels, and Jennifer Gira. Dee has released numerous records (one produced by Bonnie Prince Billie, I think), and if you don’t know them, you should! The first time I saw her she was riding a unicycle in circles outside the now-defunct Avant club, Tonic, in NYC, playing a ukulele (or accordion?) and singing with great mirth. I saw her set that night and was won over. She’s since toured with Swans several times. Her music could loosely be called neo cabaret, but more accurately she’s totally unique and a great performer and songwriter, graced with a powerful voice and high-end ability on the piano, accordion and more. I wrote The Nub specifically for her to sing. I was stymied for words to the main guitar figure to the song, and suddenly she popped into my mind, floating through the universe in diapers, sucking milk from the stars. The song wrote itself. Dee lives in The Netherlands.
Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost – Jeremy: Santur, hi-hat, fiddlesticks, accordion, engineering; Heather: Stroh violin, violin, viola, fiddlesticks, engineering. Together, Jeremy and Heather comprise the band A Hawk and a Hacksaw. (Jeremy played at one time with the bands Neutral Milk Hotel and Beirut). Again, if you don’t know their music, you should! They’ve released several records. It’s Balkan/Gypsy influenced, somewhat psychedelicized, with great singing, playing and melodies. They’re each multi-instrumentalists and they intrepidly travel the world, both touring and simply exploring the Balkans, in search of adventure and master musicians of the region, some of whom they simply befriend, others whom they record. They toured with Swans a while ago, and I’ve had it in the back of my mind to ask them to record on a record since. I travelled to their home studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico, presented the songs, and did the same thing I did with Ben – I said, “Now what?” You can hear them on several songs on the record, sometimes subtly, at other times more pronounced. In any event, it’s great to have such a pair of wonderful humans on the record.
ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS:
Dana Schechter – Dana played bass on the song ‘Some New Things’. Dana was a core member of Angels of Light. Her current band is Insect Ark. It’s rather heavy and great. Will be working with Dana more soon in the future and very pleased we reconnected recently.
Jennifer Gira – Backing vocals throughout and cameo vocal on Sunfucker. Jennifer has sung backing vocals on the past few Swans albums as well as lead vocal on the song When Will I Return? on the last Swans album, The Glowing Man. She’s also of invaluable help on mixing and arrangement decisions.
Cassis Staudt – Accordion and harmonium. Cassis was a core member of Angels of Light. She moved to Berlin some time ago and we lost touch. Cassis is a composer of music for films in Berlin. I’m very happy to be working with her again.
Norman Westberg – Electric guitar. Norman played on a few key moments on this record. Norman has been in and out of Swans since the beginning (mostly in) and was a core Swans member in 2010 – 2017. We’ll continue to work together into the future, absolutely. Norman releases solo instrumental records through Lawrence English’s Room 40 label. We’re touring (each solo) together in Eastern Europe soon.
Christopher Pravdica – Bass guitar, sounds. Chris played at pivotal moments on this record. He was a core Swans member in 2010 – 2017. We’ll continue to work together in the future, absolutely. Chris has recently been enlisted by Jamie Stewart for his band Xiu Xiu.
Phil Puleo – Phil played hammer dulcimer on the song Amnesia. This might be considered a severe underutilization of his considerable talents as a drummer, but there’s more to come quite soon. Phil was a core member in Swans 2010 – 2017 and played as a member of Swans in the late 90s and contributed to Angels of Light.
Thor Harris – percussion, trumpet, clarinet, sounds, bells, gizmos, additional vibes. Thor drove up from Austin to record for me at Heather and Jeremy’s place in Albuquerque. Always a highpoint to be in the presence of this committed musician and friend. Thor was a core member of Swans in 2010 – 2016 as well as Angels of Light. Certainly, more to come! Thor has his own happening combo, Thor and friends, and they make seductive and beautiful records and tour often. He also has recently been recruited by Jamie for Xiu Xiu.
Paul Wallfisch – Paul played piano to great effect here and there on the record. Paul was a touring member of Swans in 2017. He works with the glorious human chanteuse Little Annie. He’s also a musical director for theater productions in Germany, and recently landed a very fancy-pants job as musical director/composer for a theater production at a historical theater in Vienna.
Thanks to All!!!!
MG”
|
2019 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
Where Does A Body End? |
DVD |
"Die Anfang der 80er Jahre in New York gegründete Band Swans gilt als eine der härtesten, lautesten Live-Bands der Welt. Einen Einblick in ihre Intensität, ihre wechselhafte Geschichte liefert Marco Porsia mit seiner intimen Dokumentation ,Swans - Where Does a Body End?", für die der Regisseur jahrelang Teil des inneren Zirkels der Band war. Gerade deswegen: Ein Film für Fans. Anfang 2020 im Kino, nun als US-Pal/Region 0 DVD/BD/2BD, Sprache Englisch, Untertitel Englisch mit Altersfreigabe 12 Swans gilt als eine der radikalsten Bands der letzten 40 Jahre. Ihre Konzerte gleichen noch immer ekstatischen Ritualen. Gegründet 1982 als streitlustige Post-Punk-Band erregten Swans erste Aufmerksamkeit in der New Yorker No-Wave-Szene, feierten währen der Indie-Welle der 90er unerwarteten Mainstream-Erfolg, verursachten Chaos auf und jenseits der Bühne, erlebten Bandauflösung und Wiedervereinigung. Swans war immer eine Ansammlung von wechselnden Einzelperformern - mit einer einzigen Konstante: Sänger, Songwriter und Mastermind Michael Gira. Sein Lebensweg vom Problemteenager zum Enfant Terrible seiner Kunsthochschule, Alkoholiker und schließlich Familienmensch sind der rauen, progressiven Musik seiner Band eingeschrieben. Filmemacher Marco Porsia hat Swans und Gira über fünf Jahre lang begleitet und beim Songschreiben, im Probenraum und auf Tour gefilmt. Er erhielt unbegrenzten Zugriff auf Giras Archiv mit hunderten Stunden von unveröffentlichten Videos und Tonaufnahmen. Neben Swans-Mitgliedern Jarboe und Thor Harris erklärten sich zahlreiche Wegbegleiter*innen und Fans wie Amanda Palmer, Blixa Bargeld und Thurston Moore für Interviews bereit. ,Swans - Where Does A Body End?" ist eine musikalische Zeitreise, ein filmisches Tour-Tagebuch, ein epischer Konzertfilm. Vor allem aber ist er das Porträt eines besessenen Musikers, Michael Gira, der sein Leben radikal der Kunst gewidmet hat. ,Michael ist kein furchtloser Mensch", erklärt Bandkollege Harris, ,aber er ist ein furchtloser Künstler." Zitate: "There really is no other force of music like Swans. Swans stand alone, integral, drenched in pathos. A band to end all bands." _Thurston Moore/Sonic Youth Presse: Director Marco Porsia delivers an intense, comprehensive documentary of the band that is every bit as massive as their recordings. That he captured their many faces to this extent is an astounding achievement in its own right, but then to build something both captivating and informative from such split personalities is pure cinematic magic. _ Film Threat A comprehensive portrait of Gira and his musical endeavors... Fans should love this raw exploration of their legacy.
'Under the Radar There is considerable opportunity to see how Swans' performances have developed over time, with plenty of variously brutal, abrasive, shamanistic and ecstatic concert footage.' The Arts Desk "
"Where Does a Body End? is an intimate portrait of the band SWANS, from their roots as a brutal, confrontational post-punk band that emerged from the same early 1980s era NYC that gave us Sonic Youth (and, somehow, Madonna) through their ill-fated bid at mainstream success in the '90s indie-rock gold rush, through breakups and chaos (on and offstage) to their odds-defying current status as one of the most accomplished and ambitious bands in the world, one whose concerts are more like ecstatic rituals than nostalgic trips back through their most popular songs. SWANS has always been a collection of singular performers, but there's been one constant since its formation in 1982 -- singer, songwriter Michael Gira. With unfettered access to hundreds of hours of Gira/SWANS archives of never-seen-before recordings, videos, and photographs, the film brings us along the path they needed to carve for themselves. The film is many things, a musical history, a time-capsule, a tour diary, a concert film, but mostly it's the story of a life in the arts, frequently difficult, spanning decades without a safety net, creating the work because Gira says 'What else am I going to do?' As bandmate Thor Harris notes, 'Michael is not a fearless person, but he is a fearless artist.'"
https://mvdshop.com/products/swans-where-does-a-body-end-dvd
|
2020 |
€15.00 |
|
| SYLVESTER ANFANG |
II |
CD |
"Verdammte Hippies! "Sylvester Anfang II" ist der authentischste, von Drogen zerfressendste, prallste, von gotteslästerlichem Hedonismus durchzogene Ausflug in die Zeit von Analogus Rex, den ich jemals gehört habe. Die Flamen spielen einen verqualmten Hippie-Jam, der sich gewaschen hat, oder eben nicht. Voller okkulter Mystik, ohne Plan, ohne Ziel. Krautrockjamsessions auf Acid während einem satanischen Ritus im Haus von Charles Manson. Gitarrengewaber, hypnotische Percussion, wummernder Bass, orientalische Harmonien, obskure Teufelsgesänge, altmodische Synthesizer, ein heißes Covergirl. Und der verrückte, dreckige Gesang von Clay Ruby alias BURIAL HEX im Hintergrund ist beim Zweiteiler "The Devil Always Shits in the Same Graves" sogar richtig furchteinflößend.
Irgendwie sind SYLVESTER ANFANG geil, irgendwie nicht nachvollziehbar. Ich glaube, im LSD-Rausch ist dies die ultimative Musik, herrlich unterproduziert, ohne Songs im eigentlichen Sinne, von ein paar Wahnsinnigen, die trashige Horrorfilme ein wenig zu ernst nehmen. Diese Verbindung von POPOL VUH und AMON DUUL ist allerdings ziemlich mutig, das Ganze auf eine Länge von fast siebzig Minuten auszudehnen, geradezu wahnwitzig. Vor allem laut aufgedreht und bei vollem Bewusstsein entfaltet "Sylvester Anfang II" ungeahnte Faszination, hauptsächlich bei Althippies und Typen, die letztes Wochenende auf einer harten Pilzmischung hängen geblieben sind." [Vampster]
"All things must evolve, and given time even the unicellular organisms dwelling in ocean's deepest fathoms may shift form and take to the skies. In celebration of the mysteries of evolution, Aurora Borealis proudly presents SYLVESTER ANFANG II. In the time since the release of Kosmies Slachtafval, Silvester Anfang have grown into SYLVESTER ANFANG II, a more psychedelic beast, a more tangible creature in some ways, but one that defies and confounds standard classification. Taking their cue from Krautrock communes of yore, the Flemish troubadours have expanded both ranks and minds and now present this giant new opus for general consumption. With cultish numbers swollen with new blood in the guise of Stef Anus (Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat), Father Sloow (Sloow Tapes pontiff), Bram (Ignatz) and Clay Ruby (Davenport, Burial Hex ), the sound is much fuller and more reminiscent of Krautish dope jams then ever before. Ruby's vocal additions create a whole new universe for the band, rather like if Dr. John had been born in a plague pit in Flanders, and the resulting tracks "The Devil Always Shits in the Same Graves" parts 1 & 2 are masterful examples of Flemish voodoo boogie. The new material is more hypnotic than before, and the band are sure to add new members to their fan cult as they slink across Europe like a fog in the coming months. Sure to upset parents and upstanding citizens with their occult themes and liberal Europeanstyle artwork, SYLVESTER ANFANG II reach new levels of consciousness with their mantras of goat worship and the orthodoxy of denial that states "Only analogue is real". Dust off your robes, sharpen the sacrificial blade, order in some Trappist beers... Tune in, turn on, evolve." [label info]
www.aurora-b.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| SYNAPSIS |
Materia |
CD |
Zoharum opens new serie IYHHH-CDs in limited edition 444 pieces. The main idea of this serie is to show interesting, remarkable music projects, which usually have their debut by this release.But we also wish to remind You about rare, unavailable materials of these projects, which have been existed on the music scene from longer time and their side-projects etc. We can say that the main purpose is to protect this wonderful, original music from the oblivion, but also to recall and refresh it to new audience and collectors.. Albums signed as IYHHH are released on CDs, packed in uncoventional ecopack in format similar to occasional card with added post card. Each part of the serie will be the same design but different cover and catalogue number.
"Second part of serie IYHHH.
Zoharum presents new project of Dawid Chrapla (Nojens / Antibiotix) and Andrzej Turziak (:Wulgata: , Multipoint Injector). The album shows compilation of various styles: industrial, dark ambient and noise Limited edition to 444 pcs" [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS & JUAN JOSE CALARCO |
Lack Affix |
CD |
"Lack affix isn’t so much about one particular location as it is an homage to the memories of the places we can’t vividly remember. This is about the imagery conjured when certain senses are triggered. It’s about our mind’s recreations of memories past; at once familiar, but also different in some inexplicable way. (Nicholas Szczepanik) Washington DC
-
Since a couple of years I’ve been living in different areas very far from the centre of the city and for Lack Affix I tried to capture this particular feeling I used to get during the nights by the time I lived at the most overcrowded districts; those extremely distant-blurred sounds of night activities as trucks delivering boxes, police helicopters, construction sites working on full hours, gas stations filled with taxis coming and going but mostly that undefinable, abyssal texture of a huge city at very late hours.
As Nicholas was sending me his re-works on my raw stuff and his own recordings for me to work on, we went more into this direction. So, I focused even more on recordings from the same streets and specially from terraces and inside subway entrances to reconstruct the sounds as I used to hear them those times ago; hopefully, even to recover some peaceful sensation I’ve never felt again so far, no idea if related with the dulling sound of those crowded districts or not. (Juan José Calarco)
Buenos Aires, Argentina"
[label / website info]
www.unfathomless.net
"The third release in the Unfathomless series is a duo release of two artists bringing sounds to the table from their own places. Nicolas Szczepanik from Washington and one Juan Jose Calarco from Buenos Aires. They traded these sounds and then started to work on processing these. This resulted in the three pieces on this CD. Its hard to recognize the busy urban life in these pieces. Just as much as you would guess, this could also be the sounds from a small village. Unless of course they stuck out their microphones in the middle of the night, picking up the remains of the day and the birds of the night. Occasionally they work towards a crescendo, but even then its not easy to spot the city. Not that I care about this, I must say. They come up with music that has a lot to imagine about. Great field recordings, and great processing of the sounds. They do an excellent job, mixing all of this together, with great clarity and lots of detail. The sound bounces all over the dynamic spectrum.
If you like say Francisco Lopez, then you're bound to like this too. Highly refined soundscapes." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| TABOR RADOSTI |
Havamal |
CD |
Tábor Radosti is a fantastic band from the Czech Republic. Their debut album came out in 2001 as a self-released CDR that is now totally impossible to find. Tábor Radosti have created a very unique sound that includes drone, voice, samples, but also beats and analogue instruments. Their visuals and lyrics are very much centered around occult themes, if you have ever seen them live you will have been stunned. Klanggalerie is now very proud to start a re-issue program for the first two albums. Many of you have probably not heard of them before, but it is time that they gain popularity outside of their home country. The vocals are spoken in Czech - to Western European or American ears there is a certain similarity to early Laibach, they share the same roughness, but Tabor Radosti also include electronic beats which again is reminiscent of present day Laibach. On this re-issue, we bring back the second album Havamal with also updated artwork and some bonus tracks. NB: We at Klanggalerie stumbled across Tabor Radosti at Castle Festival in Moravia and were so impressed by their performance that we signed them immediately.
https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/h-vam-l
|
2018 |
€14.00 |
|
| TAMARU |
Figure |
CD |
"Vignette #1 - I've had the same headache in my right temple for 8 days straight (too many football grand finals in Europe at odd hours mixed with late nights for music). Most sounds just hurt my head. But my preferred method of falling asleep involves headphones and music. Figure is a warm, treacly soother to both my sore head and desire to sleep.
Vignette #2 - I'm walking home from work with my headphones on. The sky is grey. As I walk, appearing before me is the full 180° arc of a rainbow. To anybody who, like me, has lived in Sydney for the last month and is used to much more regularly blue skies, you will understand the joyous feelings that such a sight might trigger. Figure is my brooding soundtrack which always hints at quiet joy and peaceful satisfaction.
Tamaru has created a contemplative drone work from a setup of bass guitar, volume pedal and delay pedal. The work is majestically beautiful as its simple constructs drag you through a range of of emotional states without seemingly doing very much at all. The bass notes tend to form sinewave sounds which, through subtle shifts in the delay time, are pushed into brief microtonal harmonies. Each track is given time to sink in and envelope. Each is inviting and full of warmth.
Put it down to the weather. Put it down to my health. Whatever it is, Figure is one of the finest releases I've heard for a while and will be returning to my playlist regularly top accompany any of a wide range of moods."
[Adrian Elmer/Cyclic Defrost]
www.trumn.com
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| TAMING THE OUTBACK |
1986-1989 |
CD |
"TAMING THE OUTBACK...
OK ... you probably haven’t heard of this 1980’s UK band before – but they really are worth it ...
Taming The Outback were a three-piece from Southend-on-Sea (Essex, UK) who were active from 1986 to 1989 (hence the title of this retrospective compilation). While they spent most of their time playing outside of the town itself and bemoaning the R&B traditions of the area, they were very much a Southend band. The three members of the original line-up formed after crisscrossing each other’s musical paths in South East Essex in the early 1980s. Melbourne-born drummer Daryl Amos and bass player Jason Sherwin first played together in local band A Wreath For Brezhnev, later meeting-up with guitarist/singer Tony Sampson (who played with Playground) to form Taming The Outback – band characterized by an aggressive, driven rhythm section, strong self-penned songs with a rich, echo-saturated guitar.
Playing live became a primary focus for the band but the endless gigging, drinking and the failure to release the aforementioned second single and the LP (already recorded) probably marked the beginning of the end of the band. Taming The Outback itself played their last gigs in 1989 with the aggression being turned inwards between personnel and instruments.
This limited edition retrospective CD collects the unreleased LP, their 7” single and the cassette EP, along with demos and some rare live recordings – all carefully and professionally remastered by Sting Davies at Big Noise, one of the UK’s top audio restoration engineers. Their music has never sounded better. The deluxe packaging pays homage to those lovely old vinyl gatefold sleeves and has an information-packed 24-page full colour booklet and inner sleeve (initial copies also come with a 2-sided mini-poster with more press cuttings and a sticker). Check out our web page for videos, more images and (aging and fading) press cuttings." [label info]
www.chronoglide.com/equation.html
"Every now and again I find a band or artist that I just am absolutely in love with, only to find upon further research, that they have fallen to obscurity and little to no more material exists to be had. That is very much the case with Taming the Outback. Being a big fan of the post-punk movement as a whole, I was certainly excited to give this disc a spin, but I had no idea what was in store. A 'definitive' collection, culled from the entirety of their 3 year lifespan, '1986-1989' may just be one of the most quintessential post-punk records I've experienced. From the opening notes of 'Fire & Smoke' to the moving, dramatic leads of 'Mistrust' to the final notes of 'American Dream' this cd is a near flawless listen. So many classic influences are channeled throughout this disc, while not a single one of them can quite be used for comparison. The Outback were able to draw from these influences and really put their own stamp on it all. From bass sounds very reminiscent of the Cure's 'Disintegration' album, coupled with certain melodies containing the ghosts of Joy Division's early work to the angst of Killing Joke and hint of the western vibe of Fields of the Nephilim (with whom The Outback shared the stage for a tour) to the tension building vocals of Echo and the Bunnymen and Mission UK'¦ The list just goes on and on, yet I can't stress enough, that at no point does it sound like any of these bands have been recycled in any way. Taming the Outback had something so magical that this world just couldn't accept it, and after just three short years, tensions grew to a head, and the magic was no more. Lucky for us the trio, after 2 decades, decided to release this retrospective of singles originally slated for an abandoned LP, demos, and live tracks. While the quality of some of the live tracks isn't 100% pristine, some of the almost inaudible tape noise, really at its worst just adds a warm, nostalgic feel the latter half of the album. Even the packaging is impressive. A thick, heavy, double gatefold style cardboard sleeve is adorned with the band's infamous crucifixion publicity shot, and comes with a poster, and full 24 page booklet containing lyrics, interviews and reprints of more than a few press clippings about the band; and a second edition limited to just 75 copies (which at last inspection were still available) comes with the same, as well as 4 badges, a mini reprint of 'Alive and Kicking' fanzine from 1987 featuring the band, and an original copy of their only 7' in a picture sleeve. Once again, just a phenomenal record in every way; go out of your way if you must, just make sure you get this one under your belt before you die." [Barton Graham / Chain DLK] |
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| TAPAGE & GARETH DAVIS |
STATES |
LP |
STATES started out as a live electronics setup, developed back in early 2016 by Tijs Ham. The first version combined analogue feedback with digital manipulations which resulted in a self-balancing and self-generating chaotic system, capable of producing deep, melodic and textured soundscapes. During a performance, the setup would be played until it would reach a state in which it was generating its own sonic material. The performer would then take a step back, allowing the system to run on its own. Carefully listening to the movements, progressions, noises, drones, and arpeggios until the urge to intervene took the upper hand and the system would be performed and nudged towards a new state of balance.
The STATES setup went through a series of revisions and alternative versions, each playing with the same basic ingredients, mixed up and prepared in various ways. In the summer of 2017, Tijs started to collaborate with Gareth Davis, well renowned for his work with contemporary and experimental music on the bass clarinet. During an inspired series of recording sessions at STEIM, the STATES setup was reinvented once again and lifted up through the spacious and engaging interplay between reed and recursion.
Recorded at STEIM
In the summer of 2017
Tijs Ham (Electronics)
Gareth Davis (Bass Clarinet)
Artwork by Tijs Ham
Mastered by Jos Smolders at EARLabs
Moving Furniture Records
This is release MFR074
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
https://gareth-davis.bandcamp.com/album/states
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| TAPE MEASURE KID [N + JIM CAMPBELL] |
Zero is an Even Number |
LP + CD |
TAPE MEASURE KID is the new live-playing duo of N, amps + guitar, and Jim Campbell (aka the preterite, www.the-preterite.com), lofi samplers, modified analog 4-track recorder and effects. On their double debut releases “Ours Is A Stubborn Monster” and “Zero Is An Even Number” they expand N's drone / ambient style to something that is at the same time drone and beyond drone, including a sort of dark and sometimes weird improv tendency. very unique and for some of you maybe 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, with a cable feeding the guitar signal to jim's cassette scratch orchestra, with the possibility of real-time manipulation while playing, cutting loose from boundaries.
Both records show this special live-appeal of TAPE MEASURE KID, with the live-in-studio material on the vinyl part and the live-on-stage cuts on the CD part of both releases.
Thick covers printed on rough cardboard, 180g black vinyl, CD contains bonus material, strictly limited to 100 pieces.
https://n1511.bandcamp.com/album/tape-measure-kid-zero-is-an-even-number
|
2013 |
€32.00 |
|
| |
Ours is a Stubborn Monster |
LP + CD |
TAPE MEASURE KID is the new live-playing duo of N, amps + guitar, and Jim Campbell (aka the preterite, www.the-preterite.com), lofi samplers, modified analog 4-track recorder and effects. On their double debut releases “Ours Is A Stubborn Monster” and “Zero Is An Even Number” they expand N's drone / ambient style to something that is at the same time drone and beyond drone, including a sort of dark and sometimes weird improv tendency. very unique and for some of you maybe 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, with a cable feeding the guitar signal to jim's cassette scratch orchestra, with the possibility of real-time manipulation while playing, cutting loose from boundaries.
Both records show this special live-appeal of TAPE MEASURE KID, with the live-in-studio material on the vinyl part and the live-on-stage cuts on the CD part of both releases.
Thick covers printed on rough cardboard, 180g black vinyl, CD contains bonus material, strictly limited to 100 pieces.
https://n1511.bandcamp.com/album/tape-measure-kid-ours-is-a-stubborn-monster
|
2013 |
€32.00 |
|
| TARAB |
I'm Lost |
CD |
"A schizoid-concrete opus of environmental sounds heightened, stimulated, decontextualized, and teased into a psychic puzzle of industrialized and post-industrialized detritus, I'm Lost marks another milestone in the ever impressive catalogue from Australian sound-artist Eamon Sprod, who adopts the moniker Tarab for his endeavors. The title is one that explodes with a multitude of meaning. There's the geographical frustration in losing one's way as the surrounding landmarks fail to match with whatever technology may be in use (e.g. a sextant, a compass, an iPhone, a torn map, one's poor memory of a childhood neighborhood, etc.). There's the psychological implications of being lost from the existential narratives that we have scripted for ourselves due to broken relationships, failed jobs, dead relatives, natural disasters, the hand of God, etc. In addition to these possibilities, Sprod proposes that the notion of "lost" could also be an inversion of the idea of the "found object" or the "found sound," instead becoming the "lost object" or the "lost sound." Sprod's semantic wordplay is hardly a conceptual gimmick, as he fully immerses himself in the confusional framework while maintaining a consummate technical prowess over his field recordings. The compositional approach is rhizomatic, with dead-ends, wrong turns, and reprisals of these same dead-ends and wrong turns, offering a blackhumor sneer at the stubbornness of humanity's inability to learn from our mistakes (e.g. pollution, blight, poverty, disease, etc). Within the album's harsh edits and disjointed collages, Sprod renders sound with dysphoric associations through his vacant drift, crumbled gravel, scalding plasma-tube frequencies, and putrid factory noise. I'm Lost achieves the same psychological gravity as heard in the works of Sudden Infant, P16.D4, and John Duncan with an even greater sense of dislocation from those pioneers of radical tape splicing." [label info]
www.23five.org
" "Careful arrangements of sonic rubbish." That's one hell of a great artist's statement, courtesy of Eamon Sprod (aka Tarab). Over the past decade or so, this Australian sound-artist has quietly produced some of the finer examples of composition through field recording. His work is hardly the stuff of pleasantries from a soft ambient whoosh set as the backdrop to various birdsongs plopped willy-nilly for the intrepid listener to identify. Nope, there's always the threat of psychological, psychic, and existential violence lurking throughout Sprod's work. When the insect chorales push through to the foreground, it's symbolic of pestilence, disease, blight, and the simple fact that much in the outback can fucking kill you. It's easy to tap into the ultra-violent, post-apocalyptic, doomsayer, and/or isolationist scenarios mapped out elsewhere through the Australian psyche (e.g. Mad Max, Chopper, On The Beach, Bad Boy Bubby, etc.); and Sprod carves out his own niche in digging through the hinterlands of urban neglect, locating meaning of psychogeographical import (or the lack there of) within a recontextualized sound object. Since his debut Surfacedrift back in 2004, Sprod's work has steadily exhibited a maturation in conceptualization and aesthetic complexity, culminating in the schizophonic collage-tactics of I'm Lost.
The opening salvo of leaden thud, turbine roar, and pressurized blasts of air slithering through release valves is a torrent of concrete-actions, jump-cuts, and dead-ends, as if Sprod has decided to dematerialize the listener and purposefully mistranslate the coordinates between alternate realities of equally miserable / fascinating locations of industrialized bleakness. When he settles upon a singular space-time continuum, it's a vat of uranium churning at the bottom of an oil drum, while the container itself quickens its half-life through atomic fission. Another turn and Sprod channels an ethereally unholy skree of a thousand particle accelerators amassing their beams on a single contact microphone, ending up with something akin to a far more uncomfortable Phill Niblock or Rhys Chatham, manifested through what could be fluorescent bulbs. The quiet passages of textural rummaging that Sprod intersperses throughout I'm Lost have the queasy feel of somebody pulling off scabs from old wounds. Equal parts Cronenberg and Schimpfluch (Lanz, Phillips, Eb.Er., Zeier, etc.) - so of course, it's fucking awesome." [Aquarius Records]
"When reviewing 'Strata', the previous release by Tarab in Vital Weekly 911, I already noted that he's not the world's busiest bee when it comes to releases, but with steady intervals there's always something new. The title could refer to being lost in a geographical sense of the word, or being lost from 'existential narratives that we have scripted for ourselves' (broken relationships, failed jobs), but Eamon Sprod uses it for 'lost object' and 'lost sound', opposed to 'found object' and 'found sound'. He still uses field recordings on these five pieces here, but also to a wider extent than before the collage/cut-up aspect in all of this. 'Strata' seemed rather un-manipulated, but 'I'm Lost' is surely the product of lots of manipulation. Firstly through the layering of sounds and secondly through cutting these up and re-assembling these sounds. It makes that this music is a bit more noise like than before, jumping around in all these weird and unexpected cuts. It's not easy to say
where Tarab gets his field recordings; if they are tied in to specific location(s), or thematically linked or from whatever source he seems fit. Maybe they all stem from pollution sites, I thought, as to a certain extent it seems to me this album is also a bit darker than his previous work, or perhaps many other works by those who work inside field recordings. It may share the negative worldview of say Joe Colley or the near-broken equipment of Francisco Meirino and with both of them it's a similar collage like styled, dynamic work of collage and cut-up. And, if you have been paying attention in the past few years, it's this dynamic form of noise - loud, quiet, high, low - which, combined with a refined sense of composition, is something that I enjoy very much. Therefore I can easily say that this is Tarab's best work to date. Strictly personal opinion, obviously." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| TARIQUA 'ALAWIYA |
The \'Imara (The Dance of the Stars) |
LP |
This version of the ‘imâra starts with the qahili introduction in the form of a prayer to the prophet, then the tawhid (the affirmation of divine unicity) : « lâ illâha illah llah ».
This same dikhr (psalmody) quickens its pace, at first very slowly, then more and more rapid until the name of Allah is repeated to a binary rhythm.
The fuqâra will shortly retain only hu (from Allahu) as it is gradually imposed by the qutb (the pole). The hu is transformed by this special ‘imâra alchemy into the unique breath of the spirant hamza (the sound emission technique is purely abdominal), and then, when the qutb claps his hands, it becomes more and more prominent.
Associated with the name of Allah, the hu asserts itself by accelerating and quickening the pace to the point of metamorphosing itself into hamza. The balance between the soloist who sings the mystical poems and the rest of the assembly is progressively established, and then the accelration of the hamza finally throws the participants into the abyss of ecstasy.
https://viaparigi.bandcamp.com/album/the-im-ra-the-dance-of-the-stars
|
2021 |
€25.00 |
|
| TARKATAK |
Mormor |
CD |
"Tarkataks MORMOR schafft es mit einer bezaubernden Leichtigkeit, unser Hören in Bewegung zu versetzen. Wir finden uns am Ende der Nacht auf einem Floß, in einem Gewässer aus Klang, soweit das Hören reicht. Akustische Räume öffnen sich, und bieten behutsam bearbeiteten Klängen zuvorkommend ihren Platz an. Melodien singen von ihrem eigenen Entstehen und Vergehen. Statischer Dunst verhüllt die nahe Dämmerung, bis in der Ferne mechanische Oszillationen von einem Ufer und frühen Vögeln künden. Klippen unter der Oberfläche erzeugen schimmernde Interferenzen. Der Ort ist erfüllt von einem fernen Echo letzter Hausmusik, und verstörte Endlosschleifen erzählen in fremden Sprachen von einer unmöglichen Insel, auf der Menschen und Maschinen einen gemeinsamen Rhythmus finden. Versöhnt besteigen wir wieder unser Floß - und lassen uns von MORMOR auf erhabenen Wellen zum fliehenden Horizont tragen." [label info]
"...Tarkatak's music is still highly atmospheric, but much more sparse these days. Each of the four long pieces is built around just a few loops, which Tarkatak plays around with, changing the color of them, getting them out of sync and back in sync again, and such like, and creates a wonderful textured sound. There are times when 'Mormor' reminded me of Taylor Deupree, but then a bit more dark, but it has the same relaxed feeling to it. But there is also the featuring of rhythm, which is also an entirely aspect, certainly when it comes down to stripped down techno rhythms. Quite a break with the past, I think and quite a step forward. Including is a film for one of the tracks, which depicts the sea and the sand, along with a lonely man - the sort of film you'd expect with this lonesome music. Great CD, and hopefully bringing him some more recognition" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| TATTERED KAYLOR |
Selected Realities |
CD & DVD |
" ʻSelected Realitiesʼ is a collection of captured, spatialised and composed sounds as discovered within unique sonic environments by australian sound artist Tessa Elieff AKA Tattered Kaylor. Each composition presents the observer with the audible identities of a time/place/space – as interpreted by Kaylor through immersive sound composition. The works provide a passage by which listeners experience an alternative to our everyday realities, causing us to question our observations we regard as being absolute.
Spaces portrayed include underground drainways, Inner city multi-level stairwells and hidden basements – housing the mechanical organs as used to transform theatre configurations. Each space was chosen not only for the unique sounds as to be found within their boundaries, but also for their provocation of sound – the ways in which their architecture manipulates and interacts with the physicality of the sound wave. Sonic phenomena such as standing wave forms, resonances, beating and flutter are all objects of desire within the recordings and sounds have been captured and spatialised so as to portray these unique artefacts. Characteristics of environments are presented using blunt gestures. The visceral qualities of sounds are neither exaggerated nor swept aside but rather - brought to light - their brutal exposure proving to support the sonic reveal.
Recording methods utilised in the capture of the sounds include Mono, Stereo, MS and self developed surround-recording techniques. Assorted microphones are placed in nonconventional configurations and calibrated individually so as to each present their own recorded sounds as equal to the others – in volume and in sensitivity. Where most audio purists insist on uniformity in microphone (brand and model), Kaylor indulges and exploits the attributes each microphone possess, working by the same ethos as is abided by throughout the selection of each unique space.
The official european release presentation of MOOZAK #005 will be held at the second edition of MOOZAK FESTIVAL on September 21st/22nd, 2012. Tessa Elieff aka Tatterred Kaylor will present a special 5.1 surround sound concert which will definetly sharpen all listeners perception. MOOZAK #005 will be available at the festival's merchandise table in a special package (festivalpass + release)." [label info]
www.moozak.org
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| TAUMEL |
In Pieces - Volume One |
10inch |
"in pieces - volume one" - taumel trifft das ensemble adapter
- - -
im winter 2016 haben sich 'taumel' und das 'ensemble adapter' zu mehreren improvisativen sessions getroffen um einen musikabend zu entwickeln, bei dem die gegensätze und grenzen zwischen komposition und improvisation, freiheit und festlegung, chaos und struktur verschwimmen oder kollidieren. im mittelpunkt der sessions stand die entwicklung einer spezifischen, klang-gestischen musiksprache. jeder musker hat gewissermaßen auf seinem instrument einen charakter und seine jeweils eigene spezifische klang-gestik entwickelt. diese sessions haben wir mitgeschnitten und für "in pieces" als grundlage genommen. "in pieces" besteht aus den remixes dieser sessions, sowie zusätzlich von taumel produziertem studiomaterial.
"in pieces" kann als sureales klanggedicht verstanden werden, als eine abstrakte klang-geschichte, die durch die verschiedensten zustände wandert - von größtem glück bis hin zu raserei und wahnsinn. in den 2 mutierenden klangfeldern kreist die assoziative geschichte um das thema der sprachlichen unveräußerbarkeit und damit auch um das thema 'chaos und ordnung'. diese doppelbödigkeit, der versuch zur schönheit und dessen umkippen in zerstörung und versagen. schreibversuche, sprechversuche, gestammel, gestotter, geschrei, einengung, wegdriften, gesumme... in der mutation der zustände treffen heterogene klangereignisse aufeinander oder werden vermengt zu einer neuartigen masse zwischen lied, sprechen, melodie, harmonie, geräusch, beats, riffs, wort, elektronik und verfremdung. die aktion des instrumentalisten (das instrumentenspiel) steht auf der gleichen ebene wie jede andere klangerzeugende handlung oder stimmliche veräußerung sowie jede elektronische klangerzeugung und ist immer gestisch gedacht, performativ, als handlung, als akustischer tanz.
"volume one" ist der erste teil eines als zweiteiler geplanten musikalischen zusammenhangs ("in pieces - volume two). in zwei klangteilen (seite a, seite b) ist "in pieces - volume one" kein liederzyklus wie unsere anderen serien, z.B. TRAUM, sondern eher ein musikalischer 2-akter, später insgesamt 4-akter. hier teilt sich die gesamtform der musik-serie nicht auf in alben und songs, sondern in alben und deren a+b seiten, wie akt 1, 2, 3 und 4. vielleicht kann man daher "in pieces" auch als akustisches theater hören, oder als hörspiel ohne worte, oder als soundtrack ohne film, oder als film ohne bild, oder eben einfach als eine ordnung sich verändernder klangereignisse.
"off the record"
in "off the record" trifft taumel auf andere musiker und entwickelt alben in kolaboration. hier können verschiedenste formen der musikalischen interaktion ausprobiert werden. in diesem fall von "in pieces" bestand die zusammenarbeit mit dem "ensemble adapter" in den besagten sessions, die das grundgerüst und skelet für das gesamte album bilden.
- - -
INFORMATION:
"in pieces - volume one"
by taumel and ensemble adapter
label: dronerecords
https://www.dronerecords.de
taumel: jakob diehl / sven pollkötter
https://www.taumel.net
publisher: https://www.la-chunga.com/en/
ensemble adapter: Kristjana Helgadóttir / Ingólfur Vilhjálmsson / Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir / Matthias Engler
http://ensemble-adapter.de
instruments: voice, drums, percussions, guitars, tipewriter, flutes, harp, clarinets, prepared piano, keyboards, synthesizer, loops and samplings, electronics, fxs on instruments.
- - -
- - -
"in pieces - volume one" - taumel meets ensemble adapter
in winter 2016, 'taumel' and the 'ensemble adapter' met for several improvisational sessions to develop an evening of music in which the contrasts and boundaries between composition and improvisation, freedom and determination, chaos and structure were to blur or collide. the sessions focused on the development of a specific, sound-gestural musical language. in a way, each musician developed kind of a character on his instrument and its own specific sound-gesture. we recorded these sessions and used them as a basis for "in pieces. "in pieces" consists of the remixes of these sessions, as well as additional studio material produced by taumel.
"in pieces" can be understood as a sureal sound poem, an abstract sound story that wanders through the most different states - from greatest happiness to frenzy and madness. in the 2 mutating sound fields, the associative story revolves around the theme of linguistic inalienability and thus also around the theme of 'chaos and order'. this ambiguity, the attempt at beauty and its overturning into destruction and failure. attempts at writing, attempts at speaking, stammering, stuttering, screaming, constriction, drifting away, humming... in the mutation of states, heterogeneous sound events meet or are mixed to a new kind of soundmash between song, voices, melody, harmony, instruments, noise, beats, riffs, words, electronics and alienation. the action of the instrumentalists (the instrument playing) is on the same level as any other sound producing action or vocal expression as well as any electronic sound production and is always meant gesturally, performatively, as action, as acoustic dance.
"volume one" is the first part of a musical context planned as a two-part work ("in pieces - volume two). in two sound parts (side a, side b) "in pieces - volume one" is not a song cycle like our other series, e.g. TRAUM, but rather a musical 2-act, later altogether 4-act. here the overall form of the musical series is not divided into albums and songs, but into albums and their a+b sides, like act 1, 2, 3 and 4. perhaps, therefore, "in pieces" can also be heard as an acoustic theater, or as a radio play without words, or as a soundtrack without a film, or as a film without a picture, or simply as an order of changing sound events.
"off the record"
in "off the record" taumel meets other musicians and develops albums in collaboration. here different forms of musical interaction can be tried out. in this case of "in pieces" the collaboration with the "ensemble adapter" consisted in these sessions, which form the basic framework and skeleton for the whole album.
https://soundcloud.com/drone-records/taumel-in-pieces-vol-one
"For various reasons, this is an oddball release for the Drone Records' subdivision of Substantia Innominata. Firstly, because one of the musicians is a relatively well-known actor, who played a role in the excellent German TV series 'Dark', a must-see if you like that sort of thing with time travel. He's also a composer for various films. With Sven Pollkötter, he is the duo of Taumel. I am sure Diehl's participation will raise a few unusual eyebrows in the direction of this record. More importantly, the music is not what we know from this series, a subdivision of Drone Records, which, by and large, deal with the more droney end of the musical spectrum, music for the subconsciousness. Taumel teams up with Ensemble Adapter, a four-piece group of percussion, clarinets, flute and harp, along with a ton of effects, tapes, and voices. The six of them recorded a couple of improvisations, which served as the basis of further mixing, remixing and processing by Taumel (who play keyboards, voices, guitars, typewriter, tapes, percussion, sampler, and such like). On this record, there are eight pieces, which in itself is also a thing you don't see a lot with releases on this imprint. The result is still much rooted in improvised music than you would think or even jazz, but with that streak of darkness, that is more common here. A most remarkable record, I'd say, and one that took some time here before it sank in. The resulting pieces of music are just that, pieces of music, rather than soundscaping or long-form pieces. There is excellent clarity here regarding the instruments, which are all pretty well defined within the result. However, the four pieces per side can be seen as one long story, moving from place to place, albeit a more abstract one, of course, but maybe I am distracted by the fact that there is an actor at work here. Also, it has an excellent film character. I can easily imagine visuals to go along with this, and it comes close to the world of soundtracks. Perfect record, but not one that quickly reveals its secrets." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€16.00 |
|
| TAZARTES, GHEDALIA |
5 Rimbaud 1 Verlaine |
10inch |
"Vinyl reissue of this great tribute to the poetry of Rimbaud and Verlaine made by our favorite French sorcerer, who exceptionally abandones his typical imaginary language to reinterpret six small poems in his own way, jumping from one musical genre to the other and happily letting them crunch together in a childish, enthusiastic play. Recorded in Paris in his flatelier around the same time he recorded the wonderful Hystérie Off Music and previously available in an almost unnoticed mini CD edition published by the French label Jardin au Fou, it's now available in a remastered vinyl version - with an excellent 45 rpm cut made by SST in Frankfurt.
Pressing info: 350 copies on black."
|
2016 |
€16.50 |
|
| TEARDO, TEHO & BLIXA BARGELD |
Nerissimo |
LP |
Sie sind zurück! Drei Jahre nach ihrem Debüt „Still Smiling“ veröffentlichen Teho Teardo und Blixa Bargeld ihr neues Album „Nerissimo“. Darauf zeigt sich erneut ihre langjährige, künstlerische und persönliche Verbindung. Während viele gemeinsame Projekte zeitlich befristet sind, haben Teho und Blixa ihre Beziehung neu definiert und erkunden gemeinsam neue musikalische Territorien.
Zum Artwork des Albums wurden sie vom Gemälde „Die Gesandten“ inspiriert, das Hans Holbein der Jüngere 1533 schuf. Darin sind Referenzen zur Philosophie, Religion, Sterblichkeit und Illusion eingebettet – Themen, die ebenfalls auf dem Album aufgegriffen werden. „Nerissimo“ ist der italienische Superlativ für schwarz – und das ist dieses Werk durch und durch. Dabei ist jedoch mitnichten „dunkel“ gemeint, wie die Farbe sonst gerne assoziiert wird. Schwarz enthält alle erdenklichen Farben und ebenso bietet auch die Musik unzählige Möglichkeiten.
So spielen sich in den Songs mikroskopisch kleine Dramen wie in einer Petrischale ab ("Ulgæ") und erstrecken sich zu einer surrealen und kosmischen Siebenminutenreise in „Animelle“. Der Titeltrack eröffnet das Album auf Englisch, beendet es auf Italienisch und wirkt so wie eine Buchstütze, die eine wertvolle Sammlung literarischer Werke umklammert. Neu ist der Einsatz von Holzblasinstrumenten. Umgeben von Tehos Baritongitarre, Glocken und dem Arrangement klassischer Streichinstrumente spielt vor allem die Bassklarinette eine signifikante Rolle. Wie eine Schutzhülle umarmt sie zärtlich Blixas tiefe und gleichzeitig liebliche Stimme.
Die Sprache verbindet auch die beiden Städte Rom und Berlin, in denen das Album aufgenommen wurde und legt den Grundstein für eine emotionale Reise durch die letzten drei Jahre des gemeinsamen Arbeitens. Die mannigfaltigen Facetten der verschiedenen Schwarztöne bilden ein Tagebuch von Geistererscheinungen. Von Farben, die – einmal beim Namen genannt – das ganze Universum verändern können. Sie gleichen einem Flug durch die Nacht, bei dem die vielen einzelnen kleinen Lichter der genannten Hauptstädte von oben sichtbar werden und ein ganz neues Bild ergeben.
https://neubauten.org/de/releases/nerissimo
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| TEHOM |
Phobos |
CD |
Phobos” is an audio documentation of a live performance held at the extraordinary location of Sophienkirche in Wuppertal/Germany during Phobos Festival in 2019. It was recorded directly at the mixing desk and over a microphone capturing the church's acoustics, which can be heard on the recording itself.
The music is atmospheric and ritual. Grim and narrative electronics enriched by TeHÔM’s chanting and processed acoustics of percussive nature are at the same time pleasant for the ear and unsettling for the mind. Phobos is a dark, dark place to be...
https://tehom.bandcamp.com/album/phobos
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| TEMPLE MUSIC |
Alpha - Barton upon Humber - St Peter |
CD-R |
"The Green Man Project is presented as a private limited edition CDR (50x each volume), housed in individual, hand printed ‘art’ wraparound sleeves with information about each location. Each piece is different, as is each location; each is dense, shifting, unexpected, rhythmic, arrhythmic, modal, tonal, abrasive, ethereal... each is as different and yet the same as the Green Man himself. Take yourself on a journey of a different sort with Temple Music…
The Green Man is a symbol familiar to many; it cuts across a vast swathe of interests - folklore, pagan, esoteric, architectural - and is found in a number of different contexts. Place names (farmsteads, woods), inn and pub signs, company logos and, overwhelmingly, churches, all contain references to, and images of, the Green Man, Primary and seconday schools alike set it as an art project. So ubiquitous is it, in fact, that most people will not have to have it explained to them - you can simply refer to the Green Man and they will know what you are talking about. Or, at any rate, they will know the symbol... So what exactly is the Green Man a symbol for? In broad terms, there is an agreement that he is part of our pagan past, a symbol of death, rebirth and renewal, the spirit of the Woods - Jack O? The Green, Robin Hood (Wood), the Lord of Misrule, the Corn King. A British, Celtic or Norse god brought into the churches (where he is often found in conjunction with Sheela-na-Gig) to properly sanctify them by our superstitious forebears. So broad are the terms of reference, so much does the Green Man seem to represent and signify, it seems that he is what you make of him and what you want him to be...
All the World is drown’d
Roots of Trees are drown’d
Ocean breathes and sleeps
Leaf and Branch are drown’d
Here I breathe and sleep
Tracy Jeffery - Harp, Vox
Stephen Robinson - Bass, 3 Drone Harmonium, Lapp Frame Drum
Alan Trench - Lyre, Dulcimer, Guitar, VSS30, Birds, Rainstick
www.myspace.com/templemusick" [label info]
www.shiningday.pl
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
| TEMPLE OF TIERMES |
Gandharva Constellation |
CD |
"Industrial Recollections presents definite release of piece of obscure Finnish ritual-noise history. Back in 1995, Jarkko Toivonen (of cult black-doom band Unholy) and Mikko A (Grunt) was living in same city, and collaborated with session of difficult and painful experimental recordings. At first some of these very first recordings of TEMPLE OF TIERMES was privately distributed. Home dubbed tapes without covers, given to handful of people. In late 90's half of the material was issued as tape limited to 28 copies. Finally 25 years after original recording sessions, long lost original master tape was discovered, with full recording session and Industrial Recollections makes it available for the first time. Roaring noise, eccentric guitar works, human skull percussions and piercing feedback all blend into unique mix of experiments of two different kind of artists. Presented in stylish digipak."
https://www.nhfastore.net/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=11541
|
2020 |
€12.50 |
|
| TEMPLEGARDEN'S |
Live at Maschinenfest 2001 |
MC |
"for the cherished series of maschinenfest live recordings, raubkauf goes way back in time: 2001, az aachen, moisture dripping from the low ceiling on the heads of the hundreds attending. on stage the artist collective templegarden’s, including - among others - members of synapscape, asche and morgenstern. this is a fine document of their peculiar dark ambient sound, half electronic and half acoustic, heavily influenced by tolkien’s books and a romantic outlook on nature. the band is in an enhanced mood, playful and focused at the same time, making this a rewarding return!
recorded live at maschinenfest, az aachen, germany, october 6th, 2001.
templegarden's was: andrea börner-schramm, leigh hunt, tim kniep, philipp münch, andreas schramm."
https://raubbau.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-maschinenfest-2001-az-aachen
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| TEMPLUM N.R. |
Spectrum DCXCIII: Poison Portals |
CD |
On one hazy night I met an elderly man sitting in an old wooden chair. He was wearing an elegant white suit and I could not help noticing the simple white lines in his fore- and middle fingers. In the remaining fingers he had circles. The pitch-black sand of the shore absorbed all the light from the sky. Regardless, I saw fifty-meter-high waves crashing down behind him – and at the same time, they remained static.
‘Spectrum DCXCIII: Poison Portals’ has a luring, fatal beauty of its own. Redirecting, throbbing analog electronics, slowly swallowing droning textures and sinuous rhythms are accompanied with eternal, eerie melodies – all reeking of the primordial pleasures. Obscure radio transmissions and telepathic resonances are emerging from the parallel universes and will sink you even deeper into the ignorance of your very self or towards the ravishing beauty of transformation.
The other worlds and realities are present both in sound and vision; A triple-bladed iron dagger, brought to this world through trancework. Assume its form, pass the Poison Portals, and continue until the opposites intermingle and known territories vanish beneath the colossal waves.
This CD version also includes the previously limited ‘The Mass Rattle’ ep with tracks ‘The Viscous Tomb Liquid’ and a Telepath Remix of the ‘I am His Sacrifice’.
The album is enclosed in a customised and screen printed Sublunar series cardboard covers, including five two-sided insert cards. Limited to 300 copies.
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| TERUGGI, DANIEL |
The Four Seasons |
CD |
"The Four Seasons, a possible interview with myself Where does the title The Four Seasons come from? This project started inadvertently in 1993 with the composition of the first work of the cycle Instants d’hiver (Winter instants). It is a work in several movements, some very short, coming from unfinished musical projects that I had abandoned. All these previous projects should have taken place in wintertime during the five years preceding the composition. I selected a lot of material I had prepared for these projects and starting from there I composed the piece. Then came Summer Band in 1996, for bandoneon and tape, whose title came naturally for me in reference to a work of Piazzolla's that I loved and [that] I played a lot as a teenager ("Verano Porteño", Autumn in Buenos Aires), it was also a journey into the bandoneon and its fascinating sound, which is an invitation to movement and rhythm. Twelve years passed between these two works and the next one, Autumn Song for piano and tape, composed in 2008. This is an introspective work rich in complementary dialogues between the two sources, a sort of pas de deux in sound. Having named this work implied that one day it would lead to the complete cycle; it was not clear during the composition of Winter Moments and Summer Band, but I decided to go until the end and give my vision of the four seasons; the decision thus took place in 2008. For this, the last season was needed and it only arrived in 2013 with Springtime; an acousmatic work that finishes/completes the cycle in a discovery game of this eagerly-awaited season. In the final version of the cycle, I organized the seasons in a different order to conclude with fall and thus present in a climatic disorder: winter, summer, spring, autumn. Are there any references to past works in this cycle? Not at all; one could imagine Goethe or Vivaldi watching behind my imagination, but it is rather the circumstances of the chosen titles throughout/over the twenty years that have created this total dimension. I have already mentioned the "Verano Porteño" by Piazzolla which was already a seasonal cycle, but only the Verano interested me, the rest of the cycle much less. All my works have each a strong identity but also present very different facets of my composition. Both acousmatic works are made up of a multiplicity of different sounds, in contrast with the works for piano or bandoneon and tape, only using the sound produced by the instrument and its transformations. You use the word tape to define the sounding part that is played with the instruments. Why? One could say that this is an old pre-digital habit when music was recorded on magnetic tape. With the disappearance of analog media, the word continued to be used to define this second sound element associated with a performing instrument, as opposed to the so-called real-time sound processing of instrumental sound, another situation in vogue. The word has remained more or less present among composers. In my case, as Summer Band was for "bandoneon and band" (tape is bande in French), I did not want to change the word for another, and even today I continue to use the word tape without any complex... I've never heard anyone I saying he did not understand what I was talking about. Same thing with the Spanish Cinta, the pun bandoneon and “band” doesn’t work of course in another language. (...)"
https://megadisc-classics.com/album/daniel-teruggi/
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| TEST DEPARTMENT / TEST DEPT. |
Disturbance |
LP |
In an ideal world, Disturbance, the new album from industrial pioneers Test Dept, would not exist. It wouldn’t need to. Britain would not stand divided by xenophobia. Working class communities would not be under siege. Capitalism would not have created a climate change crisis pushing the planet towards a dangerous brink. And the Thatcherite ideals that Graham Cunnington and Paul Jamrozy spent Test Dept’s early years raging against would not be so terrifyingly back in political vogue.
Back in1981, Cunnington, Jamrozy and a revolving door of talented artists from disparate disciplines and backgrounds formed Test Dept, forging an incendiary new sound from a squat in New Cross that made them underground heroes, landing the group under surveillance by the British government. 37 years later, on Disturbance, that sound is as incendiary as ever.
“It began with a project to do with our archive,” recalls Cunnington. It was the early 2010s and Test Dept had been dormant for years. The pair wanted to sort through Test Dept’s old recordings to “re-establish our history and get our music out there again” after record label red tape left many of their 14 albums out of print.
When attention turned to the “next logical step of a new album”, an idea emerged – taking germs of ideas from old songs and turning them into new, sledgehammer-heavy sonic experiments full of powerful protest poetry. Politics had come full circle. It felt fitting to do the same with their music.
The result is an album that at once peers into the past and roars into the future, across eight tracks that conjure the raw power of Test Dept in their original, 1980s incarnation while adding new elements. “We’re different people now – not spring chickens anymore,” laughs Jamrozy. “We’re still angry but it’s tempered by a slightly different wisdom. We tried to upgrade the sound, to soup things up further.”
“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer to shape it,” the poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht once wrote. It’s a mantra that continues to drive Test Dept. who return to their past on this eviscerating new album in order to move into a bold new future. They hope Disturbance can soundtrack a society doing the same.
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Disturbance
by Test Dept
Wishlist
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dauvit thumbnail
dauvit Test Dept. have always sounded like Test Dept. and nobody else sounds like Test Dept.
Another fantastic release.
jvvoda thumbnail
jvvoda Not a case of sentimental cash-out reunion call, quite the opposite. This record will keep you pushed to the edge of your comfort zone, and true to the title, it will leave you disturbed - in the best possible way - as a wake up call from your apathy and ignorance back to action.
mipsen thumbnail
mipsen What a great interpretation of my favorite track of the "Unacceptable Face of Freedom"! The whole album is extremely recommended! Favorite track: Gatekeeper.
R5N thumbnail
R5N Just a fucking brilliant album. 🤘Glad to see such a great return.
Bryon Wilson thumbnail
Bryon Wilson Love the album! I honestly can’t say what my favorite track is. I keep listening to the entire thing straight through. Great work.
Synthonic thumbnail
Synthonic You don`t listen to Test Dept, you feel them. If you have a heart, that is.
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more...
Landlord 00:00 / 04:41
Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
£5.99 GBP or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
package image package image
Single black vinyl in gatefold sleeve with artwork designed by David Altweger
Includes unlimited streaming of Disturbance via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
£17.99 GBP or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
package image
CD in 6 panel digipack with artwork designed by David Altweger
Includes unlimited streaming of Disturbance via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
£8.99 GBP or more
1.
Speak Truth To Power 06:21
2.
Landlord 04:41
3.
Debris 04:33
4.
Full Spectrum Dominance 07:27
5.
Information Scare 04:50
6.
Gatekeeper 05:32
7.
GBH84 04:21
8.
Two Flames Burn 07:53
about
In an ideal world, Disturbance, the new album from industrial pioneers Test Dept, would not exist. It wouldn’t need to. Britain would not stand divided by xenophobia. Working class communities would not be under siege. Capitalism would not have created a climate change crisis pushing the planet towards a dangerous brink. And the Thatcherite ideals that Graham Cunnington and Paul Jamrozy spent Test Dept’s early years raging against would not be so terrifyingly back in political vogue.
Back in1981, Cunnington, Jamrozy and a revolving door of talented artists from disparate disciplines and backgrounds formed Test Dept, forging an incendiary new sound from a squat in New Cross that made them underground heroes, landing the group under surveillance by the British government. 37 years later, on Disturbance, that sound is as incendiary as ever.
“It began with a project to do with our archive,” recalls Cunnington. It was the early 2010s and Test Dept had been dormant for years. The pair wanted to sort through Test Dept’s old recordings to “re-establish our history and get our music out there again” after record label red tape left many of their 14 albums out of print.
When attention turned to the “next logical step of a new album”, an idea emerged – taking germs of ideas from old songs and turning them into new, sledgehammer-heavy sonic experiments full of powerful protest poetry. Politics had come full circle. It felt fitting to do the same with their music.
The result is an album that at once peers into the past and roars into the future, across eight tracks that conjure the raw power of Test Dept in their original, 1980s incarnation while adding new elements. “We’re different people now – not spring chickens anymore,” laughs Jamrozy. “We’re still angry but it’s tempered by a slightly different wisdom. We tried to upgrade the sound, to soup things up further.”
“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer to shape it,” the poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht once wrote. It’s a mantra that continues to drive Test Dept. who return to their past on this eviscerating new album in order to move into a bold new future. They hope Disturbance can soundtrack a society doing the same.
credits
released March 1, 2019
Graham Cunnington - Percussion, Electronics, Vocals
Paul Jamrozy - Percussion, Electronics, Vocals
Zel Kaute - Drums
Lottie Lou - Electronics, Live Sound
David Altweger - Visual Director
Rob Lewis - Additional Drums
Ashley Davies - Bass / Percussion
Laura Thompson - Additional Vocals on 'Gatekeeper'
Roz Corrigan - Piano on 'Debris'
Michelle Outram - Cello on 'Truth'
Jordi Blanchar & Ilenia Bombardi - Additional Vocals
Recorded:
Flesh & Bone Studios, Hackney
The Shed, Nunhead
Mixed & Produced: The Shed
Engineered: Lottie Lou
Mastered: Giovanni Versari at La Maestra Mastering, Tredozio (FC)
GBH84 Is dedicated to The Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign
Artwork by David Altweger
Photos by Michael Kötter |
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Disturbance |
CD |
In an ideal world, Disturbance, the new album from industrial pioneers Test Dept, would not exist. It wouldn’t need to. Britain would not stand divided by xenophobia. Working class communities would not be under siege. Capitalism would not have created a climate change crisis pushing the planet towards a dangerous brink. And the Thatcherite ideals that Graham Cunnington and Paul Jamrozy spent Test Dept’s early years raging against would not be so terrifyingly back in political vogue.
Back in1981, Cunnington, Jamrozy and a revolving door of talented artists from disparate disciplines and backgrounds formed Test Dept, forging an incendiary new sound from a squat in New Cross that made them underground heroes, landing the group under surveillance by the British government. 37 years later, on Disturbance, that sound is as incendiary as ever.
“It began with a project to do with our archive,” recalls Cunnington. It was the early 2010s and Test Dept had been dormant for years. The pair wanted to sort through Test Dept’s old recordings to “re-establish our history and get our music out there again” after record label red tape left many of their 14 albums out of print.
When attention turned to the “next logical step of a new album”, an idea emerged – taking germs of ideas from old songs and turning them into new, sledgehammer-heavy sonic experiments full of powerful protest poetry. Politics had come full circle. It felt fitting to do the same with their music.
The result is an album that at once peers into the past and roars into the future, across eight tracks that conjure the raw power of Test Dept in their original, 1980s incarnation while adding new elements. “We’re different people now – not spring chickens anymore,” laughs Jamrozy. “We’re still angry but it’s tempered by a slightly different wisdom. We tried to upgrade the sound, to soup things up further.”
“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer to shape it,” the poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht once wrote. It’s a mantra that continues to drive Test Dept. who return to their past on this eviscerating new album in order to move into a bold new future. They hope Disturbance can soundtrack a society doing the same.
released March 1, 2019
Graham Cunnington - Percussion, Electronics, Vocals
Paul Jamrozy - Percussion, Electronics, Vocals
Zel Kaute - Drums
Lottie Lou - Electronics, Live Sound
David Altweger - Visual Director
Rob Lewis - Additional Drums
Ashley Davies - Bass / Percussion
Laura Thompson - Additional Vocals on 'Gatekeeper'
Roz Corrigan - Piano on 'Debris'
Michelle Outram - Cello on 'Truth'
Jordi Blanchar & Ilenia Bombardi - Additional Vocals
Recorded:
Flesh & Bone Studios, Hackney
The Shed, Nunhead
Mixed & Produced: The Shed
Engineered: Lottie Lou
Mastered: Giovanni Versari at La Maestra Mastering, Tredozio (FC)
GBH84 Is dedicated to The Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign
Artwork by David Altweger
Photos by Michael Kötter
https://testdept.bandcamp.com/album/disturbance
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| TESTCARD |
# 14 : DISCOVER AMERICA |
BOOK |
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Jens Thomas:
Alle gegen einen. Ursachen und Folgen des Antiamerikanismus.
Oliver Uschmann:
Die Guten und die Bösen. Beobachtungen zum amerikanischen Aufstand gegen George W. Bush.
Martin Büsser:
Befreite Klänge. Die neue Lust an Experiment und Kollektiv – von BLACK DICE bis Load Records.
Christoph Jacke: Quiet Is The New Loud – neue stille Songschreiber in den USA oder das Dazwischen von Punk und Techno.
Thomas Venker:
AEM. American Electronic Music – Sounds ohne local scene(s).
Matthias Schönebäumer:
We Almost Lost Detroit. Pop-Standort Detroit: Schwarze Musikkultur zwischen Verfall und Aufschwung.
Yvonne Kunz:
Williamsburg-Porträt.
Christian Schmidt:
Von Amerika lernen heißt siegen lernen! Die US-Zine-Kultur.
Jens Petz Kastner:
»¡Vivan las Americas!« Neozapatismus und Popkultur.
Roger Behrens: Bossa Nova. Fünf Versuche einer Annäherung.
Robert Engelbrecht : Das Brummen eines Kontinents. Drones und Minimalismus.
Hans Plesch:
Christian Wolff und Frederic Rzewski. Zwei amerikanische Komponisten.
Yvonne Kunz : U.S.A. à la Carte. GRAND BUFFET: Independent im Wildlife Park des weißen Mittelstandsamerika.
Silke Hackenesch:
The Wrong Nigga to Fuck Wit!: Die HipHop-Kultur als zeitgenössische Form des Black Freedom Struggle?
Simon Strick:
Rap und Tod. Vom Gangsta-Rap zu den amerikanischen Rap-Megastars der 1990er.
Ina Beyer:
Smells like Queer Spirit.Tim Stüttgen: Made in USA: Gender Studies und ihre Wirkung auf die Popkultur.
Katja Scheer: »White Fantasy of Overcoming Racism« – Die Riot Grrrl-Bewegung zwischen Anspruch und der Bildung eines weißen Subjekts »Grrrl«
Martin Büsser:
Beschädigte Provinz. Die Filme des Harmony Korine.
Holger Roemers:
»It’s A Whole New World Out There«. 54, ALMOST FAMOUS und ROCK STAR: Hollywoodfilme über das Pop-Milieu.
Andreas Rauscher:
Doing The Right Thing – Die Filme des Spike Lee.
Thomas Ballhausen:
Jacob’s Ladder. Das Vietnamtrauma im Horrorfilm.
Marcus Stiglegger:
Heimatfilme ... Discovering Oliver Stones Amerika
Susann Witt-Stahl:
Im Gespräch mit Moshe Zuckermann
Franziska Meifert:
USA-Lektüren. Eine aktuelle Bücherschau.
Manfred Heinfeldner: Im Rhythmus des Beat – Das andere Amerika schrei(b)t: Kerouac und Co revoltieren gegen Mainstream USA
Peter Bräunlein:
Kritischer Cowboy. Kinky Friedman zwischen Subversion und Klamauk.
Bernhard Herbordt:
Komar & Melamid – Mythos, American Dreams und die Affirmative Ästhetik.
Rezensionen
Zurück
www.testcard.de
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| THALASSA |
Bonds of Prosperity |
LP |
"Thalassa is the avant-drone project for Aaron Turner (Sumac, Isis, Mamiffer, House Of Low Culture, etc.) and William Fowler Collins. In his many guises, Turner articulates a chimerical aesthetic that intrepidly explores beyond the scope of sludge, hardcore and post-rock. In Collins’ blackened earth drones, he steadfastly engages in the elemental exploration of the New Mexican landscape that often inspire comparisons to the potency of black metal without the need for a single blast beat. It makes a hell of a lot of sense these two would eventually cross paths and collaborate.
The project name Thalassa harkens to ancient Greek mythology of a primordial sea-goddess, later reprised in the early 20th century through an obscure psychoanalytic treatise by Sándor Ferenczi who posited ideas of human sexuality in symbolic return to the sea. For Turner, the project's name was sparked by a blood disorder called Thalassemia, whose root name is that very same Greek goddess. 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 from Turner and Collins on their debut release, Bonds of Prosperity.
Pressurized torrents of sound build incrementally through layers upon layers of
aggregated grit, soot and flotsam. Given the ecological and mythic references, these tracks suitably take the long-view through a uniquely muscular approach to American minimalism. Thalassa finds itself in very good company with Maeror Tri, Deathprod, Sunn O))) and Lustmord.
2XLP edition of 300 copies, housed in a custom printed 2LP sleeve, pressed on black vinyl only."
sigerecords.blogspot.de
|
2017 |
€27.50 |
|
| THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC |
Musicamorosa |
CD |
"Im Schatten blühen junge Mädchen pink? Jorge Mantas jedenfalls ließ sich durch Proust inspirieren, untermischt mit von Tristesse und Abschied geprägten Liebesgeschichten von Poe bis Wong Kar-Wai, Mädchenbildern von Waterhouse und Rosetti bis Rohmer und Deville, aber auch den Erotika-Ikonen der Fotografen Guido Argentini und Roy Stuart. Mein erster Eindruck - Bilitis - war also gar nicht so abwegig. Ein Computermönch träumt von Sensuality & Sadness und schon treibt Sublimation delikate Blüten. Gefühlskitsch bekommt im Halbschatten einer künstlerischen Sensibilität gleich etwas Sublimes. Musik als Geliebte, umsponnen von einer Delectatio morosa, der Lust an sündigen Vorstellungen? Fast alle Titel stammen aus Prousts Die Gefangene. Colleen spielt dazu La Lectrice und alles wird gleich ‚Pariserisch‘. Nicht Lukas, der Hl. Antonius ist der Schutzpatron der Künstler. Das ist nicht halb so sarkastisch, wie Dionysius als Nothelfer gegen Kopfschmerzen. Ich schwanke, während Mantas mollige Drones mich umschweifen und verführerisch ihre Gestalt wechseln, zwischen Kopfzerbrechen und Gedankenverbrechen - wie denn auch anders, wenn eine Musik gleichzeitig so schön, fatal und schizophon daher
kommt. Ach wie so schwelgerisch öffnet der Laptop seine Speicher, auf deren Grund man auf Wagners Liebestod und Debussy stoßen würde. Was gerade noch knirschte wie Sand oder schäumte wie die Brandung um Aphrodites Knöchel, ist nun blinkende Gitarre, dann wieder eingedampftes orchestrales Rauschen. Als Encore folgt ein ausführlicher Remix durch @c, schnüffelnd wie eine Maus, die rosige Nackedeis wittert." [Bad Alchemy]
"Marcel Proust has been one of the main sources of inspiration to me in the last years. His ideas devoted to the affections of the human heart, his approach deeply rooted on the long literary French tradition in which love can only be lived in sadness, is something that goes much beyond pure aesthetic. So it came only natural that somehow I would try to convey this literary and philosophic interest with the sound aesthetic I pursue. The image of a sleepless solitary writer confined to a Parisian soundproof room, has everything to do with the experience of a modern laptop composer, alone in the dark of a room, in a sort of headphone ecstasy with his acoustic fragments of reality. Both experience loneliness. Both are melancholic dreamers creating from an imaginary memory of the world. Whether this music is truly related with some of the delicate emotions depicted in A la recherche du temps perdu or not, it's up to the listener to decide. Could this be a possible sound equivalent to the literary images of affection written by Proust in the early 20th century? Is the sound atmosphere of each piece loaded with some kind of sensual aura? Would ever be possible to express a sadness full of joy in the same moment of music? Probably we'll never know. But perhaps we think about it next time we'll listen to musicamorosa." [Jorge Mantas]
www.cronicaelectronica.org
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| 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 RITA |
Journey of the K-Verband |
7inch |
JOURNEY OF THE K-VERBAND was recorded in the summer of 2011 and is the second chapter of THE VOYAGE OF THE DECIMA MAS. The K-Verband was the WWII German frogman equivalent to the Italian Decima MAS; taking example from the Italian frogmen and their missions. THE RITA has used the WWII frogmen theme as representative of the recordings, this time via sound sources from the miking of ocean fishing lures while jigging for Lingcod in the same areas snorkelled for the VOTDM source recordings. The Traumatone underwater contact mics attached directly to the lures meant that every sound after the various Lingcod took the lure and mic inside their throats was captured for eventual further analogue manipulation. With almost no trial and error, this technically ‘risky’ technique for picking up natural and violent source sounds turned out even better than expected between the initial taking of the mic and lure, the mic’d lure moving in the throat, and the eventual water surface splashing and the on deck removal of the mic’d lure from the fish’s mouth.
A natural extension between the idea of the VOTDM snorkelling source sounds, the sounds now come directly from Lingcod that occupy the waters just kilometres from the original snorkel site in Pender Harbour, BC, Canada.
Included with the release is an original illustration by BC First Nations artist Larissa Healey commissioned by THE RITA.
https://4ibrecords.com
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Queen Sheets |
do-LP |
"Some time ago a colleague emailed me and informed me that an artist made a short video of herself knitting to THE RITA’s ‘Thousands of Dead Gods.’ I watched the short video and thought it was interesting, but then also noticed that the woman had a link included on her ‘Instagram’ account for her sculptural works. I had a look at her work and was instantly taken by the sheer immensity and power of her structures, all exemplary of long hours of labour and provocative patterns behind the materials. The most notable structure for me was the piece ‘Untitled Form (Barrier)’ which was made up of timber, bricks, mortar and a semi-dynamic use of the material chiffon to hold bricks in a hanging fashion. The semi-opaque, stretching quality behind the white chiffon with height of almost 8 feet instantly brought to mind the focus of my past recordings that delved into the world of nylon and stocking fetishism, eventually contemplating the semi-opaque salmon pink qualities behind the tights used by classical ballerinas and the expanded practice and tradition therein. Looking at an imposing 8’4 x 8′ structure like Megan Miller’s ‘Untitled Form (Barrier)’ and it’s materials made me think that any sound made by the structure’s movement of bricks against each other piled in a virtual sling of moving chiffon would be perfect for textural, abrasive sound source. After some discussion with Megan, it was decided that a new structure would be built for a collaboration with THE RITA that embraced not themes of fetishism, but expanded utilitarian themes around the use of nylon; the stockings, tights and nylon that women wore to work, what our mother’s wore for warmth, comfort, and most importantly the virtual make-up of the fabric, the inherent qualities it featured. Her eventual new outdoor sculpture was entitled ‘Queen Sheets’ and also made use of brick and mortar, expanding over a flat area with semi-opaque chiffon stretching over the whole of the area, covering it. ‘Untitled Form (Barrier)’ was also erected again in the same outdoor area, and this time the labor intensive building process of both sculptures was recorded for eventual processing by THE RITA. Sam McKinlay
‘’An exquisite and entirely feminine material, much can be said of nylon. It moves like us and with us, stretches like us and with us, and, although extremely delicate and easily torn, the fiber is strong enough to make me wonder if it could support bricks. Pantyhose become our second skin, our birth-skin held in its softness. The sound of its softness is remarkable – the sound of second skin of birth – skin and the light sweet between.’’ – In a letter to Sam from Megan on March 31th , 2014 – (in response to the Rita’s ‘’Ballet Feet Positions’’)
Both records are impressive, inspired and near perfect examples of Mr. McKinlay brutal sonic talents. This is easily one of the highlights of this year noise releases and a high point in the Rita discography. A must have item for HNW/Noise fans; but also a great entry point into the genre to see how one of the masters of the form performs.
Double Lp has been pressed on 140 gr black vinyl with black label and black inner sleeve and comes in a deluxe silver silkscreen on black cardboard sleeve, limited to 199 copies w/insert in luxury 160 gr ivory paper, plus four color photographs. All package in a clear plastic sleeve to protect double Lp, cover and inserts from dirt, shelf wear and damage." [label info]
|
2021 |
€26.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| THE TRIPLE TREE |
Ghosts |
CD |
"Tony Wakeford kann's nicht lassen! Als ob der umtriebige Mr. "Sol Invictus" nicht schon mit zahlreichen Nebenprojekten (u.a. Grey Force Wakeford, Trio Noir, L'Orchestre Noir, Hawthorn) ausgelastet wäre, hebt er nun gemeinsam mit Andrew King sowie ausgewählten "Familienmitgliedern", u.a. Renee Rosen, Guy Harries, John Murphy (u.a. Knifeladder, SPK, Death in June, Shining Vril) oder Kris Force (Amber Asylum), ein weiteres namens The Triple Tree aus der Taufe, dessen Debut "Ghosts" niemand geringerem als dem britischen Ghoststory-Autor M.R. James (1862-1936) gewidmet ist.
Bereits das James-Zitat "Depend upon it! Some of these things are so, but we do not know the rules!" auf der Rückseite des Booklets deutet die Marschrichtung an: Festgelegte Regeln kennt man hier nicht, und schon gar nicht die des Neofolk. Folglich sollte man sich der Scheibe exakt unter diesem Gesichtspunkt nähern, denn "Ghosts" ist abgedreht, "Ghosts" ist schaurig und "Ghosts" verlangt dem Rezipienten zeitweise einiges an Toleranz ab. Sägende Geigenläufe, diffuse Feldaufnahmen, schräge Flöten-/Pfeiftöne, dumpfe Percussions sowie viele weitere Soundelemente, oft subtil disharmonisch zusammengefügt, erzeugen eine Atmosphäre, welche den Hörer direkt in James' gespenstische Szenarien zu führen vermag, in staubige Bibliotheken, schmutzige Hinterhöfe oder düstere Gemäuer des viktorianischen England. Die Stimmen von "Dr. Wakeford" und "The Rev. King" tun dazu ihr übriges. Während "The Mezzotint" oder "Lost Hearts" in schlichtem Erzählstil dargeboten werden, kommt "The Stalls" als altertümlicher Kanon daher und "Black Crusade" scheint von beiden direkt in einer Kaschemme der Londoner Docks eingesungen worden zu sein.
Doch "Ghosts" ist auch berückend schön. Neben dem durch gezupfte Gitarre und markante Männerstimmen fast erhaben wirkenden "Three Crowns" sind es hauptsächlich jene Titel, in denen die beteiligten Damen Autumn Grieve, Kris Force oder Mercy Liao gesanglich zum Zuge kommen. Dabei kristallisiert sich vor allem das perlende Duett "The Malice of Inanimate Objects" als Höhepunkt heraus. Aber selbst dieses ist von einer unheilsschwangeren Aura umgeben, da die Lieder ständig durch schrille Versatzstücke gebrochen werden, die sich entweder als Intros/Outros oder komplette Tracks einschleichen. Genau das richtige, um die Gruselstimmung immer wieder zu entfachen.
Trotz alledem kommt jedoch eine typische Eigenschaft der Inselbewohner nicht zu kurz, der Humor. Im Booklet präsentieren sich die beiden Protagonisten nämlich launig, wie direkt aus einem der schauerlichen Romane entsprungen. Schrullige Fotos für ein ebenso schrulliges und gerade deshalb fesselndes Album. M.R. James wäre sicher stolz gewesen!" [Medienkonverter]
"The Triple Tree consists of Tony Wakeford (Sol Invictus) and Andrew King aided and abetted by M, Autumn Grieve, Kris Force (Amber Asylum), Guy Harries, Renee Rosen and John Murphy (Death In June, SPK, KnifeLadder), and is an extended homage to the supernatural fiction of M. R. James (with a certain nod to his notable studies in the New Testament Apocrypha) the greatest ghost story writer in the English language, and the finest medievalist of his generation. Join Dr Wakeford and the Rev. King as they search for the Three Crowns, attempt to Cast the Runes, purchase The Mezzotint, follow Mr Abney’s "remarkable enlightenment" in Lost Hearts, and join Count Magnus on the "Black Crusade"! Winter evenings will never be the same again... Digipak with booklet." [label info]
".. Anthony Wakeford and Andrew King is best known as part of the project Sol Invictus, that for more than two decades has combined neo-folk and neoclassical influences with electronic experimentation. The comprehensive experiences in that particular field beautifully flourish on this tribute to haunted tales of medieval times under the project flag "Triple Tree". The atmosphere is perfectly accomplished with some beautiful male and female vocal integrated in medieval folk-expressions that stylishly turns associations towards Dead Can Dance. As a contrast to the organic sounds, the electronic part of the album first of all operates in ambient-oriented soundscapes to create haunting atmospheres of ghouls. "Ghosts" is a strong sonic depiction of early ghost stories from M.R. James, inspiring the listener to dive into the dark forces of the medieval author!" [NM, Vital Weekly]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE & CINEMA PERDU |
Invocation |
CD |
"in our lives we meet various people and we get to spend some quality time with a couple of them. depending on who we spend our time with and in what state of mind the time together is spent, we talk about friendship. and the more honest and unconditional this friendship is, the more it adds to the quality of our respective lives. it's a rare thing when you meet someone and right from the first moment you know you add to each others lives. it only happens a few times - and maybe not even that often - but we have all been there and we all recognize those moments; as well as the people it concerns. and yes, those times bring back a warm and fuzzy feeling. but then there are the many ways a friendship can end: a wrongfully interpreted word, a misunderstood thought, incompatible visions or simply because it started to cost more energy then it gave back. as incomprehensible a friendship can begin, it can also end. sadly there are also true and deep friendships that have never ended, even when said friend has left this dimension. the feeling that we're left with is just about the worst feeling ever ... with 'invocation' the [law-rah] collective and cinema perdu present a split album with personal views and interpretations of the emptiness that remains. finding closure in a process of grief. not the most happy of feelings, but it's a feeling we all recognize, an emotion we can all relate to and maybe the one thing we all have problems with giving it a place in our lives. the process of composing, writing, producing and finishing 'invocation' has helped us seeing things in perspective again after loosing loved ones. 'invocation' - simply to have that final conversation, to share that final drink, or just to say you care ..." [label info]
"So today we will be looking at (and listening to, of course) some darkly pulsing ambient and asking, “just what is it about this music that makes it so great for processing inarticulate emotions?” Well before I answer that, and while I try not to ‘zone out’ entirely, let me just articulate my feelings right now by saying: This... Is... Great. And, furthermore, it pulses darkly and in all the right places. Ahhh…
It’s a collaborative effort, this, between The [Law-Rah] Collective (Bauke van der Wal) and Cinema Perdu (Martijn Pieck) -- each performing and contributing two individual tracks and a fifth track wherein they combine their compositional efforts. Opening track, ‘1’, by [Law-Rah], pleasantly and gently throbs like the aural equivalent of a deep red Rothko painting. For musical touchstones, think Nurse With Wound and Locust. His second individual track, ‘5’, drones slightly more ominously and is accompanied by a glitchy ‘popping’ sound which is not unlike that made earlier when we were preparing the post here at Norman and a trolley rolled over a long sheet of bubble wrap. These sounds phase in and out and pan woozily to leave the listener a little disorientated.
Cinema Perdu similarly explores the empty psychological spaces which remain once you are all cried out. Really, this is perfect for the final part of the day when this reviewer has precious little more strength to muster. The two tracks Martijn Pieck brings to this disc are as sublime as the previous two by Bauke, in that the music is the contemplative, irresistible, seemingly boundless evocation of space, of internal conflicts easing and resolving themselves outside of time. Plus, his second track features metallic chiming under mallets. I’m a sucker for resonating metal and mallets.
Martijn and Bauke’s collaborative track, ‘4’, is possibly the most affecting of all. What sounds like a sample from a long lost choral masterpiece is used as a bed for found sounds and plucked electroacoustic instruments, with an industrial throb underpinning it all… there’s an organ playing. For a minute there, I thought it was coming from the cathedral in my mind. Then silence. The CD whirrs its death throes and I feel a little more alive." [Norman Rec.]
"THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE ist ein mehr oder weniger loser Zusammenschluss von Künstlern rings um den niederländischen Musiker BAUKE VAN DER WAL, der das Projekt mit dem enigmatischen Namen um das Jahr 2000 herum gründete. Bevorzugt tummelt man sich im Experimental-, Drone- und Dark Ambient-Sektor, zeigt aber auch keine Berührungsängste mit harscheren, ja dezidiert noisigen Spielarten, was exemplarischen Ausdruck in Kollaborationen mit NAVICON TORTURE TECHNOLOGIES (Box Edition von "The Gospels Of The Gash" und "Your Suffering Will Be Legendary") findet. Überhaupt ist man, was die stilistischen Details betrifft, um relativen Abwechslungsreichtum bemüht, und so reicht das bei discogs aufgespannte Genre-Spektrum von "Elektronik, Pop" über "Experimental, Abstract" bis hin zu "Dark Ambient, Drone". Seiner Grundrichtung bleibt das Kollektiv nichtsdestoweniger treu; nicht umsonst hat man schließlich – nomen est omen – der eigenen Homepage die Adresse "darkambient.net" verpasst. Entsprechend gerne arbeitet man freilich mit stilistisch benachbarten Künstlern wie CISFINITUM oder eben CINEMA PERDU zusammen. Der Mann dahinter, MARTIJN PIECK, ist langjähriger Freund VAN DER WALs, seit 2008 Vollmitglied von THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE und seit 2011 unter dem nom de guerre CINEMA PERDU aktiv, unter dem er bislang mehrere Alben im File- und Tape-Format veröffentlicht hat.
Die vorliegende CD "Invocation" ist nach dem gemeinsamen Split mit WOODBNDR, "Blue Ruins Under Yellow Skies" von 2014, die zweite dezidierte Zusammenarbeit mit CINEMA PERDU und folgt stringent jener kontemplativen Drone-Programmatik, die im Großen und Ganzen das Leitmotiv für die Arbeit VAN DER WALs mit dem [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE abgibt, hier allerdings in ganz besonders vielschichtiger, facettenreicher Form zelebriert wird. Das Thema der CD fordert eine gewisse Besinnlichkeit freilich nachgerade heraus, beschäftigt sich die inhaltliche Ebene von "Invocation" doch mit dem Zerbrechen, Erlöschen, in jedem Fall aber mit dem Ende intensiver Freundschaften und enger Beziehungen, sowie insbesondere mit jener gähnenden Leere, die eine solche, mehr oder weniger gewaltsame Trennung einer tiefen emotionalen Verbindung nach sich zieht – egal, ob sie "nur" einem menschlichen Zerwürfnis, einer individuellen, existenziellen Krise oder gar dem physischen Ableben eines der Beteiligten geschuldet ist: "Invocation" versteht sich, so führt der Promotext aus, als "split album with personal views and interpretations of the emptiness that remains. Finding closure in a process of grief." Vor diesem Hintergrund erschließt sich denn auch ganz zwanglos der Hintersinn jener Sentenz, die sich auf der Innenseite des CD-Kartonschubers findet: "Some things were never meant to change but here we are" ...
Das beim Berliner RAUBBAU-Label erschienene Album enthält sechs unbetitelte, lediglich durchnummerierte Tracks zwischen knapp acht und knapp zwölf Minuten Länge – etwas Zeit, Muße und Geduld sollte der interessierte Hörer also schon mitbringen, möchte er sich mit dieser, ohne Worte auskommenden, "conversation about what really matters" auseinandersetzen. Wer nun allerdings vom leidlich bekannten, sich über die komplette Laufzeit spannenden, mediokren Einheitsgebrumme ausgeht, das so betrüblich oft unter der Bezeichnung "Dark Ambient" firmiert, wird erfreulicherweise eines besseren belehrt: Lediglich das erste und das letzte Stück, beide von THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE eingespielt, präsentieren sich als ausgesprochen dronige, tiefenentspannte, einzig durch allerlei Rascheln, Knistern und anderweitige Störfrequenzen in minimale Regung versetzte, dabei jedoch niemals langweilige Soundmeditationen, während die von CINEMA PERDU beigesteuerten Beiträge 2 und 3 deutlich experimenteller und collagenhafter daherkommen – streckenweise fühlte sich der Rezensent durchaus ein wenig an NURSE WITH WOUND erinnert. Die eigentliche Zusammenarbeit zwischen den beiden Outfits, Track Numero 4, gibt denn auch das interessanteste Stück des Albums ab und entwickelt sich, ausgehend von einem sakralen, durch rotorartiges Flattern fragmentierten Choraleinstieg, hin zu einem, schon fast treibend-rhythmischen Mittelteil, um schließlich in einem amorphen, alle Strukturen wieder einschmelzenden Klangbad zu verhallen. Nicht alles auf "Invocation" ist also gar so meditativ, wie es auf den ersten Eindruck und nach Lektüre des zitierten Begleittextes scheinen mag – nach einigen Hördurchgängen entpuppt sich das versammelte Material in der Gesamtschau vielmehr als erfreulich abwechslungsreich und immer wieder für das eine oder andere überraschte "Oho!" gut.
Fazit: THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE & CINEMA PERDU legen mit "Invocation" ein rundum gelungenes Werk vor, das routiniert mit den Genregrenzen spielt, sie ausweitet und bisweilen beinahe transzendiert, ohne dabei jemals bemüht zu klingen, sich in Beliebigkeiten zu verheddern oder in akademischen Frickeleien zu verlieren. Beide Projekte interagieren perfekt miteinander und realisieren so ein bemerkenswertes, ebenso meditativ-hypnotisches wie dramatisch dichtes Album, das durch seine implizite Programmatik und die unprätentiöse Art & Weise, in der diese präsentiert wird, noch zusätzlich punktet: "the process of composing, writing, producing and finishing 'invocation' has helped us seeing things in perspective again after loosing loved ones. we hope it can do the same to you." – Irgendwie ist die ganze Veröffentlichung ... einfach ... sympathisch. Und wer kann schon etwas gegen sympathische Musik haben? Der Autor dieser Zeilen jedenfalls nicht." [Endsal/NON-POP]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| THIS HEAT |
Health & Efficiency |
maxi-CD |
CD Re-issue of the genius 12" from 1980, re-mastered !
"1980 veröffentlichten This Heat die hier besprochene 12"-EP (oder Maxi-Single), die 1998 von These Records als Mini-CD wiederaufgelegt wurde. Gleichzeitig erschien das Material zusammen mit den Stücken von "Repeat" auf einer Doppel-LP (mit dem Titel "Health & Efficiency / Repeat"). "Graphic/Varispeed" ist zudem auch auf der "Repeat"-CD zu finden.
Zwei sehr unterschiedliche Stücke haben This Heat hier auf die beiden Seiten der EP pressen lassen. Das Titelstück stellt ein Destillat der Musik der drei Engländer dar, eine energiegeladene Zusammenfassung ihrer musikalischen Ideen in 8 Minuten, ein dichtes und spannendes Konglomerat aus schrägem Song, Tonbandeffekten, RIO-Krach, Schlagzeug-Freakouts, quasiindustriellen Klängen, wavigem Rock, Canterbury-Rudimenten und nervösem Tonschweben. "Health & Efficiency" ist meiner Meinung nach das beste Stück, dass This Heat je gemacht haben. Wer sich nur eine Nummer der Gruppe antun möchte, sollte sich dieses Stück anhören. Genial!
"Graphic/Varispeed" bietet dann, mehr oder weniger, nichts. Ein ewigliches, einförmiges Tonschweben kommt hier aus den Boxen, mal lauter mal leiser, mal hoch mal tief, mal weich mal hart. Wenn man das Brummen eines alten Kühlschranks aufnehmen würde, wäre das Ergebnis wohl ein ähnlich abwechslungsreiches Stück "Musik". Das Ganze ist eine extreme Minimal-"Kunst", die man wohl mit einem verblüfft-verständnislosen Lächeln hinnehmen muss. Man kann den Nichts-Effekt übrigens noch steigern, wenn man die EP bei 33 rpm abspielt ... den Besitz der Vinylversion vorausgesetzt (diese langsame Version der Nummer ist übrigens auf "Repeat" zu finden).
Trotzdem, das Titelstück sollte man kennen (wenn man denn die beiden Studioalben von This Heat schätzt)!" [Achim Breiling / Babyblaue Seiten]
www.rermegacorp.com
|
2006 |
€9.50 |
|
| THISQUIETARMY / DIRK SERRIES / TOM MALMENDIER |
Hell |
CD |
This record evolved as a concatenation of two happenings. Thisquietarmy presented his album “Democracy of Dust” on stage at the Moving Noises Evening 2017, supported by Tom Malmendier, who joined in for some live drum parts for older tracks of thisquietarmy. Dirk Serries played one of his last ambient sets before releasing “Epitaph” at the same evening. So things came together very quick and the idea was born to end up the evening as a trio.
Hell features a long improvisational track, in which you can hear typical Serries and thisquietarmy sounds accompanied by some diversified percussion sounds by Malmendier. The set starts very quiet and cautious and ends up in climax of experimental guitars and absolute amazing freejazz drumming.
Recorded at Christuskirche Bochum. Mixed by Dirk Serries. Mastered by Eric Quach.
“Hell” comes as a 6panel digisleeve with matt finish. Limited to 200 copies.
https://thisquietarmy.bandcamp.com/album/h-e-l-l |
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| THISQUIETARMY X N |
Zerfall / Zerfallen |
LP + CD |
Thisquietarmy and N met during live shows and festivals on and off for years. As both are always interested in doing collaborations it was just a matter of time, when both would team up for a guitar drone convention.
All started with an improvisational live set in Cologne, followed by a studio session in Duisburg, back in 2019.
“Zerfall | Zerfallen” features all the tracks of those two sessions, except one track, that is featured on “Zerstoeren”, the sister release (MD 098).
“Zerfall” (LP) features two epic tracks and it is obvious after the first seconds, that the studio session was a loud unfaltering monster. We can say that for sure, because this is one of the rare occasions, we had the chance to join the recording session. Imagine an old industrial building with a big studio room on the upper floor, where two guitarists are sitting in front of an amp wall, playing so loud that no earplug can save you.
The first track “Zerfall Alpha” flows with loud noise soundwalls by N and the looming sounds of thisquietarmy, evolving into soundscapes that feel like both guitars are melting into one unbending soundwall, going loud and sometimes quiet even to get subsequently louder. “Zerfall Beta” is the evil twin of the A side track and unfolds a massive drone doom wave.
“Zerfallen” (CD) features the other three tracks of the session, in the same mood like “Zerfall” but with an individual sonic evolving. All rounded up by the live session from Cologne “Zerstaeuber“, which is also featured on “Zerfallen”. Here you can discover, how the musicians approached very tentative, how their sounds work together for the very first time.
All in all, you get 2 hours of massive drone doom ambient noise guitar fulmination. Listen loud for maximum aftermath.
“Zerfall | Zerfallen” comes in an edition of 222 copies on LP+CD. Black vinyl with printed labels, housed in reverse board printed sleeve on 300g cardboard. The CD is housed in a reverse board printed cardboard wallet.
If you want to read more about the recording session, here is an intrview Eric and Hellmut did for Fifteen Questions: 15questions.net/interview/thisquietarmy-and-n-share-their-creative-process/page-1/
Zerfall (LP)
A Zerfall Alpha 22:27
B Zerfall Beta 23:20
Zerfallen (CD)
01 Zerfallen Eins 11:21
02 Zerfallen Zwei 12:52
03 Zerfallen Drei 31:27
04 Zerstaeuber 17:24
Technical:
LP + CD / Limited to 222 copies
LP comes on black vinyl / printed labels / reverseboard printed sleeve
CD comes in reverseboard printed sleeve
thisquietarmy (amps+guitars)
N (amps+guitars)
recorded by Tobias Stieler, June 2019
mixed+mastered by Eric Quach, March 2021
photography by Roxane De Koninck
www.midirarecords.com/release/md-097-thisquietarmy-x-n-zerfall-zerfallen |
2022 |
€27.50 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS |
Geboren um zu dienen |
CD |
“8th part in the ongoing re-release series of all early Tietchens albums between 1980—1991. Described by Tietchens himself as his «Industrial» album, «Geboren, um zu Dienen» was originally released on the spanish ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO label in 1986. The CD version incl. three unreleased bonus tracks from the same period and comes with a full colour fold-out booklet incl. liner notes by Tietchens himself.” [label info]
„If I'd ever recorded an «Industrial» solo album, it must be «GEBOREN, UM ZU DIENEN». Although I obviously wasn't one of the inventors of «Industrial Music», I clearly felt an affinity to it. So I tried to learn my lessons well adding my own musical aspects to the general apocalyptic noises of this genre. My main concern was to dive deep into the canonical topics of fear, hysteria, claustrophobia, machine and threat. The end was imminent as hundreds of Pershings and SS20 all pointed in the direction of the march up area called West Germany, the seals of the read buttons were already broken. Even the conventional alternative — a tank war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact — sounded like utter apocalypse. Would we really have welcomed our brothers from the east with open arms? This particular background has to be seen as the main influence on GEBOREN, UM ZU DIENEN. I believe that many of my colleagues also recording «Industrial» albums felt the same at that time. IF there would have been a «Bang» it — without doubt — would have been global.
Fear, emptiness and the futility of the aesthetical, were not alien to me, but until then I moved inside a carefully tested zone which was defined by a spectrum of experimental forms. GEBOREN, UM ZU DIENEN was an experiment in itself which first fruits I set free immediately. As if I'd to work under a deadline I recorded the tracks hastily, not wasting much thoughts about dynamics, duration, precision and construction. In the same way I resolutely did rough mixes of the seperate tracks of the pieces: what sounded dirty stayed dirty. Essentially the raw and the unsculptured were a part of the dogma of «Industrial». The original nine tracks plus five more (three which appear as Bonustracks on this CD) all developed in a very short period of time. The album was released on the spanish «Esplendor Geometrico» label, run by Andres Noarbe, in the same year. Originally a tape only label EG released a series of radical albums during the mid 80's, also albums by the «Industrial» group of the same name, many which are much sought after items today. Of course only 500 copies of the album were pressed, which still meant a considerable financial risk given the small circle of potentionally interested listeners. But the enthusiasm and dedication of everyone involved lead to a self-evident «Nevertheless».
Looking back at these years it has to be noted that I established a daring attitude then, which luckily developed positively and stayed with me until today. The fact that a german attorneys general confiscated a small number of the LP in 1990 deeming the cover as being immoral («A Call for abortion»), was registered with satisfaction. A case like this corresponds with the mark of quality granted by the «Stiftung Warentest». Go on Germany! “ [Asmus Tietchens, 2006]
Editorial notes: The original masters of all the pieces incl. the bonus tracks are in perfect condition and were used 1:1 for the transfer onto CD. Only the fade-out at the end of «Mein erstes Erlebnis» was slightly corrected.
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
|
In die Nacht |
CD |
Fourth part in the rerelease-series of all early vinyl albums by Asmus Tietchens on CD. This is the third of the SKY albums from 1982 incl. three bonus tracks of unreleased material not included on the original LP. Comes with a poster booklet feat. the original cover artwork. Edition of 1000 copies.
“Asmus Tietchens 'In die Nacht' (Sky Records 077) 1982 To my surprise, SKY ordered a third album from me. For distribution reasons the album had to be finished rather quickly. This presented me with an immediate problem, as usually it would have taken about three months to complete an album with twenty tracks similar in style to those on 'Biotop' or 'Spät-Europa'. There was not much time to decide whether to say no to the SKY offer, or deviate from my usual doctrine of Short Tracks. I decided for the latter and, eyes wide open, stepped into an aesthetic trap. I found myself trying to square the circle, wanting to have the rich detail of my short works at the same time as creating longer pieces. This experiment, an equivalent to doing the splits, was only partly succesful. It is not really possible to create pieces of six minutes or more from ideas which are only
adequate for tracks of three minutes, unless one is willing to risk musical redundancy or, worse, long-windedness. In retrospect, the four central tracks of 'In die Nacht' are too long for the material from which the are built. Back in 1982 though, my opinion was different. Nonetheless, I did gain my first insight into the rules of time and proportion, even though I was not able to handle them perfectly. I managed to complete the album in three weeks, helped by the fact that I was able to include some tracks left over from the 'Spät-Europa' sessions. So the tapes were delivered on time, even though I was not 100% happy with the collection. SKY, however, was very
enthusiastic about the album and released it immediately, at the same time offering me the option of a fourth LP. By then I had decided that I was no longer willing to work to a deadline, nor did I want to be compromised by a label's distribution policy. There would have to be some mutual agreement well in advance. Either that, or nothing would come of it. I would like to thank Günter Körber of Sky Records for his kind permission to re-release 'In die Nacht' and the three other SKY albums, and for allowing me to use the original lables in facsimile. [Asmus Tietchens, 2004]
|
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Litia |
CD |
“Fifth part in the ongoing rerelease series of all early vinyl albums by Tietchens on CD. This one from 1983 marks the end of his Sky 'phase' and was the last to feature his very own version of 'Synthesizer Pop Music' for some time (he'd only return to this music with the release of his HEMATIC SUNSETS albums in the late 1990's). The CD also feat. the rare 'Rattenheu' 10inch only release plus one unreleased archive track and comes in a transparent jewel-case with full colour poster booklet feat. a reproduction of the original cover art and extra photos. Edition of 1000 copies. Total playing time: 63:01 min.” [press release]
“The years 1982 and 1983 proved to be a time of extreme musical schizophrenia for me. On the one hand I could not let go of the rhythmic synthie-etudes. On the other, and at the same time, I had already turned to 'Industrial Music'. The latter manifested itself in the release of four cassettes between 1981-1983.
But for one last time I was intrigued by some new gadgets. I felt that with their help I could take my rhythmic work much further: namely, one of the first digital, programmed rythmn machines (MFB521) and the Korg Polysix polyphonic synthesizer. With the help of these two machines I was able to create structures, I simply could not make with the other machines available at the time. But while working on LITIA, I reflected on the growing imbalance between my own creative input and the possibilities of the factory sounds (presets, sequencer, sound colours, ect.), with the result that my early fascination with these gradually disappeared and a more
thoughtful attitude emerged. More and more I was impressed by the machines but less and less was my own creativity involved. It was high time for me to re-consider and to come to terms with this situation with regard to my own view of human dignity.
Nevertheless, I wanted one more album to be released on Sky, and with the above instruments and an even more complex studio set-up it was recorded in no time. This had to be the finale, though. The bonus tracks 11-15 on this CD, which belong to the LITIA series, and which were released in 1996 as a 10inch entitled "Rattenheu", are to be viewed more as a kind of musical joke, one which would only be heard again at the Aroma Club in 1998. With the issuing of LITIA a four-year release period reached its end, a period which was marked by the use rhythmic and harmonic preset sounds and by flashy-coloured LP sleeves.
The above-mentioned and long-ago completed aesthetic shift to an utterly different musical attitude, coupled with a partial throw-back to musical experiences of the late 1960's, would be made public in the album releases which followed. Again, I would like to give my warm thanks to Günter Körber (Sky Records) for his friendly co-operation. Take care, Günter!” [Asmus Tietchens, 2004]
|
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Aus Freude am Elend |
CD |
Wohl eine der ungewöhnlichsten & schönsten Tietchens-Alben, die augenzwinkernde Verwendung von vokalem Material war hier der Fokus, found sounds & field-recordings werden eigentümlichst verfremdelt, aus Schlager- oder Volksliedern die abartigsten Töne rausgekitzelt, absolut unkategorisierbare Klänge entstehen... ein wunderbares-wundersames Re-Kontextualisierungs-Projekt! JA WIR LIEBEN ES! 2 Bonus Tracks!
"11th part in the ongoing re-release series of all early Tietchens albums between 1980-1991. AUS FREUDE AM ELEND is based on the human voice as a primary sound source and was originally released in edition of 500 copies on Dom America in 1988. The CD includes two previously unreleased tracks and comes in a jewel case with full color artwork and poster booklet also feat. the original front and back cover. First edition of 600 copies.
Asmus Tietchens AUS FREUDE AM ELEND (Dom America Dom US LP 02) 1988 "Following my research of piano and water sounds (DS102, DS88) it didn't come as a surprise that my next project was about the human voice as a sound source. The great masters of Plunderphonics already showed the way in the early 80's, when they plundered the gigantic junk-shops packed full of already recorded material, which was stolen by them to use it for their own aesthetic targets. This album only consists of such stolen goods. Each track (with the exception of 'In memoriam P.F.') was based on voices of people who I naturally didn't ask their permission to use these recordings in the first place. So you can hear the voices of ecstatic religious people as well as other people making love. You'll also hear someone singing to Annette and Peggy out of the trash bin of a publishing company. Even the screams of furious teachers came in handy while I made loops from them. Especially loops: Rarely before this album and only once after it (on Stupor Mundi) did I made use of the structural means of loops to such an extent. I was fascinated by the rhythmical and harmonic permanence, in the same way as many of my musical colleagues at the time. The aspect of the 'Ritual' was a self-evident common formulation in difficult music during the 80s, so loops and tape voices, monotonous rhythms and LoFi became obvious means to shape the music. AUS FREUDE AM ELEND too was strongly spiced with these ingredients and therefore can be seen as a prototype album of this specific view of music during the time. This tendency was supported - even partly inspired - by a new generation of sound machines, which also made it possible for new aesthetic goals to appear at the horizon. The 90s were near at hand and sound art music would develop drastically in many ways in the years to follow. Samplers, digital editing, hard-disc recording and the first PC's opened new doorways. Half of the material on AUS FREUDE AM ELEND was already created with these digital tools. I never quite understood how the labels Dom America (run by Jon Carlson) and Dom here in Germany were connected. Did Carlson used to be a fan of Dom which was founded by Christoph Heemann and Achim Flaam. Did he simply liked the release politics of this label. And what became of Dom America ? Actually I don't know. I guess it was one of the small enthusiastic independent labels which released a handful of titles and which disappeared after being active for a couple of years during the 80s. However AUS FREUDE AM ELEND had vanished shortly after its release. I only used 'stolen' voices twice again ('Stupor Mundi', 1990 and 'Das Fest ist zu Ende. Aus', 1993) after this album by the way." [label info / credits]
"... Much like some his previous records, most notably 'Formen Letzer Hausmusik' and 'Seuchengebiete', its foremost a work of electro acoustic or musique concrete. There is an element of repetition that one wouldn't easily spot with the original 'masters' of the genre, but Tietchens uses them in his own, highly personal, way, adding his own fine blend of electronics and in order to make a creepy sound, a sinister play of vocals. The people whose voices are used sound like they are singing in a far away cage, in isolation, a cry to get out. After all these years this record hasn't aged at all, and is a highlight in Tietchens career." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
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2008 |
€13.00 |
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Adventures in Sound / Nachtstücke |
do-CD |
Das Bremer Label DIE STADT startet eine Wiederveröffentlichungs-Serie von nicht mehr erhältlichen TIETCHENS-Scheiben – hier der Anfang mit der allerersten LP ‚Nachtstücke’ von 1980, die noch Früh-Achtziger Charme aufweist, dazu schier unglaubliches Material aus den Sechzigern auf der zweiten CD !!
“First in a series of 18 CD's aiming to make available all early vinyl albums by ASMUS TIETCHENS between 1980 - 1991 on CD. Each release feat. the original tracks (sometimes extended / original versions) + unreleased bonus tracks from the same recording period, original artwork + accompanying texts by TIETCHENS. This - the only 2CD in the series - feat. his very first album 'Nachtstücke' from 1980 (incl. 4 bonus tracks) + a 2nd CD with archive material recorded with his long time friend Okko Bekker between 1965-1969.
These are the first works in TIETCHENS long career as a sound artist and were never released before. Edition of 1000 copies in jewelcase with full color poster booklet.
About the artist: ASMUS TIETCHENS started recording music as early as 1965 (documented here on 'Adventures In Sound') though his first release only appeared 15 years later ('Nachtstücke'). Ever since then he stayed very productive and had numerous cassette, vinyl and CD releases on numerous labels (Sky, United Dairies, Dom, Staalplaat, Ritornell and Die Stadt to name just a few). He has collaborated with various other like minded artists such as Okko Bekker, Cluster, Conny Plank, Terry Burrows, Liquidski, David Lee Myers (Arcane Device) and most recently with Thomas Köner who is one half of their ongoing collaborational project KONTAKT DER JÜNGLINGE (who so far released 3 CD's DS34/DS39/DS48 on Die Stadt).” [press release]
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2003 |
€18.00 |
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|
Stupor Mundi |
CD |
"Part 14th in the ongoing re-release series of all early Asmus Tietchens Vinyl albums between 1980-1991. 'Stupor Mundi' (Discos Esplendor Geometrico EGD 018) was originally released in 1990. This re-release comes with another poster booklet and feat. 4 Bonus tracks of unreleased material from the same period. Joint release with AUF ABWEGEN. 600 copies.
1. Pflegekammer extern 1'00"
2. Stimmen der Vernunft 3'08"
3. Konvoy 3'01"
4. Tollerort 2'53"
5. Fron 5'10"
6. Pflegekammer intern 1'00"
7. Schacht Hera 2'53"
8. Pflegekammer Mitte 1'00"
9. Aufs Maul 2'44"
10. Aufstand der Massen 3'31"
11. Xenophobie 2'48"
12. Mammi Money 3'38"
13. Pflegekammer West 1'00"
14. Heimholung 4'12"
Bonus
15. Pleuel 3'29"
16. Krill-Schatten 1'12"
17. Heimstatt des Betons 3'20"
18. An alle 2'54"
Asmus Tietchens about the album:
The opener of the album cites: 'Gitarren spielen kann ich leider noch nicht...' ('Unfortunately I can't play any guitars yet...'). Today, 23 years later, I could reveal the name of the person confessing this, but nothing would be more unfair, even two and a half decades later.
Only this: It's not the voice of a Punk (a Punk would have omitted the 'yet'), and it's also not my own voice, even though I can't play guitar either. Maybe it was this flaw though that was responsible for the general
construction of all the tracks here, which consist of short looped samples and further adaptions of the same.
In the end 'Stupor Mundi' was my last LP on the label Esplendor Geometrico and also my last solo LP until 1995. The very next release of mine was already a CD. At lot changed at the time. Esplendor Geometrico wasn't doing
well financially, a fate, many more small enthusiastic Labels shared with them, as the real Independents were always in danger of facing financial ruin. As a result EG was looking for someone to co finance 'Stupor Mundi'. The person who helped out is a colleague of mine with a well known name
today, but only just started his first musical attempts back then at the end of the 80's. He asked not be mentioned in the credits of the album cover, but requested to have the schematic diagram of an insect placed in the lower right hand corner of the cover.
There's yet another, third name, I won't reveal. The final words on the LP are: 'My friends'. For piety reasons I won't explain the original context of the voice, nor reveal the identity of the woman, who speaks these words.
Besides, it's a damn long time ago anyway, and mystifications were no longer a part of my repertoire after 'Stupor Mundi'. [Asmus Tietchens 2012] " [label info]
www.diestadtmusik.de
Editorial notes:
Contrary to the original LP, where there were no breaks, the CD feat. a 7
seconds pause inbetween each track. The original tape with the intro (
Gitarren spielen kann ich leider noch nicht...') could not be located, so a
mint LP copy was used for the transfer. The order of the 4 'Pflegekammer'
tracks was changed for this CD.
Although the release date of the album was stated as 1989, and also listed
the same in my discography, the actual release date was May 1990. This was
due to numerous faulty test pressings which caused a delay of 6 months.
Hence the labels were not changed accordingly because they had already been
printed.
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2012 |
€15.00 |
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|
Der fünfte Himmel |
LP |
"Between 1981 and 1983 Asmus Tietchens released four albums on the Sky Records label, fusing rhythmic set pieces and off-kilter sounds into gaudy escapades of saccharine artificiality. The “pseudo-pop” epithet reflected their frequently ironic air. All four records have been reissued by Bureau B in their original form. What remained may be found on this collection. Der fünfte Himmel (“The Fifth Sky”) retrieves those pieces which were denied a place on the original LPs, although clearly cut from the same contextual cloth. Quality control was not behind their relegation to the archive, but rather their eccentric and, at times, outlandish character.
Futurum drei is patently a bridge to Tietchens debut album Nachtstücke, recorded back in 1978, whilst Soirée and Zum Tee bei Frau Hilde were riginally—in a completely different guise- designed to form the basis of the experimentelle Geselligkeit album, ultimately shelved. The titles themselves are interesting: Aus dem Tag was initially earmarked to open up In die Nacht but was deemed too extravagant. Würgstoffe (“Wirkstoffe”) and Niedermacher (“Liedermacher”) are further evidence of Tietchens’ penchant for wordplay, even though the composer today admits that these rather corny jokes no longer seem quite so witty. In addition to this promenade through the outskirts of the “Zeitzeichen phase” (or “Sky phase“), Der fünfte Himmel includes tracks which could have constituted a further album on Sky Records. Tietchens was working ahead of himself as his contract covered just four albums and sales were in sharp decline. Zudem hatte sich die musikalische Ausrichtung verändert. Moreover, his musical direction had shifted to accommodate a far less rugged sound and a broader range of musical tools. If these pieces share a link in to the strategies of previous works, it is a tenuous one. This would probably have been enough in itself to preclude a continuation of the series, as the material veered so far away from the Sky label line." [label info]
www.bureau-b.com
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2014 |
€21.50 |
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Linea + |
CD |
"Asmus Tietchens is a sound artist and composer from Hamburg, Germany. He got interested in Musique Concrete by listening to a German radio programme when he was 10 years old. In 1965, at the age of 18, Asmus started experimenting with tape loops and turned them into musical collages. Soon, the use of synthesizers was added. In 1980 his debut album Nachtstücke was released, produced by Peter Baumann of Tangerine Dream. This was soon followed by a series of albums of electronic pop music for the Sky label, home of many Krautrock bands. Tietchens often uses special source materials for his compositions such as water (Seuchengebiete), human voices (Von Mund zu Mund), paper (Papier ist geduldig). He is associated with the Industrial music scene through his collaborations and releases on labels such as United Dairies, Esplendor Geometrico or Dom Records. Tietchens never studied composition, he has no academic background, everything he does is self taught or learnign by doing. Nevertheless, he was professor for sound design in Hamburg in recent years. Linea was originally released on cassette on Dutch Korm Plastics label, later re-issued as a CDR in 1999. It is one of Tietchens's most minimal compositions, and has a special place in our music hearts here at Klanggalerie. For our new edition, Asmus Tietchens has dug deep into his archive and unearthed two further Linea pieces that have so far never seen the light of day. Full running time now 75 minutes. Remastered and repackaged. Full tracklist: 1 Linea 1 2. Linea 3 3. Linea 12 4. Linea 13." [label info]
"Linea+ represents some of the composers most minimal works. The opener, Linea 1, offers a taut repetitive beat/rhythm that slightly blurs and bounces over time. It is a circular, hypnotic rhythm that is drawn into a bit of an oblong shape as it crosses from the left to the right channel ever so slightly. Musique Concrete at its finest, Tietchens takes sweet time to add minor electronic effects which throw the steady beat off some, making the listener pay closer attention to the conversation between the up and down layers. (...) The original release was a diamond in the rough, and this reissue has expanded its karat size two-fold and given this excavated classic the full restoration it deserves. Now Linea+ can be re-presented to new audiences looking for a futuristic sound that was way before its time, here reserving its timeless place." (Toneshift, September 2018)
"This is not a review at all; this is a personal observation. About thirty years ago I started to
meet Dolf Mulder, who was slightly older than me and about every once in 2 weeks we would meet up and he would play me weird records. Or I'd play some weird cassettes, as this I was I already much into. These days Dolf still writes for Vital Weekly about weird music, just as I do. I'm sure at one of those occasions he played me a record by Asmus Tietchens, I'd like to think one of the Sky Records or 'Formen Letzter Hausmusik' and Dolf told me he was in contact with Tietchens and that there was unpublished work, refused by Ladd-Frith on the basis it was too monotonous. For the small cassette label I had this seemed to me like sure-fire hit, selling more than the usual thirty copies. I wrote to Tietchens, got the master tape, liked it, and had a very professional cover printed, unlike all the Xerox business so far. A decade later, when CDRs became household, I re-issued all of the cassettes I did on Korm Plastics on that format and gave 'Linea' a second life. Not bad for a boring piece of music, indeed. Now it gets a third life, including two lengthy bonus pieces, both from the same series, but with 'Linea 12' and 'Linea 13' a bit further down the line. If Tietchens doesn't release a particular composition it is probably not good enough. On the original we have 'Linea 1' and 'Linea 3'. The fist is a very straightforward rhythm machine and sequence along with a repeating loop. It is very much at the tail end of Tietchens' Sky Records phase; very electronic,
nothing concrete and yet also very minimal indeed. 'Linea 3' is also minimal yet with a stranger attack on the keyboard and rhythm machine pushed a little to the background. In both pieces there is very little development but it slowly shifts around. 'Im Atelier Zu Hören' is the tip Tietchens gives us, 'listen in your workspace' and that's where this works well indeed. In the two bonus pieces, Tietchens gives something away from the working methods behind 'Linea', which I didn't hear to the same extent as before. In these pieces the rhythm machine has disappeared and it's only arpeggio synthesizers, playing repeating lines and feeding through various delay lines, so
sometimes we only hear the residue of the delay of the original line, chasing each other on end.
Again this is all very minimal and again it works very well. 'Linea 12' has a darker touch and 'Linea 13' is the lighter side of things. Excellent re-issue." (FdW/Vital Weekly) |
2018 |
€14.00 |
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| TIETCHENS, ASMUS & JON MUELLER |
8 Stücke |
CD |
"Second collaborative effort between german sound manipulation pioneer Asmus Tietchens and american improv-drummer Jon Mueller. The CD features 8 tracks that run up to 53 minutes. Jon Mueller on the second collaboration: “The previous collaboration between Asmus and I involved me using only sounds derived from drum heads. For Acht Stuecke, I've used only Chinese gongs and cymbals, so a completely different range of sound occurs. The performance of the percussion material was from various non-mechanical techniques (striking, swinging gongs, extended techniques, etc.) to create a palette of mostly textural sound with a large frequency range that Asmus could work with.” And indeed, work he did! The completeness that is Acht Stuecke is of breathtaking beauty and simplicity and complexity at the same time. The album is definately more homogenous and ‘together’ than the first meeting of the two musicians. It emanates a warm and deep sound evolving ou t of total soundless blankness as it seems.
Jon Mueller has been active for several years in the us improv scene playing in various ensembles and doing solo work. he runs the excellent web mag/label/mailorder croutonmusic.com. Asmus Tietchens has been producing electronic music since the 1960ies and is one of the most renowned sound artists today in Germany. In the last five
years he was awarded twice the SWR state radio prize “Karl Sczuka Preis” for radio art. He has released more than 80 records and CDs on labels all around the world." [label info]
"...There are occasions in which one doesn’t need to speak too much to establish a truth, and the truth here lies inside the repeated bends and turns of a gorgeous album, among the best of both artists’ career. The original materials furnished by the Milwaukee percussionist - sounds of Chinese gongs and cymbals - were studio-treated by the German manipulator through his usual masterful methods, this time maintaining the qualities of the harmonic resonance of the metal rather evident amidst the choked gulps, the modified waves and the fractured hiccups that we’re used to receive from the Hamburg-based sonic transformer. There’s this splendid three-way cross between the real essence of Mueller’s stricken parts and swinging gongs, the instant mutated jargon developed by Tietchens over that, the final elemental amalgam bringing the whole to sound like a hidden microcosm where a hypnotically undulating presence is blemished by sparse singular voices of unknown entities. It’s really difficult to describe the overall feel in sheer words, but those who are gifted with the ability of picking disguised frequencies from the core of the more superficial ones are in for several special moments, aware of phenomena that not everybody can actually penetrate." [Massimo Ricci / Touching Extremes]
www.aufabwegen.com
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2007 |
€13.00 |
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| TIETCHENS, ASMUS + CV LIQUIDSKY |
Monoposto |
CD |
17th and final part in the re-release series of all early Tietchens albums between 1980-1991
Originally released on Dragnet, Dom Elchklang in 1991. This new version incl. 3 Bonus tracks and is another joint release by German labels Die Stadt and aufabwegen. Jewel case with full color artwork and poster booklet also feat. the original front and back cover. First edition of 600 copies.
Track listing:
1. 'Junge Hoden' 3'01
2. 'Drangsal am Hauptbahnhof' 3'09
3. 'Der Appelbeker Kreis' 3'14
4. 'Schlotzen' 2'47
5. 'Mit dem Zombiebus ins Totenreich der Killermumien' 10'07
6. 'DDR' 4'01
7. 'Frauenhygiene' 3'12
8. 'Vergessene Jungens' 3'40
9. 'Einfach Helden' 3'09
10.'Aus heiterem Himmel'2'07
Bonus tracks:
11. 'Prinzip Hoffmann' 2'49 12. 'Schwachholz vorsetzen' 2'06 13. 'Liquidsky spricht' 0'22
Asmus Tietchens + CV Liquidsky 'MONOPOSTO' (Dragnet & Dom Elchklang, Dradomel 03) 1991
It was just before the end of the so called heroic times when CV Liquidsky and I decided to record a studio album together. Almost a bit late considering that Liquidsky had already lived and worked in Hamburg since 1979. Our ways had crossed many times and a mutual friendship developed. Actually we discussed a possible collaboration several times. Liquidsky was a graphic designer, journalist, musician and someone who really moved things in all these areas. I got to know Liquidsky's musical side as him being one half of the industrial music duo 'Cinema Verite', and at the same time through his journalistic skill's, writing excellent reports about the Hamburg and International music and cultural scenes. As a trained artist he also did record covers and posters, illustrated Fanzines and created some disturbing free works. It was no secret that his chosen artist name derived from both ,Cabaret Voltaire'(CV) and 'Liquid Sky'(Liquidsky). His real name was Andreas Hoffmann. The recordings for 'Monoposto' were made between 1988-1990. The mention of the years 1981-1990 on the cover was deliberately misleading. Our work scheme was to try and record one track per nightly session, and when ever we met in the studio we clung to this strict working method. It was our intention to avoid making a perfect studio album. Improvisation, chance, errors and spontaneous decisions were the game plan. After a track was recorded it was mixed the same night or even early the next morning, so it was finished. No softening out and no corrections were made, no matter if the raw diamonds we created started to shine or not. It was Liquidsky (the "mover") who persuaded me to accept this almost Dadaistic concept, as I'm basically someone who takes longer to create a track. He concentrated on his guitar and myself on the electrical treatments. Later a good friend of ours described the music as a mixture of apathy and ecstasy, beauty and ugliness. In fact I never worked on an album with such a melancholic note before or ever after. The cover was created by Liquidsky within a couple of hours. The word 'Monoposto' has actually no meaning. It's a Blindtest to show the actual look of a certain typography common in the analog world back then. Liquidsky was fast and he always stood on the right side. Andrea Hoffmann died on 6th of September 1998.
Editorial notes:
All recordings were transferred from the original tapes, but in a different order than on the LP. The title 'Mit dem Zombiebus ins Totenreich der Killermimen' on the original album is actually written incorrectly. The corrected title is 'Mit dem Zombiebus ins Totenreich der Killermumien'. The track 'Liquidsky spricht' was taken from the compilation 'Das digitale Vetrauen' (Soleilmoon, SOL 54)." [label info]
diestadtmusik.de/DS120.html
"Die große, 2003 begonnene 18-teilige Wiederveröffentlichungsreihe von Asmus Tietchens’ früheren Arbeiten kommt mit Nummer 17 langsam an ihr Ende; in einer erneuten Zusammenarbeit veröffentlichen Die Stadt und Auf Abwegen das mit CV Liquidsky zwischen 1988 und 1990 entstandene und ursprünglich 1991 erschienene Album „Monoposto“.
In den Linernotes schreibt Tietchens, dass er Andreas Hoffmann, so der bürgerliche Name des 1998 verstorbenen Musikers, Journalisten und Graphikers, schon lange kannte, bevor sie sich endlich dazu entschlossen, ein gemeinsames Album aufzunehmen. Es sei nicht darum gegangen, ein „perfektes Studioalbum“ aufzunehmen, sondern „Improvisation, Zufälle[...], Fehler[...] und spontane[...] Entscheidungen“ hätten eine wichtige Rolle gespielt. Das führte dazu, dass die einzelnen Stücke recht schnell entstanden und noch in der gleichen Nacht gemischt wurden. Nichts weiter wurde mit den Aufnahmen gemacht.
Das Zusammenspiel von Liquidskys Gitarre und der elektronischen Bearbeitung von Asmus Tietchens führt “ zu ganz unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen. Insgesamt ist „Monoposto“ allerdings ein stark von Wiederholung geprägtes Album, wie gerade der fast schon rhythmische Opener „Junge Hoden“ mit seinen immer nur leicht variierten Loops zeigt. Ähnlich konzipiert scheint „Drangsal am Hauptbahnhof“, das mit seltsamen kreischenden Passagen im Hintergrund etwas düsterer und variabler ist. „Mit dem Zombiebus ins Totenreich der Killermumien“, vielleicht der Titel eines verlorengegangen Drehbuchs von Don Swan, ist eine anfangs verrauschte, fast schon nach Ambient klingende Nummer mit dunklem Dröhnen und leichtem Pochen. Auf dem verglichen damit profan betitelten Track „DDR“ hört man Loops, Heulen und Dröhnen, seltsame Stimmen und im Hintergrund eine Hymne. “Fraueninnenhygiene” hat eine merkwürdige Westernatmosphäre, „ Auf „Einfach Helden“ glaubt man ein dissonantes Klavier zu hören und das Stück „Aus heiterem Himmel“ ist ein Cover von Neil Youngs „My my, hey hey (Out of the blue)“, das im Original die legendäre Zeile „It’s better to burn out/Than to fade away “ enthält. In Tietchens’ und Liquidskys Interpretation lässt sich das Original durchaus noch erahnen, von der Herangehensweise passt es aber gut zum Rest des Albums.
Stampfende, primitive Rhythmik hört man auf den Bonustracks „Prinzip Hoffmann“ und „Schwachholz vorsetzen“ und gerade diese Tracks situieren dieses in Passagen monotone und ruppige Album durchaus an den Rändern des Industrials. (MG)
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2020 |
€15.00 |
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| TIETCHENS, ASMUS / MIKI YUI |
Neues Boot |
LP |
TAL presents the first musical collaboration between Hamburg based Asmus Tietchens and Japanese artist Miki Yui, operating out of Düsseldorf for almost 20 years now. Highly respected and hugely influential artist Asmus Tietchens first made his mark on the electronic music scene in the late 1970s, whereas Miki Yui debuted her sonic settings in 1999.
Their first joint album NEUES BOOT envelops the listener with a poetic sound sensibility and a conceptual clarity which was processed and passed back and forth between their individual studios in Hamburg and Düsseldorf.
Asmus Tietchens: After Stefan Schneider suggested to release a Yui-Tietchens album on his TAL imprint Miki and I quickly developed some ideas towards our eventual collaboration.
We agreed upon an ongoing mutual exchange of material. We have both been very familiar with each other's music for a long time and we found our individual approach towards sound design to be uniquely compatible. We do not use our electronic tools in order to merely achieve the maximum of technical possibilities, but to illustrate aesthetic necessities. This entails a deliberate reduction and refined perception of the sonic characteristics of the material. Only this approach enabled us to fully realise the complete spectrum of the sounds and noises we were working with in order to construct this New Boat. Each and everyone of my treatments is e x c l u s i v e l y based on a track supplied by Miki. I added no new sound sources. Naturally the spatial and temporal dimensions of the source material were thus altered. These transformations are exactly what makes our collaboration special and unique. Very early on we had agreed on New Boat as a working title and a guiding light . Of course in the beginning we had no idea where this New Boat might take us. Now we do know. After several months of ship-building the boat has now set sails for new sonic horizons. Ahoi!
Miki Yui: The title of the album as well as the individual tracks have been inspired by conversations with Asmus. When we had a chat after one of his concerts, he told me about Kōdō, the Art or the Way of the Scent. It is a 8th century Japanese incense ceremony. Very frequently the names of Japanese incense sticks are derived from natural themes, e.g. Bairin is the plum grove, the scent of the first blossom heralding the end of winter.
This poetry, the ephemeral nature of the world reminded me of Kigo, words from a Haiku (a form of Japanese poetry), which reference a particular season or a natural phenomenon. So I chose the names of the individual pieces from Kigo as if The Boat was exploring nature whilst sailing through the seasons. Only in retrospect I realised that the titles combined create this poem:
Early spring a hazy view in the night (Oboro)
Plum groves (Bairin)
Over a Dayfly (Kagerou)
A Milkyway (Amanogawa)
Dawn (Akatsuki)
Art of fragrance (Kōdō)
On fragile thin ice (Usurai)
https://asmustietchensandmikiyui.bandcamp.com/album/neues-boot
"Exquisite electronic subtleties from two generations of explorative artists, pairing the tactile sensitivities of cult Hamburg based Asmus Tietchens with Düsseldorf resident Miki Yui for the first time with marked success.
Mutual spirits, Tietchens and Yui have long operated in pursuit of a lower case, spectral muse, and now at the behest of TAL’s Stefan Schneider they present a beautifully insoluble sound that transcends the sum of their parts. Incredibly delicate, and full of nanoscopic movement, the seven tracks unfurl between passages of burbling pastoralism and oneiric drowse, with particular highlights in the hypnotic timbral artefacts of ‘Kagerou’ or ‘Usurai’, and their 10’ of lush scenery inhabited by peacocks and a canopy of phosphorescing animaliculae and atmospheres in ‘Akatsuki’ recalling aspects of Mark Fell & Rian Treanor’s tape for our Documenting Sound series." [Boomkat]
"It’s a sad, hard fact that circulating music by means of physical objects is becoming the exception and not the rule. So, if you’re going to do it, might as well do it right and make it special. Future Audio Graphics makes LPs that bind interdisciplinary collaborations within gatefold LPs. Each combines a text by one artist, images by another and a record of sounds by a third. Ironically on Sculpture Gardens the efforts of writer François Bonnet (aka Kassel Jaeger), sculptor Virginia Overton and sound artist Anne Guthrie cohere into a consideration of impermanence.
Through his efforts to reissue works of electronic music on vinyl, Bonnet, a published author and the artistic director of Groupe de Recherche Musicales in Paris, has had plenty of opportunity to think about how ready-made vinyl objects can concentrate attention upon work, as well as how rapidly records become items to be hunted rather than merely purchased. Even when one fixes one’s work within an object, other peoples’ perceptions of the object and the work cut into it aren’t fixed. Neither is the object’s availability; LPs sooner or later drift into the collector’s realm. Bonnet doesn’t waste words on the peculiar circumstances of vinyl records in his essay, but a reader might think about his efforts to present them while reading his discussion of the relationships between art objects, ready-made objects and time. Time and the changes that accompany its passage are, he suggests, part of the artist’s material. Virginia Overton’s images depict aluminum pans that she installed at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She used them as containers of small gardens; when the plants died, she flipped them over and used them as sound resonators. Inside one of the museum’s galleries, Overton had placed cast-off pieces of metal and wood, which she repurposed as sculptures. Nothing stays the same, but in change new phenomena emerge.
Anne Guthrie’s portion of the work uses sounds collected from Overton’s exhibits as a starting point. She collected field recordings of the gallery interior, the outdoor area where the gardens were installed, weather, distant machinery and close-up captures of herself moving objects and deploying microphones. The magnified sounds of precise work and plants living and dying, sometimes straight and sometimes processed to draw out particular timbres, loom over distant jets and HVAC units, and into this mix Guthrie weaves the distant parping of her French horn. Across four discrete tracks, one can hear different moments and environments fixed for a moment in one representative configuration, which is now an object that can be bought and displayed and played in other times and places. Guthrie’s decisions and actions use Overton’s work as a starting point to illustrate Bonnet’s words."
[Bill Meyer /DUSTED] |
2021 |
€20.50 |
|
| |
Neues Boot |
CD |
TAL presents the first musical collaboration between Hamburg based Asmus Tietchens and Japanese artist Miki Yui, operating out of Düsseldorf for almost 20 years now. Highly respected and hugely influential artist Asmus Tietchens first made his mark on the electronic music scene in the late 1970s, whereas Miki Yui debuted her sonic settings in 1999.
Their first joint album NEUES BOOT envelops the listener with a poetic sound sensibility and a conceptual clarity which was processed and passed back and forth between their individual studios in Hamburg and Düsseldorf.
Asmus Tietchens: After Stefan Schneider suggested to release a Yui-Tietchens album on his TAL imprint Miki and I quickly developed some ideas towards our eventual collaboration.
We agreed upon an ongoing mutual exchange of material. We have both been very familiar with each other's music for a long time and we found our individual approach towards sound design to be uniquely compatible. We do not use our electronic tools in order to merely achieve the maximum of technical possibilities, but to illustrate aesthetic necessities. This entails a deliberate reduction and refined perception of the sonic characteristics of the material. Only this approach enabled us to fully realise the complete spectrum of the sounds and noises we were working with in order to construct this New Boat. Each and everyone of my treatments is e x c l u s i v e l y based on a track supplied by Miki. I added no new sound sources. Naturally the spatial and temporal dimensions of the source material were thus altered. These transformations are exactly what makes our collaboration special and unique. Very early on we had agreed on New Boat as a working title and a guiding light . Of course in the beginning we had no idea where this New Boat might take us. Now we do know. After several months of ship-building the boat has now set sails for new sonic horizons. Ahoi!
Miki Yui: The title of the album as well as the individual tracks have been inspired by conversations with Asmus. When we had a chat after one of his concerts, he told me about Kōdō, the Art or the Way of the Scent. It is a 8th century Japanese incense ceremony. Very frequently the names of Japanese incense sticks are derived from natural themes, e.g. Bairin is the plum grove, the scent of the first blossom heralding the end of winter.
This poetry, the ephemeral nature of the world reminded me of Kigo, words from a Haiku (a form of Japanese poetry), which reference a particular season or a natural phenomenon. So I chose the names of the individual pieces from Kigo as if The Boat was exploring nature whilst sailing through the seasons. Only in retrospect I realised that the titles combined create this poem:
Early spring a hazy view in the night (Oboro)
Plum groves (Bairin)
Over a Dayfly (Kagerou)
A Milkyway (Amanogawa)
Dawn (Akatsuki)
Art of fragrance (Kōdō)
On fragile thin ice (Usurai)
https://asmustietchensandmikiyui.bandcamp.com/album/neues-boot
"Exquisite electronic subtleties from two generations of explorative artists, pairing the tactile sensitivities of cult Hamburg based Asmus Tietchens with Düsseldorf resident Miki Yui for the first time with marked success.
Mutual spirits, Tietchens and Yui have long operated in pursuit of a lower case, spectral muse, and now at the behest of TAL’s Stefan Schneider they present a beautifully insoluble sound that transcends the sum of their parts. Incredibly delicate, and full of nanoscopic movement, the seven tracks unfurl between passages of burbling pastoralism and oneiric drowse, with particular highlights in the hypnotic timbral artefacts of ‘Kagerou’ or ‘Usurai’, and their 10’ of lush scenery inhabited by peacocks and a canopy of phosphorescing animaliculae and atmospheres in ‘Akatsuki’ recalling aspects of Mark Fell & Rian Treanor’s tape for our Documenting Sound series." [Boomkat]
"It’s a sad, hard fact that circulating music by means of physical objects is becoming the exception and not the rule. So, if you’re going to do it, might as well do it right and make it special. Future Audio Graphics makes LPs that bind interdisciplinary collaborations within gatefold LPs. Each combines a text by one artist, images by another and a record of sounds by a third. Ironically on Sculpture Gardens the efforts of writer François Bonnet (aka Kassel Jaeger), sculptor Virginia Overton and sound artist Anne Guthrie cohere into a consideration of impermanence.
Through his efforts to reissue works of electronic music on vinyl, Bonnet, a published author and the artistic director of Groupe de Recherche Musicales in Paris, has had plenty of opportunity to think about how ready-made vinyl objects can concentrate attention upon work, as well as how rapidly records become items to be hunted rather than merely purchased. Even when one fixes one’s work within an object, other peoples’ perceptions of the object and the work cut into it aren’t fixed. Neither is the object’s availability; LPs sooner or later drift into the collector’s realm. Bonnet doesn’t waste words on the peculiar circumstances of vinyl records in his essay, but a reader might think about his efforts to present them while reading his discussion of the relationships between art objects, ready-made objects and time. Time and the changes that accompany its passage are, he suggests, part of the artist’s material. Virginia Overton’s images depict aluminum pans that she installed at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She used them as containers of small gardens; when the plants died, she flipped them over and used them as sound resonators. Inside one of the museum’s galleries, Overton had placed cast-off pieces of metal and wood, which she repurposed as sculptures. Nothing stays the same, but in change new phenomena emerge.
Anne Guthrie’s portion of the work uses sounds collected from Overton’s exhibits as a starting point. She collected field recordings of the gallery interior, the outdoor area where the gardens were installed, weather, distant machinery and close-up captures of herself moving objects and deploying microphones. The magnified sounds of precise work and plants living and dying, sometimes straight and sometimes processed to draw out particular timbres, loom over distant jets and HVAC units, and into this mix Guthrie weaves the distant parping of her French horn. Across four discrete tracks, one can hear different moments and environments fixed for a moment in one representative configuration, which is now an object that can be bought and displayed and played in other times and places. Guthrie’s decisions and actions use Overton’s work as a starting point to illustrate Bonnet’s words."
[Bill Meyer /DUSTED]
|
2021 |
€14.50 |
|
| TO |
Memory of (f) |
CD-R |
Environmental / Psychogeographical concrete ambience/drone similar to ERIC LA CASA, TOY BIZARRE or T. TSUNODA. Interesting concept.
A new french artist to discover!
One-tracker of 21 minutes length.
“Memory of (f) is made of comings and goings between two spaces in a same place: my grandmother’s village located in the eastern part of France. One is closed, an attic, the other is open, it’s a forest. These two spaces were special places of games during my childhood. For four days I recorded sounds coming from these two environments as well as improvised sequences made of materials found around. Then this work was realized at studio Cesare Reims.” [liner notes]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| TO / THOMAS TILLY |
Cables & Signs (ten underwater field recordings) |
CD |
"These sound pieces all originate from hydrophonic mono recordings, carried out during summer 2009 in the waters of a moat of a castle in the west of France. During these recording sessions, I came to realise that some of the sounds generated there (Cables & Signs 1, 5 and 10) were modulated by variations in the intensity of the sun on the surface of the water. Even though I was not able to accurately identify the species emitting them, I now know they were produced by insects and aquatic plants. Fascinated by their relation to the external environment, by the concentration of these phenomena on the site and by some of the effects they produce on the ear, I selected fifty minutes out of the five hours of material gathered on location. Naturally composed and modulated by the environment, these ten excerpts result from a careful and subjective listening process and now exist through this format as musical pieces. Apart from a slight equalisation, none of these works were electronically altered or edited." [thomas tilly]
www.fissur.com
"On a hot day like today I should be outside, trying to find some cool shade, but I have to stay inside and cool it with my old ventilator, which sometimes makes a funny noise. The first time I was playing this CD by Thomas Tilly I wasn't paying attention enough - hot weather and all that - I thought that it was the ventilator acting up again. Then I studied the liner notes and it turns out that Tilly recorded sounds under water, and although I am not entirely sure, I understand these are the sounds are perhaps from insects and plants and somehow react to the sun shining on the water. These are then recorded and nothing else was done with it, except that we hear it. Its a pretty amazing disc, I must say. The music sounds like electrical charges, decaying motorized objects and such things alike. If you wouldn't better you could easily think this some sort of conceptual thing about machines, maybe something by Paul Panhuysen. It shares the same minimalist approach of Panhuysen, but then entirely from field recordings. Click like sounds, with some odd changes, if any at all. It doesn't sound like field recordings at all, and that's the best thing about it. It stays away from that line of interest of rain and wind sounds but makes a fascinating world of itself. One of the most interesting pieces of work I heard in quite some time. Hard to explain, but you should definitely found our for yourself." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| TOY BIZARRE |
kdi dctb 122 [f] |
mCD-R |
Neues Material von TOY BIZARRE, seit jeher eines unserer Lieblings “turn field-recordings-into-something-new”-Projekte ! Wir bekommen
eine Natursound-Traum-Melange zu hören mit anschwellendem Metall-Dröhnen wie bei BERTOIA & urlangem Klirr-Crescendo, fantastisch !
"kdi dctb 122 [f]" is an alternate mix from "kdi dctb 122". "kdi dctb
122" was a sound work of interpreted cartography whose theme was, on one hand, the sound environment in an area of 750m around the village of La Pommerie (in the town of St Setiers), and on second hand, the sound events related to the birth of the morning dew in the same area. Work was made of many recordings in/on 10 "micro-places" of the area ; every element was recorded. These field recordings were later sculpted with hard & and software. "kdi dctb 122 [f]" was done in november 2005 by cédric peyronnet. This stereo-reduction was |
2006 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
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 |
|
| TRAMA AFONA |
Trama afonA |
CD |
"Trama afonA is the sound/visual project by Lorenzo Scacchia (Roma, 1977), a vain attempt to tramaphonise (convey) what he sees in the dark and hears into silence…
Apart from a few self-productions, this album constitutes the first official release, gathering tracks composed between 2005 and 2008 (presented in reverse chronological order). Tracks 1, 3 were inspired by a wonderful creature. Tracks 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 were composed as soundtrack for various solo photo/graphic exhibitions by Trama afonA. Track 4 drew inspiration from a story by H. P. Lovecraft. Track 11 was composed for an Italian compilation. Tracks 13, 14 were the soundtrack for the former Trama afonA’s website.
Trama afonA is gathering suggestions from the contemporary quotidian theatre and at the same time from the past, namely the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Paying particular attention to the individual and specific human stories, rather than to History… Focusing on what happens behind the scenes, aside, beneath. Subjects and dynamics less showy, blurred, but not consequently less interesting or worth caring. Opening doors and drawers using the sole curiosity as tool, walking backwards the traces of memory, wandering amid shades and details given by mystery, decadence, abandon, romanticism… Carefully delving into psychological dynamics. Openly denouncing the social plagues, but often humbly providing just visual and sound suggestions.
A brief semantic note about Trama afonA: the Italian noun trama has 3 significations, corresponding to the English plot (as a story line as well as a conspiracy) and weft (of a woven material); the adjective afona means aphonic." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| TREPANERINGSRITUALEN |
Algir; Eller Algir I Merkstave |
CD |
Trepaneringsritualen return to Cold Spring with an album-long ritual working entitled ᛉᛦ — Algir; eller Algir i Merkstave. On this record — constructed from a series of rituals designated to guide the last ceasing of ᛏᛇᚱᚫ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ — T × R × P is manifest in its most obscure form. Sonically minimal yet devastating in emotional impact, this working lets the listener grasp the last vestiges of Nifl and Múspell, and with them as weapon and beacon traverse the Night. ᛉᛦ reveals a barren landscape where crooked paths lead onward, through soot black veils to a point of radiant light where all that is is Union & Dissolution.
Dedicated to our sister, ᛏᛇᚱᚫ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ.
T × R × P channelled through the forms of ᚦᛟᚦ ᚷᛁᚷ, ᚾᛟᚺ ⩝⚭⩝, and ᛏᛇᚱᚫ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ ∴ ᚾ at the 63rd Link, 4 & Rising, and Zone Rouge December 2017 e.v. — July 2018 e.v. Mastered by Martin Bowes. Artwork by Nullvoid.
___
I tordön rister marken och i ett enda andetag rämnar alla världar. Den arma kropp som en gång med knapphet höll samman faller nu itu, och itu, och itu. Tills varje beståndsdel blir till Ingenting. Likt en vålnad utan hud och blod och anda — utan köttets förtvivlan — kastar jag mig — handlöst och av vanvett vredgad — i ditt vidunderliga gap.
Här, i gudars sotsvarta skymning, där natt och dag förgås, hörs alla ord och stäv för första gången tydligt. Här tar alla vaga förnimmelser sin sanna form och stiger ur ett disigt skimmer.
Här, i alla solars gyllne gryning, strålar tusen — åter tusen, pilar av det mest förblindande ljus, mot en enda punkt. Skapandet, och varandet, och blivandet löses upp där prisman splittrar ljuset. Framför mig syns vägen klar och uppenbar.
Vi Vandrar Vidare
V ∴ V ∴ V
CD in 6-panel digipak
LP - Limited first edition of 500 copies on 180g black vinyl. Printed inner sleeve with reverse board outer sleeve.
Official teaser: youtu.be/8bTlXaUPpzI
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/algir-eller-algir-i-merkstave-csr275cd-lp
"After a run of strong albums framed around vocal driven, rhythmic death industrial compositions, Trepaneringsritualen (TxRxP) has chosen to take an abrupt left-hand turn (onto the left hand path?) to deliver an extremely minimalist ritual dark ambient album, thus harks back to an earlier phase of the project. In fact this new instrumental album is so minimal and ritualized in style, it would not at all be out of place on the Aural Hypnox label.
Compositionally this album consists of two lengthy nineteen-minute tracks, each titled with the algiz rune, but noting for the second track the algiz rune has been inverted. To glean meaning from this, in its upturned position, the algiz rune can be interpreted as a human with upraised arms to received the protection, guidance and wisdom from the Universe. But in its inverted position can be interpreted as meaning hidden dangers for the self and the need to reflect and look within as part of the process of gaining strength and connecting with higher self. Yet even with the cover image of the algiz rune formed by tree branches, based on the spartan artwork and text in Swedish, how the algiz runes should be interpreted in context of this album remains unclear.
Sonically speaking the atmosphere is one of bass driven tonal depth and catacombic echo, where blackened washes of archaic drones blend with reverb drenched ritual percussive sounds, including: deep catatonic drum hits; sparse gongs; wailing horns; ritual chimes; singing bowls, low atonal piano notes etc. Yet for all of its apparent minimalism, this album is one that immediately draws you into its sinister clutches and does not loosen its grip for the entire album duration, particularly given the ample tensile sonic elements which keep interest and engagement throughout. Although cut into two separate tracks, the sound effectively plays out at an album length track as the sound between the two pieces bridges the same pace and articulates visions in the mind’s eye of a ritual ceremony being conducted in the falling twilight on the damp forest floor, while tree limbs creak and sway in response to the winds gusting through treetops far above. Also of note is the deep shuddering thud featuring at the start and end of the album album, as if sonically representing the opening and subsequent closing of a ritual cycle.
Prior to the release of this album, perhaps I had assumed that TxRxP would continue to forge ahead with a song-based approach. That impression has been proven to be completed incorrect, but at the same time, ᛉᛦ – Algir; Eller Algir I Merkstave is an exceptional example of minimalist and strongly meditative ritual dark ambient music, and completely takes me back to the earliest days of when I started listening to this type of music. Recommended." [Noise Receptor]
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| TROUM |
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 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
Seeing-Ear Gods |
CD |
" ‘Seeing-Ear Gods' is the second collaboration between Troum and Zoharum. The album in question is the re-release of the obscure CDR which saw the light of the day 5 years ago on Discorporeality Recordings label. Here it is repackaged (3-panel digipak) and gloriously remastered by Anders Peterson (from Ghost Sounds mastering studio) responsible for dusting off other Troum / Maeror Tri releases.
'Seeing-Ear Gods' is quite different a release from 'Autopoiesis / Nahtscato' released on Zoharum last year. It's not as multilayered or varied, but at the same time is much more minimalist and hence very hypnotic. It works more on the subconscious level. It demonstrates how to create a mindblowing atmosphere with very little sounds involved.
Just one track, divided into 6 separate parts, but be assured that you will press the 'repeat' button a lot of times." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Autopoiesis / Nahtscato (re-press w. different artwork) |
CD |
https://alchembria.pl/en/strona-glowna/4949-troum-autopoiesisnahtscato-new-edit-cd.html
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]
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Symbiosis |
LP |
Listen:
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/symbiosis
First ever vinyl reissue of TROUM's Symbiosis EP, with unreleased extra track
The original Symbiosis CD EP was released in January 2003 as a limited edition in a handmade 3D pyramid-box (200 copies) as Transgredient TR-02. An additional standard edition came in a stickered & handcoloured cardboard cover with obi (more copies). The 5 tracks were recorded from May 2000 – August 2002 and consisted of guitar-only solo pieces by both members. Forming a unity out of singularities, merging the contradictions, this first re-issue has an additional unreleased bonus track, a reworking of older material recorded with the same approach. Finalized in march 2023.
Troum
Troum is a duo located in Bremene, Germany, established in early 1997. The two members Gli[S]ch and Baraka[H] were active before in the influential ambient industrial group Maeror Tri which existed from 1988 to 1996. "Troum" is the old German word for “dream". 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 have played live extensively and collaborated internationally with numerous releases on different labels around the globe.
|
2024 |
€22.00 |
|
| TROUM & REUTOFF |
Kreuzung Zwei: Creatura Per Creaturam Continetur |
CD |
"Jedes Wesen ist mit jedem anderen verbunden."
Nach ANTLERS MULM der zweite Teil der REUTOFF Collaboration-Serie: TROUM bearbeiteten hierfür Basismaterial der Moskauer und gossen das ganze, inspiriert von der Kosmologie HILDEGARD VON BINGENs, in sechs dronig-sphärische Stücke.
"The second in Kreuzung collaborations series. The basic sound sources and samples made by Reutoff especially for this release have been treated, arranged and mixed with an addition of their own instrumental parts by Troum. Dark profound harsh ambient with some occasional rhythmic patterns intertwined with transcendental prepared guitar loops and perfect drone noises - a perfect blend between two project distinctive features and creative manners. The concept of this work is based on cosmology of Hildegard von Bingen. The release comes in a special “Kreuzung” series package made of brown kraft carton with a full colour stickered artwork/info cover and Reutoff logo embossed on the back, the CD is housed in the same carton die-cut inner envelope." [label info]
"The forty-five minutes are divided into six tracks, slowly building towards an intense mixture of miniature noisescapes, neoclassical tapestries, ethnic rhythmic structures and eerie vocal samples. All titles are in Latin, and since that isn't my strong point, I'll leave translations to the readers' enquiring minds. The first track, "Aether Purus", is typical for Troum, although the familiar bassy layering of Troum seems to have gone up in frequency; it's all a bit higher. "Terrenus" has some partial neoclassical-like sounds, but it is set in a 1970s surrounding, "A Space Odyssey"-like environment. There are moments there that appear like insects stuck in your aural canal. Or is it really little aliens?
This setting is forcefully continued in the third (title) track where the Troum sounds find their way back into the composition. Later in the track rhythms are added to the composition. It is by far the longest track on the album. "Ignis Niger" is the fourth track and its creepy, erratic voices and samples really get you into a mood fit for watching a horror movie. Yes, two film references are my way of saying this whole release is very filmic. "Ignis Lucidus" has rhythms again, in combination with deep droning layers. It's a bit close to atmospheres like O Yuki Conjugate. The disc closes with "Aer Aquosus (Reprise)" which is a short but powerful track in an adapted Troum style.
My knowledge of Reutoff is minimal, so maybe there are a few too many references towards Troum here, but on the other hand I love Troum, and this album is, despite the references, so different from their other work that I think I'm secretly going to like Reutoff a lot also." [Bauke van der Wal / Connexion Bizarre]
"The Germanic and dark drone outfit Troum embark on a collaboration with the equally dark, Russian ensemble Reutoff, although the conceptual framework of their album isn't one wholly wrapped in mystery, occlusion, and shadow. Creatura Per Creaturam Continetur is based upon the cosmology of Hildegard von Bingen, the 12th century German abbess, whose richly detailed visions through her unshakeable Christian faith offered feminine descriptions of the cosmic order sprinkled with sexually charged metaphor. In addition to her writings, Hildegard had developed an impressive musical canon of monophonic chorales and plainsong melodies, whose recursive elements certainly look forward to all sorts of drone-based musics of the 20th and 21st centuries.
While the drone connection is easy to make, how Troum and Reutoff view Hildegard von Bingen's faith and art is unclear.
Regardless, the majestic swells that immediately surge at the introduction of this album are some of the most beatific and
heavensent that either project has produced to date. Troum have always been known for their glacial pacing of drone crescendos for spiralling guitars heavily processed in effects; and on this album, they leave no doubt that they excel at their craft. For those seeking the dark, almost blackened ambience that both Troum and Reutoff have mustered in the past, there's plenty of industrial bellows, clanking rhythms, creepily whispered vocals, and subaquatic reverberations to cast a somber pall across these recordings..." [Aquarius Records]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| TSUNODA, TOSHIYA |
Landscape and Voice |
LP |
Black Truffle is pleased to present Landscape and Voice, a radical new work (and rare vinyl release) from major Japanese sound artist Toshiya Tsunoda. Undoubtedly one of the most influential artists working with location recordings since the 1990s, Tsunoda’s work possesses a rigorously searching quality that sets him apart from his contemporaries. Tsunoda is known to many listeners for the subtle atmospheric poetry of his early Extract from Field Recording Archive series, which focussed on vibrations recorded in various indoor and outdoor environments in his native Miura Peninsula, often inside pipes, bottles and other vessels. In more recent years, his work has explored the implications of his claim that field recording should be seen as ‘depiction’ rather than ‘documentation’. He has explored disorienting editing and processing in his works with Taku Unami, and, perhaps most radically, represented Maguchi Bay as a kind of kinetic sculpture for shaking speakers by removing all but the inaudible low frequencies from a field recording (Low Frequency Observed at Maguchi Bay).
One of the recurrent concerns of Tsunoda’s recent work, as he explains in the crystalline liner notes accompanying this release, is ‘exploring how I can establish a subjective relationship with an environment, rather than seeing it merely as an object to be recorded’. This has taken various forms, from documenting simultaneously an outdoor environment and the blood flowing through the listener/recorder’s body (captured with a stethoscope) on The Temple Recordings, to representing his own experience of the landscape as made up of ‘grains of space and time’ by inserting looped fragments into field recordings in Grains of Spring.
On Landscape and Voice, this meeting between subject and object becomes an almost mystical union between the natural and the human. As with all of Tsunoda’s work, a relatively simple concept leads to compelling, thought-provoking results. Landscape and Voice combines vowel sounds spoken by six voices with short, looped fragments of field recordings, their noise character suggesting consonants: voice and landscape thus join together in something like words. The record consists of three pieces, each using a different, richly evocative field recording, which periodically freezes, catching on a looped fragment to which is synchronised an abruptly looped spoken vowel sound. The lengths between these interruptions vary, as do the tempi of the loops. The interruption of these lushly immersive recordings of the world – bristling with bird song, rushing water, distant traffic, and clinking metal – only serves to intensify them, as if the depicted environment itself had been returned to the listener each time it abruptly reappears. At the same time, the constant interruption creates an uncannily frozen effect, as if the recorded environment were an object rather than a stretch of recorded time. When combined with the bare human presence of the vowel sounds, the result is both austere and magical. Pressed on 45RPM for maximum fidelity, in a gorgeous sleeve designed by Lasse Marhaug with liner notes from the composer, Landscape and Voice is a radical proposition from one of the deepest thinkers in contemporary sound.
https://blacktruffle.bandcamp.com/album/landscape-and-voice
|
2022 |
€23.50 |
|
| TUNDRA |
Tajnie i Glebie |
CD |
"Tundra - an electroacoustic project of Dawid Adrjanczyk and Krzysiek Joczyn - is a duo, whose inspiration is, first and foremost, space, both in its physical manifestation and the spiritual meaning. Beside samples, field recordings and sound manipulation, they use acoustic instruments. After 2 self-released EPs and 2 collaborative albums with Karpaty Magiczne (The Magic Carpathians), they recorded a full-length album, which is a manifestation of their journeys into places where peace and chill reign simultaneously. These are akin to more ethereal songs from the World Serpent realm, but also academic compositions or free improv. The sounds on "Tajnie i G³êbie" lose tracks and inspirations luring the listeners with an ambiguous atmosphere at the same time.
This 3-panel ecopak release is strictly limited to 350 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| TUNNELS OF ĀH (TUNNELS OF AH) |
The Smeared Cloth |
do-CD |
"The Smeared Cloth" is a double CD compilation containing the TUNNELS OF ĀH recordings from 2012-2018, which have not yet been published on any medium. The first disc is filled with compositions from the period before the debut in Cold Spring and outtakes from the sessions for "Thus Avici", the next album for the British label.
The second disc contains tracks recorded during and between the sessions for "Surgical Fires" and "Charnel Transmissions". Although they were created as loose compositions, out of the concepts clearly outlined on each of the mentioned albums, they sound incredibly coherent, giving impression of being part of a concept release, this makes them a pleasure to listen to; especially when we get carried away in the world created by Stephen Ah Burroughs with the sounds characteristic of his work. Sometimes they evoke associations with ancient rituals, intensifying the impression of Egyptian darkness, the feeling of coldness and emptiness coming as if from a deep dungeon, and with them an echo. All this is a superstructure for the 21 tracks filling both discs, outlined and maintained, in a convention that allows them to be stylistically located somewhere between isolating dark ambient and death industrial, where the gloom aura and dense, mechanical structures coexist as if in symbiosis, thanks to which the balance between building the atmosphere and reflecting the true nature of the industrial collision. This release is undoubtedly a must-have for TOĀH fans, but it can also delight those who appreciate death industrial at a high level. The album's released on two CDs folded in a six-panel ecopack.
Tracks 1-11 taken from "The Smeared Cloth" CD1
Tracks 12-21 taken from "The Smeared Cloth" CD2
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/the-smeared-cloth-2012-2018-unearthed
"In den frühen 80ern gründete Stephen R. Borroughs zusammen mit Justin Broadrick und Dave Cochrane das Trio HEAD of David, das einen der noisigsten Grundsteine dessen legte, das später Industrial Metal genannt werden sollte. Im Lauf der Jahre konzentrierte er sich mehr und mehr auf Soloprojekte, und neben Frag war dies seit etwas über zehn Jahren Tunnels of Āh, mit dem er einen Ritualkosmos von fast räudiger Abgründigkeit entstehen ließ.
Dass Tunnels of Ah trotz der starken Abstraktion seiner ästhetischen Konzepte ein konsequent verfolgtes atmosphärisches Thema hat, wird bereits deutlich, wenn man die mittlerweile sechs Alben, die seit 2013 auf Cold Spring und zuletzt Hypershape erschienen sind, im Vergleich hört, denn da fallen die verbindenden Elemente sehr deutlich ins Auge. Mehr noch beeindruckt einen die musikalisches Stringenz angesichts der jüngst auf Tape und Doppel-CD erschienenen Compilation “The Smeared Cloth 2012 – 2018 Unearthed”, denn hier lassen frühe Stücke und Outtakes aus verschiedenen Albumsessions ein überraschend zusammenhängendes Bild entstehen.
“The Smeared Cloth” ist nichts für Hörer, die Probleme mit Beklemmung, Dunkelheit und niederdrückender Schwere haben. Eine finstere, bedrohliche Stimmung zieht sich durch die oft kreisenden Soundgebilde, lassen durch ambiente Dröhnung, Saitenrasseln oder sirrende Streichersounds filmreife Phasen der Spannung und durch paukende und prasselnde Takte und plötzliche Schuttlawinen aufwühlende Momente entstehen, steigern sich vom subtilen Hauch eines – nur oberflächlich sanft wirkenden, in Wirklichkeit höllischen – Windes zu infernalischen Szenen von hochtönendem, schleifenden Lärm. Klangfarben von Stein und noch stärker Metall prägt das Gesamtbild, doch ist in gewissen Abständen auch immer die Illusion des Organischen spürbar, als würde das harte und kalte Material mit dürren Reiserbesen und ähnlichem traktiert. Auch die entmenschlichte menschliche Stimme ist gelegentlich zu hören, mal in Rezitation, mal als finsteres Growlen und Keifen, mal in Form eines sakralen Gesangs.
Wenn man in den 20 Stücken die Kohärenz betont, sollte man hinzufügen, dass in ihnen natürlich auch Raum für Variation ist. Sollte ich einige herausragende Stücke betonen, dann wären es wahrscheinlich “Keys King At Womb Door Again”, in welchem sich ein anfangs kaum spürbares lykanthropisches Hecheln langsam zu etwas (noch) Monströse(re)m steigert – eine Entwicklung, die vielleicht etwas vorhersehbar ist, doch die urige Soundgestaltung, die durchweg an etwas Altes, seit Urzeiten Verschüttetes denken lässt, fällt weitaus stärker ins Gewicht. Ferner “Fountain of Life”, das nach gängigem Verständnis wohl eher wie das Gegenteil seines Titels klingt und an einen zerbrochenen Brunnen erinnert, dessen Wasser ein paar Erdklumpen mit sich reißt und am Ende im Schlamm versiegt. Nicht zuletzt auch der Titeltrack, dessen Spoken Word-Passage wie das Monument eines sinnlosen Aufwands vor infernalischer Kulisse am Ende von einer Schuttlawine geschluckt wird.
Nach den über zwei dystopischen Stunden scheiden sich wahrscheinlich die Geister: Während die einen fürs erste genug gelitten haben, sind die anderen nun gewappnet für die regulären Alben des Projektes, und “The Smeared Cloth” gibt da tatsächlich einen großartigen Einblick in einen Kosmos, den ich allen empfehlen kann, die frühe Coil, alte Broken Flag-Releases und ausgewählte Death Industrial-Platten nebeneinander im Regal stehen haben."
[African Paper]
"Eager to get back into the Tunnels. Not long ago, I gave 'Deathless Mind' another spin, and I had been looking forward to some new material from Burroughs. Still.. two whole CDs, dearie me. I'm curious if I can make it through in one go. Also, it is not exactly 'new' material, but rather excerpts and unused tracks from two distinct periods: the first CD collects all discards from the Lost Corridors and Thus Avici era; the second contains material from the period between Surgical
Fires and Charnel Transmissions - compiled into this 2,5-hour lasting tour de force. Me, oh my.
Though branded as 'dark ambient' on Discogs, we've come to know Tunnels of Āh for industrial ambient landscapes and complex saturated loops and textures that range timbrally from (seemingly) acoustic in origin to overtly synthetic. Also, the 'loops' here should mostly be taken less literally; there are elements that seem to repeat, but for the most part, the chopped-up complexity of the textures ensures we won't have the typical 'looper' kind of experience in which repetition is often an easy way of tricking our brain into believing it is listening to something musical.
On CD 1, many sounds seem to have acoustic sources, which is much more noticeable than on the more recent albums. We also seem to get a lot more vocal delivery than usual, making tracks like 'Brute World' and 'To the Pschal Victim' almost have an early Current 93 or 'ambient Test Dept kind' of ring to them.
It is also completely dissimilar in many ways, e.g., production-wise, but for fans of those bands, these tracks may be the right point of entry into the Tunnels. The vocals are often mixed in quite deeply, so you won't be listening to poetry with a noisy background.
With the choppy granulated ambient of 'Lost Corridors', a track that did not feature on the eponymous 2013 album, there seems to be somewhat of a 'natural' ending to the first part of the first CD. The subsequent ambient track 'Fountain Of Life' ramps the intensity again with its swirling vortex of delayed grit. Both 'Great Darkness' and 'The Cloth is Smeared' really stand out as two of the more memorable pieces.
Disc 2 starts with the interesting combination of 'To the Paschal Victim' and 'Circumcision', which seem to be variations on the same bass riff/loop - though the latter track slides off into a murky bass swamp about halfway through. 'Red Distribution' and 'White Distribution' wrap this disc up in a
manner that reminded me of Charnel Transmissions. There is a certain kind of dense lo-fi elegance to them, which also made me fall for that album when it first came out.
I've said this before, and I'll repeat it: What I love about Tunnels Of Āh is that though it is clearly tarnished with the brush of industrial and perhaps even reminiscent of some noise - due to its complex textures, it never becomes too harsh or punishing, which given the length of most tracks may be a very deliberate choice either during mastering or in the composition process. Moreover, a wise one, since especially with a leviathan of this length, balance is a thing to aim for.
Does it work as an album, though, or is this merely a release for us to be complete? Tough question. The first CD is consistent, albeit on the long side. With 77 minutes, it is about half an hour longer than any Tunnels release on average, and I definitely had to listen to the whole release in phases. That said, when it
comes to textures and intensity, there seems to have been some thought put into the dynamic distribution of the tracks and though longer than usual, I would say both these discs work as stand-alone albums. Another keeper in a long line of excellent works from the Tunnels." [LdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€17.00 |
|
| TWELVE THOUSAND DAYS |
The devil in the grain |
CD |
Schon das zweite Album des Projekts von Martyn Bates und Alan Trench ! Beautiful melancholic ambient-Pop !!
“.... this sounds just like one could expect a collaboration between Orchis and Martyn Bates would do. The sound here is more coherent, more integrated and the album flows much better. It is slightly ”softer”, sounding both serene and fresh at the same time. It is not specified what instruments they make use of, but it is a lot of sources for sure. It is not overly complex – the complexity (if any) would lie in the emotional colourings.. “ [notes from somewhere]
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Insect Silence |
CD |
"MARTYN BATES (Eyeless In Gaza) & ALAN TRENCH (Orchis, Howling Larsons) return after a long hiatus with the fourth TWELVE THOUSAND DAYS album. From the opening “Death Went Fishing” (a free translation of “vgíke o cháros na psarépsei”, the classic rebetiko by Giannis Papaioannou) to the closing, haunting notes of “Red And Golden Fire”, the listener is taken on a journey made up of a thousand journeys, a thousand side trips, a thousand destinations, hinging around the sprawling central trip of “Pathless”, in which the ramifications of choices made swim into hazy view. The 13 tracks that make up “Insect Silence” are a concatenation of dulcimers, whistles, guitars, synths, disturbing digital background noise (“Night Harmonium”) and other instrumentation with slices of pure, aching melody echoing through strange darkened corners, all enlivened and enlit by the wondrous tones of Martyn Bates.
MARTYN BATES is well-known for his brilliant long-time work with EYELESS IN GAZA, for his solo albums and for collaborations with MICK HARRIS and ANNE CLARK.
ALAN TRENCH: co-founder of World Serpent Distribution and musician with brilliant projects/groups ORCHIS, HOWLING LARSONS, TEMPLE MUSIC." [label info]
https://finalmuzik.bandcamp.com/album/twelve-thousand-days-insect-silence
"It's been quite some time since Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza) and Alan Trench (Temple Music, Orchis) have come together as Twelve Thousand Days. It's fair to say much water has passed under the bridge since their last album From The Walled Garden in 2006. Insect Silence follows a ditched compilation release with the same title scheduled for release a number of years back. Insect Silence continues with the folk based music provided by Alan Trench and fronted by the distinctive voice of Martyn Bates but Insect Silence more so than their previous albums doesn't dwell solely in folk music. It may be its starting point but Insect Silence differs with passages of psych guitar and its layering of synths and electronics, as well as in the ambient interludes which feature throughout and often open up the tracks way beyond its grounding in folk music. Lyrically Insect Silence is couched in an English familiarity and in the eternal themes of life, love and death. Just shy of 70 minutes it's a long winding path of 13 tracks involving a large assortment of instrumentation which are woven into a complex and intricate tapestry of sound. You will be surprised by the pathways Twelve Thousand Days roam on .
Insect Silence opens to the spirited acoustic folk and percussive tambourine bashing of 'Death Went Fishing', outwitting death as it rushes onwards, weaving soaring psych guitars, which return throughout Insect Silence, as Bates implores that "he will return again". Its sets the scene for Insect Silence an album loosely based around folk music employing a rich multitude of instrumentation including guitars, dulcimers, harmonium, whistles as well as electronics. Twelve Thousand Days stretch the parameters of folk music with psych-guitar and ambient and instrumental interludes sprinkled throughout the 13 tracks. At times it likes listening to a Krautrock inspired psych-folk album with space rock leanings. In a good way, of course.
Opening to an ambient interlude 'Mad As The Mist' is the first of three musical settings of the words of Irish poet W.B. Yeats. Dreamy folk guitars entwine twang and strum, as Bates in his pure folk tones recalls philosophers such as Plato, Homer, Tully and Cicero, swelling into another passage of soaring solo of psych guitar and back again to dreamy folk song. More restless psych-guitar features on 'A Coat'. There's more of an experimental edge to the Yeats setting here pitching Bates' strained (and occasionally treated) voice to the fore, embellished by the pluck of guitar notes augmented by glinting electronics, bass throb and a needling guitar casting vibrations of psychedelic proportions. 'Arrow', the final piece in the Yeats trilogy is starker and played more straightforward with the beautiful folk voice over ringing acoustic guitar and warm synth backing.
Away from the Yeats tracks, a number of which Bates recorded with Troum in different musical forms, 'Errant Desires' moves to graceful ambience with flourishes of guitar notes. Bates' pure mournful tones add a sleepy lamentful melody, as faint electronics flicker behind the gentle flurry of guitar notes and assorted instrumentation. Beautifully atmospheric, it's one of my favourites on Insect Silence. Bates' voice is measured and melodic illuminating the sense of life passing in the evocative lyrics of rain falling, captured in our hands and gladly falling to the earth. More timeless folk arrives in the form of 'She Raises Her Eyes' where in captivating melodic tones Bates sings of a longing recalling long cold December months over duelling dulcimer chime.
One of the more surprising tracks appearing in the first half of the album is 'Invoke Hecate' where over passages of whistle and rousing, beating strum, Twelve Thousand Days sounding not unlike Ostara invoke the Goddess of Witchcraft, through an assortment of occult techniques. Alan Trench in past endeavours has facilitated many musicians in the apocalyptic folk genre but this rare sojourn, even with it blistering psych solo, can still raise an eyebrow and something of a smirk.
As mentioned earlier, Insect Silence is interspersed with instrumentals taking the music down alternate pathways, straying far off the beaten track. The first of these 'Night Harmonium' carries an air of arcane English mysticism with its loose folk stylings where strings chime and whistle billows merge over background synths and static clicks. The instrumental 'Old Ladies As Birds' is another brooding mystical moment where layers of whistles and flutes cast an age old melody over wheezing harmonium while loose guitar notes chime and ring out as distant electronics shudder underneath. While 'Old Ladies As Birds' is evocative of transforming souls and spirits, the jaunty folk offering of 'Fieldwork' is celebratory. Based on whistles and acoustic strum it comes across like a folk dance or Pagan procession. If 'Fieldwork' revels in a lost Englishness 'Descent' is dealing with nostalgia. A vintage crackling recording of 'See, The Conqu'ring Hero Comes' shrouds the descending organ scales of 'Descent'. Bates' voice is quiet, distant and softly murmured amidst the eerie disembodied voices of the choir as percussion rattles. You can almost picture the landscape on the pastoral 'Red and Golden Fire' another experimental offering mixing lulling electronics with whistles and flutes which closes the album.
Insect Silence hinges around 'Pathless' an epic experimental 16-minute musical and lyrical journey which we all make on our travels through life. Set in the middle of the album it continues the theme first introduced on the opener 'Death Went Fishing'. With the huntsman at our heels, we try to outwit death to no avail. Travelling from ringing guitar with Bates' voice, wrapped in layered accompaniment, veering between passages of Krautrock electronics and wavering synths to psaltery, whistles and location recordings. All the elements of Insect Silence emanate from and come together on this track to great effect. As it flows together seamlessly it's difficult to pinpoint where 'Pathless Part I' ends and 'Pathless Part II' begins but it may be when a heartbeat bass pulses and acoustic guitars ring out and the spoken word of Lisa (I think this is Elizabeth S who features on releases from Eyeless In Gaza) surfaces amidst guitars and layers of spacey synths which lull, crash and wail, before Bates returns, to close this epic track in high registered tones.
Insect Silence bustles with an immediacy, there's a sense of freshness of getting it all down on tape before the additional sound layers of instrumentation are added. Ambient, electronics, psych guitar, whistles, location recordings are all here embellishing the tracks making it intricate and complex. At the heart of it is an open-ended folk sound reflected in Bates' beautiful, distinctive voice which illuminate the timeless themes. Insect Silence is by far the best I've heard from Twelve Thousand Days and though the tracks are disparate there's an arching basis in folk music which traverses into other areas which holds it all together. As we said, Insect Silence is a journey, a pathway laid down just waiting for us to follow. Insect Silence is released digitally and on CD by Final Muzik in an edition of 500 copies. For more information go to Final Muzik and to download go to Final Muzik Bandcamp." [Compulsion Online]
"Man neigt gerne dazu, Bands, die sich nur alle Schaltjahre oder seltener zu neuen Aktivitäten zusammentun, als klammheimlich aufgelöst zu betrachten, erst recht dann, wenn es sich dabei um noch anderweitig aktive Musiker handelt – so wie Sänger Martyn Bates mit Eyeless in Gaza und seinem Soloprojekt und Instrumentalist Alan Trench mit seinen Folk- und Psychedelic-Gruppen Temple Music, Orchis und Black Lesbian Fishermen. Nachdem mit ihrem Duo Twelve Thousand Days wahrscheinlich nur noch wenige gerechnet hätten, steht mit „Insect Silence“ nun ganz überraschend ein neues Album in den Regalen, das fast da anknüpft, wo die beiden vor gut zwölf Jahren mit „From the Walled Garden“ aufhörten. Fast, denn gerade bei Alan sind doch ein paar Spuren seiner neuen Arbeiten herauszuhören.
Wie man es von früheren Aufnahmen her kennt, wechseln sich schmissige, fast frohsinnige Folksongs ab mit verträumt melancholischen Klageliedern und geheimnisvollen ambienten Soundscapes, und zusammen mit Bates’ unverkennbarer Stimme, die so klar und jugendlich wie eh und je klingt, kreiert die Musik ein verzaubertes Setting, das an ein langsam vor dem Auge verschwimmendes Jugenstilgemälde erinnert.
„Death Went Fishing“ und „Invoce Hecate“ zählen zu den eingängigen Folkstücken, die mit feurigem Geschrammel und ekstatischen Rasseln nach vorn galoppieren – mystische oder makabre Töne schleichen sich über sanft gesungene Textzeilen in die Szenerie und bilden mit der harmonischen Musik eine heikle Mischung, und schon mit den allerorts spürbaren heidnischen Untertönen sind die Stücke vor jedem Indie- und Pop-Appeal gefeit. Impressionistische Tableaus wie „Mad as the Mist“, dessen anfangs noch ziellos umhertastendes Gitarrenspiel sich erst nach und nach zu einem anmutigen Stimmungsbild zusammensetzt, bilden einen Gegenpol dazu, ebenfalls das aus einer balladesken Märchenwelt herübergewehte „Old Ladies as Birds“ und das mit Knacken und Knistern leicht verfremdete Zwischenspiel „Night Harmonium“ – beide Stücke gewinnen noch an Charisma durch Alans berührendes Flötenspiel.
In einigen dieser Tracks sind aber auch räudige Psych Rock-Elemente zuhören, die der Musik eine Kantigkeit verleihen, die in den klassischen Zeiten des englischen Folk nichts ungewöhnliches gewesen wären – zünftige E-Gitarrensoli und dröhnende Riffs, die die Folkmelodien, die sie spielen, gleichsam zerschreddern, als wären sie eine nationalhymne in Woodstock. Weder Eyeless in Gaza noch Orchis waren frei von solch rauen Beigaben, doch hier hat sich v.a. die Sprache jüngerer Temple Music in die Stilpalette geschlichen und gibt dem naturverbundenen Sound eine deutliche Prise Realismus.
Es gäbe einiges, das sich in den einzelnen Songs hervorheben ließ, die anrührende Melodie in „Errant Desires“, die cinematischen Verfremdungseffekte in „Red and Golden Fire“ und der melierte Orgelsound in „Descent“, der in ein verwehtes Sample des Liedes „Hail the Conquering Hero!“ (im Deutschen die Melodie von „Tochter Zion, freue dich“) übergeht, sind nur einige davon, doch alles in allem funktioniert „Insect Silence“ am besten als zusammenhängendes Werk, das mit mehrmaligem Hören immer mehr zu verzaubern weiß." [U.S., African Paper]
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| UGGERI, MATTEO |
The Next Wait |
CD + CDR |
In 2013 my wife Gaia was pregnant. We were then waiting for our first born to come, expected for November of that year. A few little obstacles and troubles occurred during the nine months, so my anxious nature at the time generated in me the need to somehow express the feelings in a record, where I conveyed the worries that a father, especially a musician that needs his own moments for playing, may have in terms of an expected potential future lack of time and energies.
I also decided to involve fellow musicians I got to know at the time, like Maurizio Abate (guitar), Enrico Coniglio (guitar and organ), with whom afterwards I would have made full albums - but you can find here the first traces of our collaboration. There were Andrea Serrapiglio (cello) and Cristiano Lupo (bass), that I knew for quite some time, and featuring female voices. I asked Dominique Van Cappellen-Waldock (that I discovered through her marvellous presence on a Doug Sharin solo album) if she wanted to sing on a track, and she did, providing her own lyrics. The American singer Jenny Oakley, aka Empty Vessel Music, did the same on track one, as well as a glitching sample from Nicola Ratti is also featured.
The central piece of the whole album can be considered “Family Man”, a sort of cover from a song by Black Flag, totally reversed by my wife Gaia Margutti. She re-interpreted the lyrics her own way, and she performed it in an unforgettable session of home recordings, with my daughter Olivia, now finally born, hanging from her neck.
Indeed, the album took quite a long time to be made, and then the ‘wait’ was over, transformed in the new life we were all three now living together.
The second half pieces, actually a long track sliced in three parts, are dedicated to this transition period, where also tensions in the family are occuring. The tracks are built on a piano melody provided by the Japanese artist, Mujika Eisel, that collaborated with me on a previous album.
Now it is 2019, and not only is Olivia 5 years old, but also Nora was born, in March 2017. This album, is now dedicated to both of them, and can in a away, be perhaps considered a bit too ‘direct’, (as a Henry Rollins song!) but it’s for me a sincere expression of feelings and sensations. The concept of waiting can be interpreted in different ways, and anyone can ask himself what the two dogs in the front cover (kindly provided by the Italian photographer Adriano Zanni) are expecting to come.
Anyway, the album is finally released, thanks to the generous and neverlasting effort of US label Infraction, available in the three formats of LP/CD/DL, with an additional 7” containing two outtakes entitled “After the Wait” (exclusive to physical formats only), when the new life was becoming a new set of routines.
I even made a video in 2018, featuring - guess who? - my family. It can be seen on Infraction Bandcamp and on my website as well.
I hope that this long pathway of experiences, feelings, music and visual art will be shared with careful listeners all over the world. - Matteo Uggeri
Album editions :
100 copies of clear blue water LP + 7 inch (after the wait)
150 copies of black vinyl 180 gram edition
Each LP is housed in a Stoughton tip-on style heavy sleeve. The 7" is a clear vinyl.
250 copies of full-length CD. The first 100 copies will contain a bonus CDR with 2 exclusive tracks (entitled 'After the Wait'). The CD will be housed in a Stoughton style mini-lp gatefold sleeve.
Maurizio Abate (guitar)
Enrico Coniglio (guitar, organ)
Andrea Serrapiglio (cello)
Cristiano Lupo (bass)
Dominique Van Cappellen-Waldock (vocals)
Jenny Oakley (vocals)
Nicola Ratti (electronics sample)
Gaia Margutti (vocals)
Mujika Eisel (piano)
https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/the-next-wait
|
2019 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
The Next Wait |
LP + 7inch |
In 2013 my wife Gaia was pregnant. We were then waiting for our first born to come, expected for November of that year. A few little obstacles and troubles occurred during the nine months, so my anxious nature at the time generated in me the need to somehow express the feelings in a record, where I conveyed the worries that a father, especially a musician that needs his own moments for playing, may have in terms of an expected potential future lack of time and energies.
I also decided to involve fellow musicians I got to know at the time, like Maurizio Abate (guitar), Enrico Coniglio (guitar and organ), with whom afterwards I would have made full albums - but you can find here the first traces of our collaboration. There were Andrea Serrapiglio (cello) and Cristiano Lupo (bass), that I knew for quite some time, and featuring female voices. I asked Dominique Van Cappellen-Waldock (that I discovered through her marvellous presence on a Doug Sharin solo album) if she wanted to sing on a track, and she did, providing her own lyrics. The American singer Jenny Oakley, aka Empty Vessel Music, did the same on track one, as well as a glitching sample from Nicola Ratti is also featured.
The central piece of the whole album can be considered “Family Man”, a sort of cover from a song by Black Flag, totally reversed by my wife Gaia Margutti. She re-interpreted the lyrics her own way, and she performed it in an unforgettable session of home recordings, with my daughter Olivia, now finally born, hanging from her neck.
Indeed, the album took quite a long time to be made, and then the ‘wait’ was over, transformed in the new life we were all three now living together.
The second half pieces, actually a long track sliced in three parts, are dedicated to this transition period, where also tensions in the family are occuring. The tracks are built on a piano melody provided by the Japanese artist, Mujika Eisel, that collaborated with me on a previous album.
Now it is 2019, and not only is Olivia 5 years old, but also Nora was born, in March 2017. This album, is now dedicated to both of them, and can in a away, be perhaps considered a bit too ‘direct’, (as a Henry Rollins song!) but it’s for me a sincere expression of feelings and sensations. The concept of waiting can be interpreted in different ways, and anyone can ask himself what the two dogs in the front cover (kindly provided by the Italian photographer Adriano Zanni) are expecting to come.
Anyway, the album is finally released, thanks to the generous and neverlasting effort of US label Infraction, available in the three formats of LP/CD/DL, with an additional 7” containing two outtakes entitled “After the Wait” (exclusive to physical formats only), when the new life was becoming a new set of routines.
I even made a video in 2018, featuring - guess who? - my family. It can be seen on Infraction Bandcamp and on my website as well.
I hope that this long pathway of experiences, feelings, music and visual art will be shared with careful listeners all over the world. - Matteo Uggeri
Album editions :
100 copies of clear blue water LP + 7 inch (after the wait)
150 copies of black vinyl 180 gram edition
Each LP is housed in a Stoughton tip-on style heavy sleeve. The 7" is a clear vinyl.
250 copies of full-length CD. The first 100 copies will contain a bonus CDR with 2 exclusive tracks (entitled 'After the Wait'). The CD will be housed in a Stoughton style mini-lp gatefold sleeve.
credits
released September 10, 2019
Maurizio Abate (guitar)
Enrico Coniglio (guitar, organ)
Andrea Serrapiglio (cello)
Cristiano Lupo (bass)
Dominique Van Cappellen-Waldock (vocals)
Jenny Oakley (vocals)
Nicola Ratti (electronics sample)
Gaia Margutti (vocals)
Mujika Eisel (piano)
https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/the-next-wait |
2019 |
€28.00 |
|
| UGGERI, MATTEO & MOURNING DOVE |
Does the Moon not Dream |
CD |
Elena Botts is American, lives in Washington DC. Matteo Uggeri is Italian, lives in Milan. When this album was conceived, in 2018, she was 22, he was 44.
Three years after its conceiving, the album is now released in Spring 2021 by the historical ADN records (adnrecords.com), that since 1984 has published artists like Pascal Comelade, Merzbow, Pierre Bastien, Tasaday, Riccardo Sinigaglia, Cranioclast, Sigillum S, Christina Kubisch, Third Ear band and many others…
Elena's works under her moniker Mourning Dove are primarily built on her voice and poems, Matteo's ones are usually instrumental releases in the so-called field of 'modern classical/experimental'.
This joint album was made in an extremely spontaneous way, sending files across the Atlantic ocean: Elena recorded a set of spoken poems and three sung pieces, often outdoor, walking in streets and fields, and Matteo arranged them all grabbing mostly acoustic sounds often provided by his long time collaborators.
Due to the strong and at the same time delicate timbre of Elena's voice, in spite of the relatively wide set of instruments, the album sounds minimal and rarefied, as a long gentle suite of sparse notes and occasional rhythms driven by female vocal chords.
Mourning Dove (Elena Botts): lyrics, vocals.
Matteo Uggeri: sounds, composing and mixing.
My Dear Killer: acoustic and electric guitar.
Andrea Serrapiglio: cello.
Francesca Stella Riva: trombone.
alessandro sesana: trumpet.
Maurizio Abate: mandoloncello.
Franz Krostopovic: piano and violin.
Alberto Carozzi: electric guitar.
Cristiano Lupo: bass.
Made in Washington DC and Milan in summer 2019.
Mastered by Marco Milanesio in January 2021.
Photos by Elena Botts. Artwork by Matteo Uggeri.
https://matteouggeri.bandcamp.com/album/does-the-moon-not-dream
"Dass die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Matteo Uggeri und der Autorin Elena Botts alias Mourning Dove so spontan zustande gekommen ist wie es in den Liner Notes ihres gemeinsamen Albums “Does The Moon Not Dream” heißt, mag man sich kaum vorstellen. Meist sanfte Sounds verschiedener Umgebungen und Klangfarben, die bei genauerem Hören eine vielfältige Stimmungspalette entfalten, entspanntes Fingerpicking, stimmungsvolle Pianoparts und wehmütige Streicher, in ernsten Tönen vorgetragene Poesie und ein jazzig eingefärbter Sopran: All dies und einiges mehr fügt sich derart passgenau zum Narrativ eines musikalischen Hörspiels zusammen, dass man die dirigierende Hand einer alles im Griff habenden Personen vermutet. Umso schöner, wenn sich so etwas spontan ergibt.
Die ruhige Gangart, mit der das Album startet, sollte nicht hinwegtäuschen über eine unterschwellige Aufgewühltheit, die nie ganz aus der Musik verschwindet und mit einem gewissen stoischen Charakter in den Dialog tritt. Im Opener, dessen Titel “Modular” bestens zu seinem kollagenhaften Charakter passt, gibt entspanntes, fast pastorales Gitarrenpicking den Hintergrund für den Sound zielgerichteter Schritte, für ein sanft leuchtendes Dröhnen, das bei genauerem Hinhören eher aufgeweckt als entspannt anmutet – und für eine fragile Stimme, die fast erschöpft eine Wahrnehmung beschreibt, die die so fragmetiert anmutet wie die Puzzelteile der Musik. Alles wirkt auf spröde Art organisch, auch der wie von einer alten Shellackplatte anmutende Sporan, der in “Ghosts of Sand” überleitet und diesem – entrückt, verschwommen und abgehoben im besten Sinne einen weitaus songhafteren Zug verleiht.
Jeder der Tracks ist voller kleiner klanglicher und atmosphärischer Ideen: Auf Samples basierende Perkussion, die durch manche Stücke peitscht, mäandernde Sounds aus dem Fundus indischer Instrumente, glasklare Pianotupfer, Wind und quietschende Türen. Gedämpfte Bläser in “Bushwick”, Straßensounds in “An eleven Hour Sleep”, tropfendes Nass in dem berührenden “Mare Aperto” und “Bella Ciao“, von dem ich nicht sagen kann, ob es mehr als nur von Titel her auf das bekannte Partisanenlied bezug nimmt. Orientalisierende Gitarren in “Our Lady” von keinem geringeren als My Dear killer. Dann immer wieder die erschöpfte und doch resolute Rezitation.
Viele dieser Details kehren in der einen oder anderen Abwandlung leitmotivisch wieder, und dies ist nur ein Grund, das Album als Ganzes, als gelungenes musikalisches Hörspiel zu rezipieren."
[Uwe Schneider (African Paper)] |
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| ULVER |
Flowers of Evil |
LP |
"In the midst of the forest, the floor is littered with monstrous heads and mythical figures, frozen in torturous combat or threatened by wild beasts. A dragon fights a dog and a wolf. A lion sinks its teeth into the fire-breathing monster’s chest.
This sacred grove, near Bomarzo in Lazio, Italy, reveals the nightmare vision of Vicino Orsini, a sixteenth century nobleman. It’s a forest of symbols, suggesting a civilisation overrun by the beasts, demons and monsters of the primordial world. Soon after Orsini’s death, trees began to close in on these many peculiar beings, and green moss would eventually seize them. Slowly, nature finished what he had started.
Flowers of Evil, the new studio album from Ulver, finds the wolf pack exploring the fear and wonder of mankind’s fall from redemption. Visions similar to those of Orsini come to mind, as untamed life abounds:
THEY SPREAD
TWIST AND TURN
IN THE KILLING FIELDS
The threads of haunted places and images entwine. Have Ulver discovered new pastures under the sun? Or scoured the ruins of their own moonlit past? The truth is, they’re closer to their previous purlieu than perhaps ever before.
“Doom dance”, someone dubbed their last studio album, the critically acclaimed, Impala Award-winning The Assassination of Julius Caesar (2017). Flowers of Evil comes across as an unfeigned progression along the course set by that album, revealing a band moving deeper into beats and grooves, hooks and choruses, synths and guitars, yet sounding more stripped back, making room for the distinctive detail. Once again Michael Rendall (The Orb) and legendary producer Martin “Youth” Glover have taken crystalline care of the mix.
As Caesar demonstrated, Ulver haven’t abandoned any of their obsessions, worries or nightmares as they enter the gilded palace of pop. “One last dance / in this burning church”, Kristoffer Rygg announces on the album’s opening track, featuring old friend Christian Fennesz on guitar and electronics. It sees them locked inside their Hall of Mirrors. A slow build brings the music to the album’s pulsing theme:
WE ARE WOLVES
UNDER THE MOON
THIS IS OUR SONG
WE HAVE LOVED
AND WE HAVE LOST
WE ARE READY TO GO
With Flowers of Evil Ulver have fled a burning Rome, only to confront further crime and corruption. ‘Russian Doll’, the album’s first single, moves determinedly through the night, with a story of unfolding tragedy and misery. ‘Machine Guns and Peacock Feathers’ brings fiery end-time imagery – “barrels are burning / great art will be destroyed” – with a disco beat and flashy ’80s synths. Dismal cries resound on ‘Hour of the Wolf’; echoing Bergman’s classic film, the song is dedicated to the hour between night and dawn, “when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are most real”. ‘Apocalypse 1993’ reveals Ulver at their catchiest, its bounding-goat groove running hand in hand with a grand chorus depicting the catastrophic events at Waco, Texas, during the winter of that year – the very same winter that saw the birth of Ulver’s first incarnation. From that thorny undergrowth, this is what they have become: an eclectic, many-headed beast, chanting the ecstasies of the spirit and the senses.
Flowers of Evil unfolds with the shattering second single, ‘Little Boy’. A mysterious beat moves the track towards its thunderous climax, and here Michael J. York’s ominous pipes melt into the softer, moodier ‘Nostalgia’, a ’70s soul shuffle, and the heart-breaking Talk Talk-esque balladry of ‘A Thousand Cuts’. Finally, the wolves are back in the palace of excess, waltzing the night away. Yet around them, the wilderness rises, triumphant; “grass will grow over your cities”, as the Bible says.
– Tore Engelsen Espedal
https://ulver.bandcamp.com/album/flowers-of-evil
|
2020 |
€32.00 |
|
| UN DRAME MUSICALE INSTANTANE |
Rideau! |
CD |
"Rideau! was Un Drame Musical Instantané's second album, originally released in 1980 on the group's own GRRR label. Since its creation in 1976, featuring Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé, the group has decided to promote collective musical creation, co-signing their albums, which they consider as artworks in themselves, or their live shows which they try to renew every time they play. Un Drame borrowed their sources from rock (synthetizer player Birgé and guitarist Gorgé, both authors of the album, Défense de); jazz (trumpeter Vitet who founded the first free jazz band in France, together with François Tusques, as well as Michel Portal who played with many American and European jazzmen); classical modern music; as well as movies or world news; they were the first in France to give a new impetus to live music on silent films. Birgé and Gorgé also recorded a duo album that was mentioned on the infamous Nurse With Wound list, Défense De. On Rideau, you will hear their wild mix of styles, a very original, unclassifiable, inventive music, which drifts from jazz to electronic music and contemporary music. Remastered in 2016 and with a lot of bonus tracks, amongst them the track that appeared on United Dairies' compilation album "In Fractured Silence" for the first time in its full length!"
[label info]
"We are talking here of the trio of Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé, indeed a very unique trio. From the beginning they blended jazz, rock, electronics, new music, improvisation, sound, audio-visual into fascinating Gesamtkunstwerk. In a way that has some resemblance with the work of Alfed Harth and Heiner Goebbels, who were operating at the same time. (...) All three members already had their history in the jazz scene of France, especially Bernard Vitet who died in 2013. As a trio they would become a stabile force for many years. ‘Rideau’ is a perfect start for getting introduced to their idiosyncratic way of assembling influences. They developed their very own world, their own language. Listening after a long time once again to Rideau, the music still talks and sounds far from out-dated. The musicians play a wide variety of instruments. (...) Back then their music sounded very experimental and wild to my ears, now it strikes me this is really full-grown, open and well- balanced music by inventive musicians who had a strong musical intuition and vision."
(Vital Weekly, May 2017)
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2017 |
€14.50 |
|
| UNDER THE SNOW |
The Background Noise |
LP |
"Under The Snow is a project by Stefano Gentile (guitar, objects, field-recordings) and Gianluca Favaron (microphones, field-recordings, processing). Stefano Gentile is well known for his work as owner of the Silentes and Amplexus labels; he is part of Maribor (along with Maurizio Bianchi, Nimh, Andrea Marutti and Gianluca Favaron) and in the past he has collaborated with Aube and Amir Baghiri. Beyond releasing under his own name, Gianluca Favaron collaborates with Ennio Mazzon on the Zbeen project; in the past he has released music as Ab'she and was part of Lasik Surgery along with Pierpaolo Zoppo. Released after a series of works for Silentes and U-Cover, "The Background Noise" is a single-sided 12" record, built starting from acoustic guitar sounds that develop on a background of statics and digital scoriae, where the cold and aseptic electronic frequencies melt with the plucked strings, resonating in a dramatic request for help or, maybe, in the warning of an imminent danger. A welcome release in the fast-growing discography of Under The Snow, that will appeal to fans of other Italian musicians like, among the others, Gianluca Becuzzi, Fabio Orsi, Enrico Coniglio, Stefano Pilia and Giuseppe Ielasi (who took care of the mastering).
"The Background Noise" is released in a limited edition of 86 copies; an additional edition of 13 copies is also available, it includes a 30x30cm reproduction of the cover picture printed on high quality professional photo-paper. Due to the restricted amount of available copies you'd better not think twice about it!" [label info]
http://13.silentes.it
"As Under The Snow Favaron works with Stefano Gentile, who plays acoustic guitar and treated guitar picks, and Favaron is responsible for 'programming, electronics and signal processing'. They have released a bunch of CDs (see Vital Weekly 771, 786 and 826) of their improvised playing, in which the laptop picks up the guitar sound and treats that on the spot. Following a start in which the laptop seemed to prevail, the later releases had a more fine tuned balance of straight guitar sounds and laptop processing. This one sided LP has a twenty minute piece which continues the chosen road of the previous releases and shows us more crackles, static hiss and bangs on the guitar. Maybe a bit more chaotic than before, I thought, bringing out the element of improvisation more than on the previous releases. At the same time there is also a bit more drone like sounds, closing off the LP, and taking away some of the emptiness previously found in their music. I think it's great to see them slowly develop and become more and more like an improvised working unit. The combination of live laptop processing a live guitar is perhaps not something that hasn't been done before, as noted before, but again here, this seems to work rather well." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| UNIVERS ZERO |
Ceux du Dehors |
LP |
"Third album (1981) by the Belgian band Univers Zero. The title alludes to the short story of the same name by H.P. Lovecraft; the players read the story in studio, then proceeded to record the piece. A key release for the band. Ceux du Dehors sometimes suggests a darker and more complex version of the motorik minimalism of classical music contemporaries Philip Glass and Steve Reich.
This album finds the group continuing to evolve and return to the more general and varied chamber music sound of their first release, except with more precision and skill. The tricky charts of percussionist Daniel Denis and new keyboardist Andy Kirk are executed with great panache. The labyrinth-like compositions are typically filled with unexpected twists and turns, and angular repetitions of jagged riffs that accelerate, decelerate and mutate in passages of acute tension or quiet but ominous dread." [label info]
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
LUEUR |
LP |
Univers Zero's new album (since 10 years) follows the lineage of 'Phosphorescent Dreams', originally released only on CD in Japan in 2014, and reissued as an LP on the Sub Rosa label in 2019. Lueur is the fruit of two years' work and reflection, the foundations of which were laid by Daniel Denis (keyboards, drums, percussion...), then enriched by the contributions of Nicolas Dechêne (guitars), Kurt Budé (clarinet / bass clarinet) and Nicolas Denis (bass, percussion, vocals), all three present on Phosphorescent Dreams.
With this reduced line-up, Lueur offers a dense journey, rooted in the balance between power and calm, raging and serene sound. A balance, too, between complex arrangements and more contemplative moments. While this album continues the avant-rock tradition of Univers Zero, it also features some very short pieces, more electronic, tribal and haunting sounds, and voice work that is new to the U.Z. universe. Between tradition and subtle evolution, Lueur is a major new contribution to the discography of this band, which will be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2024.
Univers Zero represents one of the longest-living bands in Belgium. It was established in 1974. Drummer Daniel Denis had the brilliant idea to gather together a team of professionals sharing the same taste for music. The band has adopted an instrumental progressive style.
Over the last couple of decades, the band has also implemented a series of influences from chamber music - most commonly, chamber music from the 20th century. Even if the line-up changes a lot over the years, the overall sound of UZ remained fairly consistent.
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/lueur
|
2023 |
€20.00 |
|
| USENBENZ, ANDREAS |
Bells Breath |
LP |
“Bells Breath” transforms the tolling of the bells in the Ulm Minster into a work of sound art. This project by Andreas Usenbenz and Dorothee Köhl was created for the 125th anniversary of the minster spire’s completion and was presented in the form of an audio installation inside the minster in the fall of 2015.
There are 13 bells in the bell tower, ten of which are in use. Each bell has its own size and pitch, and each has its own function.
“Bells Breath” strips away that function, creating a new form of auditory experience. The moment of the bell tolling has been recorded, the tone stretched and the individual tones are layered on top of each other. The sound installation was situated on the ground floor inside the minster, beneath the bell frame. A platform for people to step or sit on created a spacial frame of reference, the sound was triggered by the listeners by pressing a button.
When dealing with this work, it is helpful to have a brief look at Minimal Art. In the early 1960ies, a new understanding of art was being developed in contrast to abstract painting. Part of it was an abandonment of categories that had been considered essential until then, like the aesthetic experience or the artists signature style. Industrially produced materials were now being used, every day objects were stripped bare of their function. Experiencing art turned into an experience of self-awareness on behalf of the audience.
Sculptor Tony Smith was aware of the importance of this type of experience as early as the mid-fifties. He took his students on a nocturnal journey on the still uncompleted New Jersey Turnpike. Driving down the road lacking crash barriers and road markings didn’t serve any functional purpose. Instead, the dark and the passing industrial complexes appeared in a different state of perception. It’s this experience that Smith regarded as having an artistic quality.
This kind of quality can be described further using the “Mirrored Cubes” by Robert Morris. The installation consists of four mirrored cubes. They are positioned in a square, one edge length apart from each other, therefore eliminating the element of composition. The surface, as perceived by the audience, is only a reflection of the surroundings and of itself. Artwork and location become an inseparable one. What the audience experiences is an amplified perception of itself and of the spacial situation here and now.
The here and now are two elements that appear on different levels in “Bell’s Breath”. The work strongly relates to the location, the tower hall right beneath the bell frame. At the same time, the sounds’ original function is being eliminated by prolonging and layering the different sounds. This, together with the audience’s presence in the space creates a new experience of perception.
releases February 17, 2017
All field recordings, sound design & compositions by Andreas Usenbenz, between march 2015 and may 2016
The music is based on field recordings of 10 different church bells installed in the Minster of Ulm. Usenbenz recorded the bells using a wide spaced A – B pair with omni directional DPA microphones,
a Sennheiser ORTF setup and contact microphones mounted directly to the bells or their direct environment.
The Bells where rung by the Sacristan. Additionally, Usenbenz played them with different props to tease very specific sounds out of the bells. No additional sounds were used in these compositions.
Produced at Klangmanufaktur
Artwork by Chris Corrado
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu
Cut by CGB at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin
|
2017 |
€16.50 |
|
| UW HYPOTHEEKADVIES |
Nature of Nurture |
CD |
"Ed. Of 400 numbered copies with full color insert each with an original hand drawing. Features members from former BlRR band Girlfriends and mastered by Erik Drost and Raymond Steeg (Legendary Pink Dots). According to the Explosive Ordinance Field Guide: “Uw Hypotheekadvies should be handled with great care as it is one of the most powerful EO’s, especially if detonated through speakers in the comfort of one’s own home.” As trios go, UH sound more like a thousand-tet. Imagine a heavily armoured Glenn Branca guitar army falling DOWN an UP escalator in such a way that they never reach the bottom and are forever tumbling and crashing. Now throw DNA down the same escalator and pour acid on that. UH don’t just rock; they ROCK. Like agates gone wild, their abstract explorations come delivered via sledgehammer and arrive on the plate as oddly conceived gemstones with insects trapped inside. It smells like the teen spirits of Naked City and Laddio Bolocko lurk underneath UH’s woodpile, but despite the improv flavour of UH’s pummeling, they skew away from jazz and lean in more towards prog than Zorn and Co. UH’s chaos fleshes form and even descends into subtle soundscapes in between the rat-a-tat blastpatter. A beautiful monstrosity of Nature and Nurture." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| V.A. (VARIOUS ARTISTS) (COMPILATIONS) |
Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music Vol. 2 |
do-CD |
“ This 2nd volume explores the early days of pre-electronic music (Percy Grainger, Johanna M. Beyer...) and proposes some rares or unpublished pieces by main composers of electronic music (Wladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening, Tod Dockstader, Morton Subotnick, Hugh Davies, Luc Ferrari) as well as unreleased tracks by musicians who are cornerstones of the 90's electronic scene (Autechre, Aphex Twin, Scanner, Kim CasconeYoshihiro Hanno...), acid movement (Woody McBride, Choose) or industrial (Laibach, SPK). Without forgetting some free-jazz (Sun Ra) or rare stuff from Captain Beefheart, Daphne Oram, Alan R. Splet...
slow explorations of the past and the present
Given the present system of production there are reasons, some of them identifiable, why only a few names emerge in each period.
There may also be a preference for concentrating information rather than letting it pile up in disordered fashion. Over the past 40 years the same ten electronic music composers get mentioned again and
again (including in music dictionaries and histories). Yet behind them are many other names. Who are they? Second-raters? Not necessarily. For we then need to define the concept of top-rate (rated by who, and on what criteria?) and second-rate or minor
artist. Great pleasure can be derived from the works of minor artists. The case of Tod Dockstader is instructive: when "for lack of academic qualifications" he was denied access to the electronic music facilities he needed, was there not great beauty in the pieces he nevertheless created and in his determination to make music without those facilities? His name was never seen on the labels of top record companies. But he influenced quite a few people - Richard James quoted him, and others then referred to his work. Some of his records were reissued, and what one could call
the rehabilitation process continues. The same applies to many other composers. All such stories spell a passion for music, and weave myth.
historical axes
At the turn of the century there were efforts to find new sources of sound - a number of machines were exhibited, including Thaddeus Cahiel's Telharmonium in 1887 and the Dynamophone presented to the New York public in 1906; they generally played well-known
romantic or post-romantic pieces. After a few flamboyant skirmishes described in the previous volume, the postwar period saw the arrival in 1951, of Wladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening in New York's Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.
When audiences of the 50's and 60's first heard Varèse, Pousseur, Stockhausen, Berio, Ussachevsky, Yuasa, Dockstader and Mumma, what did they feel? Perhaps a sort of break, an epistemological break, like it must have been for the first audience of Monteverdi's
Orfeo (in Mantua, Italy on 24 February 1607). They left the auditorium completely stunned,because they had never heard anything like it.
WHAT CONTAINS THIS SECOND EDITION ?
CD 1
Wladimir Ussachevsky + Otto Luening > Incantation for Tape * 1953 02:35
Luc Ferrari > Visage V * 1958-59 10:33
Tod Dockstader - Aerial > Song * 2002 12:56
Johanna M. Beyer > Music of the Spheres * 1938 05:59
Morton Subotnick > Mandolin * 1962 07:02
Daphne Oram > Four Aspects * 1960 08:05
Robin Rimbaud / Scanner > Emily * 2003 04:46
Hugh Davies > Quintet * 1967-68 12:05
Alan R. Splet > Space Travel w/ Changing Choral Textures 04:02
Kim Cascone > Zephirum Scan * 2002 04:58
CD 2
Autechre > Bronchus One.1 * 1991 06:01
Yoshihiro Hanno > On/Off Edit * 2001 09 :12
Meira Asher > Torture/Bodyparts * 2001 03'40
Woody McBride > Pulp * 1993 06:07
Lasse Steen / Choose > Purzuit ov Noize * 1994 05 :36
Arcane Devices > Lathe * 1988 05:54
Laibach > Industrial Ambients * 1980-82 09:54
SPK > Slogun * 1979 06:20
Percy Grainger > Free Music #1 (for four theremins) * 1936 01:22
Sun Ra > Imagination * 1965 02:04
Captain Beefheart > She's too much for my miror / My human gets me blues * 1969 05:32 “ [press-release]
|
2003 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Coilectif. In Memory ov John Balance and Homage to COIL |
CD |
Die "französische JOHN BALANCE-Hommage" mit 17 Stücken aus Experimental, Post-Industrial, Impro / free Jazz, Ambient & Electronik, mit erwartungsgemäss vielen Verweisen und Verwendung von COIL-Materialien... fast durchweg exzellentes Material, einige alte Industrial-Helden von denen mal lange nichts gehört hat (wie VIVENZA, ETANT DONNES) sind dabei, aber es gibt auch viele neue Namen zu entdecken, alle vereint durch den grossen Einfluss den COIL augenscheinlich auf sie hatte...
"17 french bands from the genesis of industrial, experimental, free jazz musics, for the most part unclassable underground musics, and more recent and emergent artists from the same vein, form Coilectif. These artists explore and express, openly and without limits, what Coil's heritage suggests to them, an opportunity to make an homage to Geff Rushton aka John Balance or Jhon[n] who left us on November 13th 2004. Coilectif is also an homage to all the musicians and illustrators Scherer & Ouporov participating to the project united for the first time in such an outline, where each one of them expresses what Coil's universe evoques to him through lunar, astral and visionary excursions, keeping his own artistic identity. It is not a compilation of remixes of Coil, nor a catalogue of tracks of these artists released before, but a genuine concept of creation in which this collective of artists homogenizes itself around a real artistic project. The 17 new tracks form an intimate, magnetic and timeless piece of work. The vynil and CD editions come with quotations of various artists and with a text written for the project by the writer and philosopher Jean-Marc Vivenza called 'méditation sur la mort '.Coilectf is : ART&TECHNIQUE, BELA GOOSY, DEFICIT DES ANNEES ANTERIEURES, DE MANGE MACHINE, DESACCORD MAJEUR, ETANT DONNES, GAS ANOREX, GITANJALI & THE MASTERS OF MYSTIC ENTERTAINMENT, ILITCH, JAC BERROCAL & JACK BELSEN, LAURENT PERNICE & JACQUES BARBERI, LES NOUVELLES LECTURES COSMOPOLITES, OTHILA, PACIFIC 231, PALO ALTO, SERVOVALVE, VIVENZA." [press release]
https://www.rotorelief.com/release/rotor0001/
|
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Floating Foundation Vol. 1 |
CD |
"HISTORICAL EXPLANATION : bases and developments
Leaving aside controversy and scandal, Frank Lloyd Wright built a huge hotel in Japan between 1916 and 1922; a few months later, Tokyo was devastated by an earthquake. Only a few buildings stayed up - amongst which the Imperial Hotel. When asked how his construction had remained intact, he replied: Floating Foundation. In this case as in others, he had thought and assimilated the nature of nature. What must be done now is to apply this principle to other areas of creation.
A thousand facts and actions could support the theory that we are moving towards a new decompartmentalization of genre, towards a unified field, as Christophe Charles - and Markus Popp - would state.(we could also treat archeologically the compartmentalization of the arts and its decompartmentalization throughout history, to reach the conclusion that nothing is ever permanently set).we are merely linking together a few elements that go in the same direction.
Likewise, the idea which preoccupies us in this series, is to create sound objects, abstract in their appearance, with musicians who are, in most cases, plastic artists too - the border between music and plastic arts is thinner than ever before. This is what we will try to explore for the time being.
Janek Schaefer
Based in london as architecte and musician. After his 'Above Buildings' , he worked with Robert Hampson on a project called Comae', also he invented the Tri-Phonic Turntable.
Robert Hampson
Founder of Loop and Main - a seminal musician from south london. he produced about 12 records from early 90 and participated to the 'Gilles Deleuze unit' with Scanner mid-90.
Christophe Charles
French sound plastician living in Tokyo, close in mind to Markus Popp / Oval - he released "undirected 1986-1996 " on Mille plateaux and "dok " - a soundfile exchange between Oval and him.
Stephen Vitiello
Born in New York City in 1964,. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at Whitney Museum and Postmasters Gallery, in New York. A musician and media-artist, he is involved in the New York avant garde,. He was also a close collaborator of Nam June Paik.
Kurt Ralske
Kurt Ralske is a Manhattan-based composer, electronic musician, and computer audio-video artist. Described by Alternative Press as 'proving that machines do indeed have souls' - founder long time ago of the mythic Ultra Vivid Scene (on 4AD)" [label info]
"The aim of the Floating Foundation series is to "create sound objects" with musicians "who are, in most cases, plastic artists too" (from Sub Rosa director Guy Marc Hinant's presentation) -- in other words, to walk the thinning line between music and plastic arts. The sound sculptors contributing to this first installment all decided to take its title (inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's sense of architecture) literally. Each piece is a journey through either air or water -- not that the artists declare to specifically use sounds derived from these sources, but their music feels airborne, free-floating, gentle, and following its own, sometimes capricious path. Janek Schaefer's "Lithospheric Shifts" opens the CD, but it represents its weaker point. It doesn't take off, offering a limited and uninvolved scope of sounds. Robert Hampson's (aka Main) "Hysteresis" is already more interesting and takes the shape of a British-school electro-acoustic work. Christophe Charles and Stephen Vitiello's contributions make for the best moments, the former vaguely ambient, the latter presenting the most minimalist but sharply focused work, derived in part from his recordings of the World Trade Center (something that cannot help but take an unplanned extra dimension after the events of September 11, 2001). This is where the sense of plasticity, of "sound sculpting," can be felt the strongest. Kurt Ralske's "Au.Taste" provides a suitably calm ending."
[François Couture, All Music Guide]
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Go-To-Cat-Man-Do |
CD |
Ein neues polnisches Experimental-Label mit erster Veröffentlichung – gleich eine gue Compilation mit grösstenteils polnischen Acts, meist akustisch-handgespieltes Material mit viel Atmosphäre.... Sehr schöne Stücke von ZA SIODMA GORA, ONE INCH OF SHADOW, VION & MEM (ex EA!, überraschend konkret & noisy) , WOLFRAM, und wieder viele neue Namen aus der schier unerschöpflichen polnischen Experimental-Szene... wie PATRYK ZAKROCKI, JOHANNES BERGMARK, superseltsame Sounds von ALEXEI BORISOW, etc...
A new polish experimental label from Warszawa with first release – a compilation presenting mainly the polish scene, lost of handplayed-acoustic material with much atmosphere, some new names to discover, you find MP3s on www.monotyperecords.com.
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
RECORDS ARE NOT FOR BAKING [RANFB] (Full Subscription) |
12 x 12inch |
Die “Records are not for baking”-Serie gibt es in der Abo-Version mit 6 bonus picture LPs !!! Dazu soll es später noch ein Poster und Original-Artwork für jeden Subscriber geben. Eine wenige Subskriptionen sind auch über uns erhältlich. DIE PICTURE LPs GIBT ES NICHT EINZELN, NUR ALS KOMPLETTE SUBSKRIPTION !!!! IN EUROPE AVAILABLE ONLY VIA DRONE RECORDS !!!!
"Records Are Not For Baking' series with: Friday Group, La STPO, irr.app.(ext.), Christus & The Cosmonaughts, Brunnen, Nurse With Wound/Aranos. The subscriber editions will be limited to 200 copies. Each LP release will include a bonus picture disk 12" that will be exclusive to the release. A total of 6 Lp's plus 6 bonus picture disks, poster & some having original artwork plus a few bonus surprises along the way!. Each subscriber will receive the same number for each release. The regular editions of each LP will be limited to 800 copies but will not contain any bonus 12" picture disk." [label info]
Beta-Lactam Ring Records www.blrrecords.com
|
2005 |
€300.00 |
|
|
Si'ka-del-ik |
CD |
Bewusstseinserweiternder Noise? Auf dieser PSYCHFORM-Compilation versammeln sich die Collagen / Cut-Up / Bizarr-Noiser, um eine grosse gemeinsame AKUSTISCHE HALLUZINATION zu erschaffen, die vom Abseitigen berichtet. Special priced !
“PsychForm Records are very happy to announce their first release...an international compilation appropriately named (si-ke-del-ik) volume one. The sounds within are characterized by hallucinations, distortions of perception, altered states of awareness, and occasionally, behavior resembling psychosis. The artists featured on this installment are: Christian Renou , Grillhaus, Contagious Orgasm, Rowenta / Khan, John Wiese, Noggin, The Haters, Mixed Band Philanthropist / Broken Penis Orchestra. MP3 sample is by Contagious Orgasm.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
|
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 |
|
|
This Place is Dreaming |
CD |
Psychogeographical Compilation that comes in DVD-case with large full-colour booklet, produced for the festival of the same name that happened in October 2004. Field Recordings & interviews from Brussels archives as well as instrumental pieces & recordings from other cities were used for 18 compositions from the likes of AKI ONDA, TMRX, MARTIENS GO HOME, FRANCISCO LOPEZ, HILDEGARD WESTERKAMP, JUSTIN BENNETT, STILLUPPSTEYPA, etc. – a great variety of different approaches for the “Rethinking and Transfiguring the Sites and Sounds of Brussels”. |
2004 |
€13.50 |
|
|
MUZYKA VOLN |
CD |
Hochklassige Bestandsaufnahme der sehr aktiven russischen Experimental Drone-Szene, alle Aufnahmen stammen von 2005-2007. 12 Projekte stellen sich hier vor, wobei einige dem geneigten Drone Rec.-Hörer bereits bekannt sein dürften. Ein paar Eindrücke:
KSHATRIY: das Eröffnungsstück, kaum zu durchschauender "mysterious drone", neuer Name für uns, Entdeckung!
CLOSING THE ETERNITY: Bemerkenswert der Einsatz von Instrumenten & field recordings. Ein Hyper-Resonanzraum öffnet sich..
HUM: schöner Titel "Halo Magnetica"; metallisch - magnetisch - sirrend - minimal, ein einziges auf- und abschwellen von extremst amorphen Klangwolken, die doch voller Details sind.
NECROPOLIS: superdunkel & tief dröhnend, irgendwo sind Harmonien, sehr surreal, ausserweltlich, sehr schön. Wer sich dem rauschig-tieffrequenten Sphären-Drone annähern will, findet mit MUZYKA VOLN einen idealen Einstiegspunkt. Für Fans der russischen Szene sollte sie eh obligatorisch sein, wurden doch alle Stücke exklusiv aufgenommen.
Allen hier Beteiligten scheint gemeinsam zu sein, dass die Welt wie wir sie kennen als viel zu eng empfunden wird. Das "Ausserweltliche" repräsentiert hier möglicherweise einen 'innerweltlichen', psychischen Innenraum, der nach Auflösung der Begrenzungen des Ichs zu streben scheint, eine Überwindung des Selbst im Zuge der Verschmelzung mit Raum & Zeit, wie in fötaler Seinsweise... Der "Drone" ist wie ein Sog des Unbewussten in Richtung Präsymbolik & dem Reich des Vorsprachlichen.
"The first release of a new sublabel of ZHELEZOBETON - Muzyka Voln - is a compilation of the same name, containing compositions from twelve Russian projects playing ambient / drone music. A selection of audio-tales in which each project introduces the listener to its own sound world he's living in: mystical stories, isolationism, altered states of consciousness, space landscapes, monotonous technogenic rumble, guitar passages and much more... Specially for this compilation exclusive tracks were provided by: Anthesteria feat. Kaj?, Bardoseneticcube, Cisfinitum, Closing The Eternity, Exit In Grey, Hum, Instant Movie Combinations, Kshatriy, Lunar^Abyss^Deus^Organum, Necropolis, Polaris and RemoteBand. This compilation may be useful for those interested in the Russian experimental scene and just for lovers of beautiful contemplative music. The CD is housed in a six-panel digipak decorated with photos of Baltic Sea made by Pavel "fljõt" Pevnitsky." [label info]
label: http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Zelphabet Vol. A |
CD |
Wahnwitziges Noise-Culture Compilation-Projekt von G.X.-JUPITTER-LARSEN, welches 26teilig das ganze Alphabet umfassen soll, wobei allerdings die Vornamen der beteiligten Musiker zählen - auf dem ersten Teil versammeln sich ACHIM WOLLSCHEID, AMK, ARCANE DEVICE und ASMUS TIETCHENS - also alles schon sehr lange aktive Urgesteine der Szene: Irre Xylophon-Arrangements von ACHIM. Loop & Turntable-Madness von AMK. Spannende Klangcollagen mit alten Analog-sounds von ARCANE DEVICE. Und uns ASMUS: hintergründige Sphären & Drones und anorganisch-konkretes Geschacher im Vordergrund. AA, ein sehr guter ANFANG.
"Almost close to thirty years now span the career of G.X. Jupitter-Larsen, better known as The Haters, and throughout these many years he has met many other musicians, labels and such like. His telephone book is well stocked with names so it seemed him a good thing to make the musical variation of his phonebook, an ambitious twenty-six (well, actually one more) series of compact discs with each three or four musicians with the same letter at the start of their name. So that accounts for the presence of Achim Wollscheid and Asmus Tietchens with the letter 'A'. With names like AMK and Arcane Device further on 'A', one could all too easily think that G.X. knows only old folks, but on 'B' we find the young ones The Beast People, 16 Bitch Pile-Up and Bob Bellerue with just one older person, blackhumour. 'B' is unmistakably the noise variation, with loud distorted pieces by the three new (relatively speaking of course) acts. Blackhumour, where has he been I was thinking, hands in one of his trademark pieces of unprocessed voices. Looped around, cutting them shorter as the piece progresses, this is both a stand still but since I gather not many people know him, it's good to get reacquainted. Bob Bellerue's piece of subdued noise is the best of the rest. AMK on 'A' also does what he seemingly always does, playing with damaged records. It's the least interesting piece on that one. Achim Wollscheid has a great computer controlled piece of playing Xylophone. Arcane Device created a recent mix of old feedback pieces and Asmus is in his recent mood of shimmering microtonal bits and pieces, fed through ring modulation. Great promising start, can't hardly wait. But it looks like a definite compendium of thirty years of difficult music. Subscribe now to this wiki of noise and know all there is to know." [FdW / Vital Weekly, reviewing part A & B]
www.zelphabet.com
|
2008 |
€6.00 |
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The Recommended Records Sampler 1982 - 25th Anniversary Edition |
do-CD |
".. Chris Cutler hat es sich wenige Jahre zuvor mit Gleichgesinnten zur Aufgabe gemacht ein Label zu eröffnen für musikalische Weitsicht. Inhalt, Rock, wohl nicht wirklich, für New Wave war alles viel zu wenig stylisch. Musikalisch hatte der Zuhörer eher den Eindruck, eine Symbiose aus Genanntem mit improvisierten Soft Machine zu hören. Das Label hatte es in den zurückliegenden Tagen wirklich geschafft, einen eigenen erkennbaren Sound mit dem dementsprechenden Coverartwork zu kreieren. Die Veröffentlichung dieses Samplers hatte damals natürlich die Aufgabe der klassischen Labelschau, heute wirkt es wie ein wunderbares musikalisches Fotoalbum. Man trifft auf alte Bekannte wie Henry Cow, Robert Wyatt und den Homosexuals oder gar Conventum. Schön ist es, aus dem Booklet zu erfahren, dass Joseph Racaille immer noch musikalisch umtriebig ist. Natürlich mit dabei die martialische Kunst von Faust. Wer das gemeinsame Tassengeschepper aus einem damaligen Cafe mit dem dazugehörigen Soundtrack kennt, gegenüber dem hektischen Wegwerfen eines Coffee-To-Go Bechers, der sollte hier dem Kauf zum Wiederentdecken auf jeden Fall nachkommen. Neue Hörer und Interessierte sowieso." [Morton, Unruhr.de]
"A keystone reissue of an historic collection featuring: Faust (D), Art Bears (UK), ZNR (F), Robert Wyatt (UK), The Residents (USA), Henry Cow (UK), This Heat (UK), Art Zoyd (F), Univers Zero (B), Stormy Six (I), Aqsak Maboul (B), Picchio Dal Pozzo (I), Decibel (MX), Goebbels and Harth (D), The Homosexuals (UK), The Work (UK), Amos and Sarah (UK), Ron Pate/Raudelunas (USA), Conventum (CAN), Hector Zazou, Joseph Racaille and Patrick Portella (F). Total Time: 2 hours. Recommended Records was set up in the late 1970s by Chris Cutler and Nick Hobbs - both then busy with Henry Cow - on the back of the worst possible business model imaginable: to collect and distribute music which, in Cutler’s judgement, was original, important or excellent - and otherwise generally unknown. No major labels, just releases by independents or artists themselves, with particular emphasis on ignored European releases. It was an interesting moment: punk and the new wave had unsettled the old certainties, major labels were floundering and a new generation was setting up its own channels of information and distribution. Out of this stimulating chaos, all sorts of innovations and alternative propositions emerged, especially outside the UK/US axis, which by then had become complacent and arrogant - because they had ‘invented’ rock and what else was there to know? Thus Recommended quickly became the principle source of information about a diverse new underground of innovative music that wasn’t jazz, rock, new wave, or anything quite. By 1982, Recommended was in its fourth year. The catalogue had expanded and the label was firmly established. A sampler seemed an obvious and necessary next step. Compiling extracts from existing releases would have been boring, so we asked the most interesting groups in our catalogue to record something new. The result was two hours of music released as a double LP in a hand silk-screened sleeve that was, as it turned out, a time capsule - a tidy slice taken across a fascinating forking of musical paths that captured a moment of growth that foresaw a variety of possible futures. 26 years on it has become a highly prized collectors item, not only because of the breadth and quality of the music it contains, but also because of its early geographical reach. A lot has changed in little more than a generation." [label info]
|
2008 |
€17.50 |
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Ten Grand Tonearm |
LP |
Darling, darfs auch etwas ausgefallener sein? Eine australische Compilation auf dem Label von RATS WITH WINGS, irres handgemachtes Recycle-Cover, haufenweise Acts aus dem Abstract Noise / Impro Experimental Bereich, abstrakter, geräuschhafter und Synapsen-sprengender geht es wohl kaum....really advanced & wild !
"The elaborate packages continue on this one also as they use old vinyl jackets on which they apply their posters. Sun of the seventh contribute in this compilation the last track of the first side (as a full force 25 member big band) along with (in order of appearance) rlw (the Johannes Frisch and Ralf Wehowsky duo, on this track they improvise on abstract structures using a sitar as a point of reference), castings (who have released in labels as chocolate monk american tapes), rahdunes (they add elements of early 80s german industrial), cygnus (in a lo-fi ambient track based on guitar accompanied with synths in the background), xNoBBQx (volumes of feedback combined to delay, wah sounds and low pitched frequencies) loachfillet (with the enigmatic sample in the beginning of a female voice that repeats in greek “it is usually raining” while it is followed by a freakout improvisation of noise produced by electronics, guitar and drums that bring to mind the USA scene), Marco Fusinato (who takes the lead from loachfillet in almost the same manner, he has collaborated around 2000 with Thurston Moore on live performances in the centre of contemporary art in Australia). The second side of the vinyl starts with the British the vitamin b12 (vocals processed thru o sequencer or something), Mark Harwood (a member of the australian honch synaesthesia who presents a quietly evolving track based on processed field recordings), werewolf Jerusalem (electronic noise), misty lavender doughnuts of shame (a spectacular name), arse lunch (xNoBBQx’s side project, drone based on feedback and high pitched guitars recorded live around 2007), pigs in the ground funally William de Kooning (locked grooves). This release by heard worse is a high quality one. They manage to leave the labels mark while at the same time they succeed to bring to forth what connects them with the contributed artists without being boring due to the difficult music and sound aesthetics. This is an art object for sure." [Fervent, Random E-Zine]
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2008 |
€15.00 |
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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 |
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Zelphabet Vol. H |
CD |
"The eighth in Zelphabet’s new series of 26 alphabetically oriented compilations of noise. Volume H makes its mark with cuts from heavyweights HANATARASH, HATERS, HALALCHEMISTS, and HOWARD STELZER." [label info]
" 'H' opens with Halalachemists, of whom I never heard (this series also knows where to find interesting new names), who play a 'live TNB tribute' in Newcastle, recorded in 2006. Or perhaps its the New Blockaders in disguise? The piece is quite noise based, from a more low end perspective, with sounds banging around, and distortion pedals pushed through the stage. Hanatarash offer a very interesting piece of noise music, high end white static, being processed a bit, but quite minimal still. Its quite reduced, so not viciously loud, but nevertheless a great noise piece. The Haters are also present here with 'Explosion 2009' and its along the same line as 'Explosion 2008' - a conceptual joke. Howard Stelzer closes 'H', with what seems to be his current tools of trade: the densely layered manipulations of analogue cassette sounds. Field recordings are stapled onto eachother, and form a dense pattern. Half way through it seems to collapse a bit, but Stelzer gets his act back and makes a
great finale. Intelligent noise all around." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.zelphabet.com
|
2009 |
€11.00 |
|
|
Twisted Cabaret Vol. 1 |
CD |
"Ein internationaler, avantgardistischer Haufen tanzt mit einer gesunden Portion kabarettistischer Lebensmüdigkeit im Dreivierteltakt in den Tod. Oder zumindest in den Vollsuff. Bei 18 Songs kein einziger Totalausfall, dazu sind viele Stücke selten oder sogar exklusiv. Kaufen! www.youtube.com/useser/volvoxmusic
TRACKLISTING: 01. THE TIGER LILLIES - START A FIRE 02. BABY DEE - THE EARLIE KING 03. EVELYN EVELYN - HAVE YOU SEEN MY SISTER EVELYN 04. THE REAL TUESDAY WELD - THE SWEETEST SONGS 05. THE DRESDEN DOLLS - BANK OF BOSTON BEAUTY QUEEN 06. BUDAM - DA DA DA DIE 07. LE MAXI MONSTER MUSIC SHOW - J'AURAIS AIM 08. THE RESIDENTS - THE DYING OILMAN 09. KOKUSYOKU SUMIRE - GEKKO RENKA 10. KATZENJAMMER KABARETT - SAYLOR SANDHAM'S SISTER 11. VERMILLION LIES - BONNIE & CLYDE 12. LITTLE ANNIE - SIT ON DOWN 13. DE KIFT - KNOECK 14. THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS - MAN OR MOUSE 15. ARANOS - NEW GUITAR 16. MARCELLA PUPPINI AND THE FORGET ME NOTS - WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO YOUR FACE? 17. EL TIGER COMICS GROUP & JOEL HUBAUT - VAPAMOU RIRE 18. LITTLE WHITE RABBITS STILL BLEED - BALLOON ANIMAL SUICIDE (BIG BLUE RIBBONS)" [label info / Cargo ]
"Seit Charlotte Rampling in Cavanis Sadiconazista-Film Der Nachtportier diesen Song von Friedrich Hollaender im KZ um ihr Leben sang, klingt bei mir Cabaret beklemmend pervers wie Macabaret. Darüber schiebt sich das Großstadt-Triptychon von Dix und der Conferencier im Kit Kat Club plärrt grinsend seine Zoten. Hinter dem Rücken deutscher Abgrundsvergessenheit hat sich aber anderswo etwas entwickelt, Dark Cabaret getauft oder "Brechtian punk cabaret", das den Spirit von vor 1933 mit anderen Mitteln, mit Postpunk-, Gothik- oder bloßer Nostalgie-Attitüde wieder aufgreift. Versammelt auf Twisted Cabaret Vol. 1 (Volvox Music, VOL0902/0903, CD + DVD) sind die stilprägenden The Tiger Lillies aus London als Brandstifter mit groteskem Zündstoff, The Dresden Dolls aus Boston und das französische Katzenjammer Kabarett mit den ‚erwachsenen‘ Altstimmen von Amanda Palmer bzw. Mary Komplikated. Little Annie bietet einen ihrer Songs from the Coal Mine Canary und eine verboten glaubwürdige Version von Aznavours ‚Yesterday When I Was Young‘. Irritationsveteranen wie The Residents und unverwüstlichen Tänzern über Abgründen wie The Legendary Pink Dots mit dem herzensbrecherischen Edward Ka-Spel als ‚Man or Mouse‘ (unter lauter Schafen) stehen Baby Dee zur Seite, hinter deren rauer Schale eine Seele steckt, die in Kilogramm gewogen werden kann, und Aranos als Stehgeiger mit einer heißen Kartoffel im Mund. The Real Tuesday Weld steuern im 3/4-Takt fingerdick Patina bei, die großartigen Marcella Puppini and The Forget Me Nots lassen Männer Männchen machen. Dazu krähen die kessen Mädels von Kokusyoku Sumire Tango Balkanese oder, halb Geisha, halb Rokoko, Enkaschlager, dass die Perücke stäubt. Vermillion Lies spielen kriminellen Rock‘n‘Roll aus Oakland, als männliches Gegenstück kurbeln die Muncie Bros. aus Indianapolis aka Little White Rabbit Still Bleed Red ihre Klappsmühle, während Evelyn Evelyn sich schwuder & bresterlich eine Gitarre teilen. Mit The Maxi Monster Music und dem Schellackgesang ihrer üppigen Bearded Lady zu Singender Säge und Zweifingerklavier und der theatralischen eL TiGeR CoMiCs GRouP mit ihrem heiseren Chansonier Joel Hubaut treten weitere Franzosen auf, De Kift verblüffen mit holländischem Rap zu Blasmusik und Slide Guitar, der toteslüsterne Budam von den Färöer Inseln stimmt einen morbiden Humptatawalzer an. Fehlen bloß die World/Inferno Friendship Society und Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird. Einige der Lieder sind exklusiv, einige rar, nicht wenige glamourös oder fatal, aber alle stellen sie seltsame Sachen mit Herz oder Hirn (soweit vorhanden) an. Von den Blauen Engeln und Seeräuber Jennies ganz zu schweigen. Die besten unter diesen Galgenliedersängern und Pfeffermühlenfatalisten können jederzeit die bad alchemystischsten Zeilen, die ich kenne, unterschreiben: Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte, möcht ich etwas glücklich sein, denn wenn ich gar zu glücklich wäre, hätte ich Heimweh nach dem Traurigsein. Was singt Amanda Palmer da auf der DVD? I want all the details of the pain and misery, und Ka-Spel, für den sie sich ans Klavier setzt, würzt nach mit Asche und 15 toten Fliegen. Aber die DVD ist eh schon wegen The Tiger Lillies Freakshow unbezahlbar." [Rigo Dittmann / Bad Alchemy]
|
2010 |
€14.50 |
|
|
Offstrings |
LP |
"Some guitar players immerse themselves in their instrument's rich and varied traditions, while others exploit innovations of technique and technology to find new expressive possibilities. But regardless of whether they celebrate or subvert its iconic status, they're gilding an aura that makes it ripe for use and abuse as a Duchampian found object. The five guitarists on Offstrings come to the instrument from both sides of the altar. While they can play like virtuosos, recontextualize familiar sounds, or come up with new ones, they know that these are means, not ends. They wield all of the sound-producing and conceptual qualities inherent in the Guitar to play the chords of human experience. They offer you a chance to listen. Various artists featuring new work from Chicago musicians: David Daniell (San Agustin, Rhys Chaham, Daniel-McComb Duo), Mark Shippy (Shorty, US Maple), Travis Bird (Leavitt Ours, Dense Reduction) & Daniel Burke (Illusion of Safety, Cheer-Accident, Tertium Quid), Michael Vallera (Sinkane). 180 gram colored vinyl with download coupon." [label info]
"Its been a while since we last had a new release on Complacency Records, primarily the label of Illusion Of Safety, but here is a compilation that deals with guitarists from the Chicago area. Five artists, of which two form a duo, Travis Bird and Daniel Burke (of Illusion Of Safety), while the other three are new to me: David Daniell, Mark Shippy and Michael Vallera. The guitar is still a machine to play music on, which can be basically anything, from nicely played string to abstract drone patterns. This album seems to be dealing with the latter. The three pieces on side, Bird/Burke (who have two pieces) and Vallera are both great examples of the guitar as a resonating box of sounds, and no doubt sound effects. The second of the two Bird/Burke pieces is a more improvised one and works a bit less but all together they are great pieces though. David Daniell opens up on side B and here it starts with the tinkling of guitars, which are gradually being pick up by various loop devices and the result is a desolate piece of music. Mark Shippy's piece uses also the same idea of tinkling guitars, but are drenched in reverb and is the weakest link on an otherwise fine compilation." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Trans_Canada. ZKM Karlsruhe |
DVD-Audio |
"DVD-Audio, Advanced Resolution: Surround 5.1 (MLP 4824) + Stéréo (4824). Nicolas Bernier Writing Machine (2005), Darren Copeland Let Me Out (2006), Francis Dhomont Brief an den Vater (2005-06), Louis Dufort Hi_Res (2005), Gilles Gobeil Ombres, espaces, silences (2005), Robert Normandeau Palimpseste (2005, 06, 09), Barry Truax The Shaman Ascending (2004-05), Hildegard, Für Dich - For You (2005). 'It all started with a desire to feature the outstanding creativity of Canadian electroacoustic music and and to investigate the trends of its acousmatics and soundscape composition. Eight of the most important or promising composers were selected by co-curators Ludger Brümmer and Sabine Breitsameter and commissioned by the Institut für Musik und Akustik (Institute for Music and Acoustics) of the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, ZKM) to create new works in its studios in Karlsruhe (Germany). These new works were all premiered during the trans_canada festival at the ZKM in February 2005." [label info]
www.empreintesdigitales.com
|
2009 |
€12.50 |
|
|
A tasty Swarm of small Signals |
DVD-Audio |
"A Tasty Swarm of Small Signals is an impressive sound art project comprising 91 micro-compositions by sound artists from every corner of the globe. This wide range collection has been curated by Francisco López and includes original work of James Webb, Lawrence English, Francisco López, Asmus Tietchens, Louis Dufort, Alan Courtis and Zbigniew Karkowski. Working with field recordings, sound manipulation, and generated sounds, these internationally acclaimed artists offer us the possibility of listening and experiencing some of the most enticing proposals, tendencies, approaches and investigations in this field of art. James Webb opens the collection with 'Sightings into the dreams of others'. His pieces share a dreamy atmosphere, an oneiric quality, both beautiful and strange. With a delicate, poetic touch Webb introduces several sounds like bird chipping, piano notes and morse code signalling, creating an elegant whole that has the effect of drawing our attention out of the work itself, back into our own sound environment, and finally integrating both. As in Webb's work, the next artist of the collection, Lawrence English, requires the imagination of the listener to complete the pieces here presented. Through an artful integration of field recordings and synthetic sounds, English creates suggestive and beautiful compositions which wake up our imagination and make us see that we are always part of the work itself, in the same way as we are part of the world we look at. The world is not just a set of objects around us and the compositions are not just a set of sounds. We relate to each object, to each sound, with our personal emotions and memories. The world which we live in, as English's compositions, is always a unique experience, a personal creation. While Lawrence English is able to integrate field recordings and created sounds in an extraordinary way, Francisco López goes further and blurs any distinction between these different sounds. By an artful manipulation of the field recordings the artist makes the natural sounds no longer identifiable, and as a result they move away of any reference or visual association. In his proposal López directs our attention to the sounds themselves, and lets them follow their own path, their own development into other sounds and variations. Similarly Asmus Tietchens also focuses on the manipulation of field recordings in ways suggested by the sounds themselves. His artful employment of silence and isolated sounds, (small signals), is complemented by an increasingly obscure atmosphere, conforming a subtle composition. Short bubble like percussive sounds hit repeatedly on a persistent silence, than soon evolves into a dark ambience. No rhythms, no sequence, no pattern, no thought. Just unidentifiable sounds, dropping from nowhere on top a black background, a cosmic silence, a universal darkness. Louis Dufort proposal deals with the inner structure of sound matter. He places sounds under his unique microscope to show us the different frequencies, reflections and elements each sound contains. This approach is able to focus all our attention on the sounds themselves, instead of being treated as elements of a structure that encompasses them and gives them a specific meaning obtained from their place in the structure. In Alan's Courtis pieces, in contrast to Asmus Tietchens proposal for this collection, there is no silence, but a succession of disquieting sounds and distortions, and a constant feeling that we are reaching some kind of limit, something is about to break through. Waves of sound take over, fill all space and ourselves, and carry us through a labyrinth of sounds and variations where we seem to disappear and where only sounds remain. Karkowski proposal is an investigation in the vibration of electronic sounds and takes us to an experience of this ever lasting reality. Everything is a vibration taking place in time. Our first exposure to these pieces can be confounding, but if we get past our tendency to look for rhythm and harmony, an experience of sound can get through, showing us the ever present vibrations surrounding us, inside of us, everywhere. All these proposals are presented in an audio DVD, where each artist presents thirteen two minute compositions over a fixed image, adding to more than three hours of sound. It offers us a taste of the most interesting proposals in experimental sound art, and of the most compelling experiences that this art form can bring us to."[S. Porrúa]
www.storung.com
"This might be the future of releasing music. I think I said that before, with some of the Empreintes Digitales DVD's, containing no images but 24-bit audio. And a lot more difficult to extract and rip and share (for free). But perhaps also a bit too much for audiophiles? I am not sure. Francisco Lopez curated this project, with consists of seven artists, each delivering no less than thirteen two-minute audio compositions. Why seven, thirteen and two, you may wonder? I am not sure either, but Lopez did a nice selection. Besides himself we have here James Webb, Lawrence English, Asmus Tietchens, Louis Dufort, Alan Courtis and Zbigniew Karkwoski. Which I guess makes an interesting selection from various parts of the world of experimental music. The serious avant-garde is represented by Dufort, who does a fine job on the matter at hand, and while heavily under the influence of acousmatica, the briefness of the pieces makes it all nice. Webb and English both represent the world of field recordings and ambience. Delicate pieces here, in which a certain amount of musical-ness slip through the gaps. Lopez and Tietchens also deal with field recordings and electronics, but their work is much more abstract than English and Webb's. In Lopez' case thirteen pieces of mildly droning affairs of heavily treated rainfall or ventilation shafts (or some such, you can't be sure with Lopez), whereas Tietchens offers his highly atomized sparks of sounds and silence. Alan Courtis and Zbigniew Karkwoski are both on the more traditional noise spectrum, each at a side, firmly apart. Karkowski with some highly computerized noise patterns, at times fiercely loud and sometimes a bit less loud, but throughout firmly gritty and digital, while Courtis is much more quiet (than we are used of him?), but not allowing any silence in his work. Drone based soundscapes of a big city at night - perhaps - like indicated through the visual on display. An excellent compilation, which is of course a bit long - three hours - to be played at once, but you could select one a day and have a great week." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
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Vox:one |
CD |
"An international compilation digipack-CD featuring KK NULL, Wilt, John Wiese, Band Of Pain and many more.
All tracks made from the same sound material
- the voice of Ellen Aagaard
Cover by Lasse Marhaug
In 2001 we sent out the following invitation:
OHM Records invite all sound-manipulators to contribute to an upcoming compilation CD. This CD will feature tracks all based on the same source sounds (a female vocalist).
Rules:
* Only use the source sounds
* Sound-manipulations of any kind is allowed
* Only the material that we find to be interesting/enjoyable will be released.
* The end result should be somewhere in the broad category of "experimental music" (Electro acoustic, Musique Concrete, Soundscapes, Cut-Ups, Noise, Power Electronics, or something else..).
After 9 years, the end result is finally released.... " [label info]
www.ohmrecords.no
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2010 |
€12.00 |
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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. 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. 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).
Vinyl-colours each 125x : SOLID WHITE // GREEN // GOLD // SOLID ORANGE MIXED WITH BLACK.
Having celebrated the vinyl back in 1993 when the 7" series started, we still think its the best & most beautiful format to present music!
Don't miss the beginning of the second wave of DRONES on our label !!
FULL INFO:
The NEW 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 first Volume (MIND-01) ist OUT NOW ! (December 2011) and features:
VOLUME 1: UBEBOET / HALO MANASH JARL / B°TONG
UBEBOET from Spain starts off the new series with two fantastic "transcension drone" pieces derived from choral / voice-material - highly emotional, contemplative and sublime.
HALO MANASH is the main project from the AURAL HYPNOX-family based in Oulu, northern Finland, known for powerful shamanistic / ethnic otherworldly drones. "Walkeus" comprises two pieces of dense ritualistic sounds based purely on ethnic instruments and voices without using any electronics, recorded on analogue reel-to-reel tape.
JARL (the drone side / solo-project of the Swedish Industrial duo IRM) is known for "pure sounding" overwhelming, at times noisy hypno-drones. The long track "Zero in Scream" uses zither-sounds in an innovative way.
B*TONG from Switzerland creates highly experimental pieces that seem to use all kinds of concrete sound-sources, leading into surrealistic drone-based journeys, always challenging and forming a very own musical dimension
= 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 ~ ~
"Compiled by the tireless sound archeologist (and Drone Records founder) Stefan Knappe, “Drone-Mind/Mind-Drone Vol.1” can be seen as a well-deserved masterpiece in a career that may open a new chapter in the history and archiving of the drone. This ancient foundation of music, myth, and rituals both sacred and profane is alive and well in a new generation of artists. Those chosen for this first volume have contributed mesmerizing and deeply memorable drones that ought to make this an instant classic of its kind." [Mike Wood/Foxy Digitalis]
“El Rey ha muerto. ¡Larga vida al Rey!”
It took Stefan Knappe 18 years to fill the roster of one hundred 7″ releases on Drone Records. Since the first 7″ by his own Maeror Tri (which was actually predated by a cassette release in 1991, also by Maeror Tri), Drone Records has been a home for artists to release their sounds on the sacred vinyl as well as get a chance to deliver their own artwork.
To reminisce: the simple artwork yet immensly thick drones by Yen Pox (DR-15), the “Fuck, how am I gonna send out 250 metal plates”-release by [multer] (DR-51), and the fragile boxed edition by Xabec (DR-92). Very well known as well as completely unknown artists, who either made it or didn’t; they are a part of Drone’s 18-year history of vinyl releases.
But times, they are a-changing. It is time for something new, and the chosen format is vinyl, LP, and four artists per release to promote their sounds and become part of the family. On this first release in the new series, pressed in solid white, green, gold and black / orange mixed vinyl, we get acquainted with new works by four artists from different scenes: Ubeboet, Halo Manash, Jarl and B°Tong.
And no, for a change, your humble reviewer will not go in depth into all the tracks and describe them for you. Because if you made it this far already, you know you want this album, and you are going to buy it. What makes this release a definite must-have is the same reason why you visit festivals with sounds, music and sound art. Even if you don’t know all this artists or there is a track you maybe don’t like at the beginning, it fits the release as a whole. Exploration of artistic depths and differences, very well combined by ‘His Masters Drone’, Stefan Knappe.
Four days before the year 2011 is over, this release solidly puts itself in the annual Top Three. Without any doubt!" [Bauke van der Wal / Connexion Bizarre]
"The LP is a fascinating showcase for four different drone and ambient artists, and that is perhaps the essence of everything ever done by Drone Records. Although I have a personal preference for the A-side here, there is much to love, and subtle variation in the presentation of these four artists. A glorious debut on coloured vinyl for this new series, and a highly recommended release for all droners out there. Here’s to the future!" [Oscar Strik, Evening of Light]
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2011 |
€15.00 |
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Yokomono 03.5 ("triple grooved" MERZBOW, MIKA VAINIO, NO ARTIST, JAAP BLONK, CYNTHIA ZAVEN) |
LP |
"This whole Yokomono thing dealt with vinyl, vinyl killers and such like. To which end Staalplaat goes as far as to pressing records for these installations and invite composers to deliver sound material. I am not sure how this will end up in the installation pieces, but if its still the same thing as with the vinyl killers, then this ’3.5′ is worthy one. To explain what it is, I have to copy the original text by Staalplaat: “Our first attempt was the release of Yokomono 03 where we hoped to cut two tracks, one spiraling from outside in and the others from inside out. So that the needle would move in different directions. This attempt failed (for reasons that we will not go in to at this moment). This new record has three parallel soundtracks where the cutting needle was lifted twice with short intervals, in order to make the needle used during “wiedergabe” to jump tracks randomly.
To play this record you must not see your turntable as a reproduction machine that reproduces the music on the record. You can not put it on and sit down to listen. See the record and turntable much more as a music instrument that with each turntable model and with each setting if your machine you will create a different sound and mix of this record. As with any instrument you have to learn how to play your turntable and find what setting you like best. Of vital influence are the skate settings en the wait [sic] on the tone arm, these and others you must very to experience the options of the record.” There is a brown noise (inserts quote again: “In science, Brownian noise, also known as Brown noise or red noise, is the kind of signal noise produced by Brownian motion, hence its alternative name of random walk noise. The term “Brown noise” comes not from the color, but after Robert Brown, the discoverer of Brownian motion.” with sound pieces by Cynthia Zaven and Merzbow, and a white noise side with Mika Vainio and Jaap Blonk. Now this is certainly a most strange record. I stood by my turntable, changing the weight of the tone arm hearing say Blonk, but then moving into Vainio and back, or the piano tones which I assume are Zaven’s going into Merzbowian noise, sometimes with white/brown noise blocks coming in, quickly and disappearing equally fast. Stuff you can do on vinyl only and which have a highly added value to what you get. Hardly plain music, but also not just a DJ tool. Very nice, even without the art installation itself." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.staalplaat.com
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2012 |
€12.00 |
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Strade Trasparenti |
CD |
"Strade Trasparenti" features the original exclusive music by The Necks, David Grubbs, Mira Calix, Mute Socialite and O-Type made for the soundtrack of the film by Augusto Contento. The download version features 5 exclusive bonus tracks (see track listing).
The film "Strade Trasparenti (Transparent Roads)" delivers the physical sensations of a bus trip - it's so realistic it becomes oniric at times - and portrays Brazil's human variety in a series of encounters. The landscapes seen through the windows, the restaurants on the road, the testimonies of common and awfully endearing people are so touching, because they don't correspond to the stereotypes we have about this country. The soundtrack was composed by prestigious musicians from different countries especially for the film.
"Strade Trasparenti (Transparent Roads) is part of a tetralogy of films that are set in Brazil and share the same ethic and aesthetic principles. This film is not a trip in Brazil. It's rather a trip into the depths of Brazilian land and people. It is about Brazil, but not only. Brazil is a mirror used to reflect visions and arguments that could be universally valid.
Strade Trasparenti (Transparent Roads) is a cinevoyage, a ritual of initiation to the journey, to the discovery of the unknown, the indecipherable and the irreducible. It's to go beyond the logic of one's own national, cultural, perceptive borders."
(Augusto Contento, Director)
[label info]
www.staubgold.com
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2011 |
€15.00 |
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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/
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2012 |
€15.00 |
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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/
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2013 |
€15.00 |
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Epicurean Escapism I |
CD & DVD |
"Right on time for the third Epicurean Escapism Festival in Berlin, The Epicurean & Silken Tofu release another compilation, which is not a mere reissue of the previous Epicurean Escapism I tape/DVDr set released in 2012, but comes with new & exclusive tracks by IRM, KRANK, JARL as well as a collaboration track by HUMAN LARVAE & ANEMONE TUBE. Apart from this, the set includes a DVD with collected video works by IRM mastermind MARTIN BLADH and a 24-page catalogue with essays and artwork by the same artist. Luxurious 6 panel 21 x 15 cm folder, 24-page catalogue, printed on matt image paper with dispersion varnish and packaged in a transparent, sealable bag. 350 copies." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
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2013 |
€20.00 |
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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
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2015 |
€12.00 |
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Nostra Signora delle Tenebre |
do-LP |
"There was a time in Italy when movies did not suck. Or at least, when they sucked, they did it in a graciously peculiar way.
Alongside the world-famous auteurs (the Fellinis, the Viscontis, the Bertoluccis), there was a plethora of lesser known, critically unappreciated directors, often mockingly called cinematografari, frantically tackling (and twisting) every kind of movie genre: western, comedy, thriller. For some reason, they excelled especially in their wild, sick take on horror and crime dramas – and music played a big role in these successes.
Classically trained composers like Ennio Morricone and Stelvio Cipriani rubbed shoulders with former pop stars-turned-soundtrackers like Nico Fidenco and Pino Donaggio and together happily immersed themselves in the muddy waters of this cinematic swamp, creating their own distorted versions of the funk, psychedelia and beat rock canons. The aberrant results were then applied like thick make-up to equally mind-boggling, malevolent, highly stylized movies from directors like Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci or schlock uebermeister Joe D’Amato.
For a brief period it worked at the box office too.
“Nostra Signora delle Tenebre” is a tribute to that extraordinary, by-gone era now apparently forgotten in Italy too. It is a tribute to the gloriously adventurous soundtracks of maybe somehow less glorious horror and giallo flicks – movies that anyway retained a decidedly Italian flavour, a bizarre mix of nasty violence, lurid sexuality and feverish Catholic mysticism, all filtered through a manic obsession with death, blood and the sins of the flesh.
At the same time, this album is a way to celebrate a small but thriving national scene, generally labeled under the admittedly lazy banner of “Italian occult psychedelia” and championed by the likes of Simon Reynolds and Julian Cope while at the same time getting growing interest from music magazines, with several features on The Wire, Vice, Fact Magazine, Tiny Mixtapes, Foxy Digitalis etc.
“Nostra Signora delle Tenebre” gathers together almost all the best bands in the scene: groups like Michael Gira’s favourites Father Murphy, Lay Llamas and Mamuthones (now both on Rocket Recordings), Heroin In Tahiti, Cannibal Movie and Jennifer Gentle, probably the best known Italian indie band abroad and whose “A New Astronomy” album is considered a forefather of the genre.
We asked these bands to revive some of our favourite horror and giallo soundtracks from the 60’s and the 70’s. They did it in their own way, and it sounds good.
Limited (FIRST) edition of 500 copies of which 100 copies as special edition available through Backwards only, and 400 on black vinyl (as standard edition).
Second pressing of 500 copies on violet vinyl.
Tracklist:
Heroin In Tahiti “Nuda per Satana” (A. Baldan Bembo)
Lay Llamas “Palude” (L. Michelini)
Second H. Sam “Gli ultimi cannibali” (N. Fidenco)
Lamusa “Tourist trap” (P. Donaggio)
Edible Woman “Magic & Ecstasy” (E. Morricone)
Mai Mai Mai “Sette note in nero” (Bixio – Frizzi – Tempera)
Jennifer Gentle “Chanson de la Nuit” (E. Macchi)
Slumberwood “Toby Dammit” (N. Rota)
Mamuthones “The Thing” (E. Morricone)
Gianni Giublena Rosacroce “Incubo sulla città contaminata” (S. Cipriani)
Beautiful Bunker “L’aldilà” (F. Frizzi)
Cannibal Movie “Sans espoir” (B. Nicolai)
Father Murphy “L’alba dei morti viventi” (Goblin)
OVO “Nuda per Satana” (A. Baldan Bembo)
Maria Celeste “Cento campane” (Fiorentini – Grano)" [label info]
www.backwards.it |
2015 |
€20.00 |
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Musique Concrete |
LP |
This record represents an important milestone in the development and progression of musique concrète – marking a crossroad for not only the genre itself but also in the paths of its originator Pierre Schaeffer and another of the genre’s most important and respected protagonists Pierre Henry.
Undoubtedly one of the most influential experimental and electroacoustic musicians, Pierre Schaeffer is also credited as being the father of the theory of musique concrete as well as later name coining the term itself. Having found a job in 1936 at Radiodiffusion Française (later Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française or RTF) as an engineer, Scaeffer developed a newly found interest in music and with the blessing of his superiors made the most of his access to the Radiodiffusion Française studios, utilising his abilities as an engineer to experiment with sound whilst collaborating with musicians and composers that passed through the station’s hallowed doors. In 1942 Schaeffer and influential theatre director, producer and actor Jacques Copeau founded the Studio d’Essai (renamed Club d’Essai in 1946) as part of RTF in order to experiment with radiophonic techniques. Drawing on the works of French filmmaker, critic and novelist Jean Epstein, Schaeffer would occupy his time and his mind with the manner in which sound recordings “revealed what was hidden in the act of basic acoustic listening” and in 1948 formally set about his research in ernest – the results of which were presented as a series of studies known as Cinq études de bruits (Five Studies of Noises) during a concert in Paris.
With word of his theories and experiments spreading, Schaeffer was able to press the RTF management to further finance and in doing so expand his research. However, for an undertaking of this size he would need help. Having previously collaborated as part of his early research with a young classically trained composer by the name of Pierre Henry, Schaeffer had no problem convincing the RTF executives he was the right man of the job. By adding a third prong to this sonic fork in the shape of sound engineer Jacques Poullin, Schaeffer was able to complete a powerhouse, which he renamed the Groupe de Musique Concrete, that would push his experiments further than he could have imagined. In1951, RTF handed the trio the keys to one of the earliest purpose-build electroacoustic studios (the other being the WDR Studio in Germany), furnishing it with state of the art bespoke equipment such as a Morphophone (designed by Poullin himself and capable of tape loop-delay) and a Phonogène (a multi-headed tape instrument also designed by Poullin). The studio went from strength to strength, attracting composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Edgard Varèse to collaborate, and in that same year Schaeffer and Henry produced and premiered what is considered to be the first opera concrète, Orphèe 51.
As Schaeffer’s notoriety grew as did demand for his time and he found himself increasingly called away from the studio during which time he would hand the keys to over to his colleagues. Pierre Henry wasted no time in pursuing projects closer to his own heart, working with experimental filmmakers and choreographers like Maurice Béjart (the two would later collaborate with Michel Colombier on the cult classic Les Jerks Électroniques De La Messe Pour Le Temps Présent Et Musiques Concrètes Pour Maurice Béjart). In 1957, following a particularly prolonged absence on RTF duties, Schaeffer returned unhappy with the direction the group had taken and tabled an idea to revitalise both their approach as well as personnel. As a result, Henry and several other key members left the group the following year leaving Schaeffer to lay the foundations in 1958 for a new collective called Groupe de Recherches Musicales – one of a number of theoretical and experimental groups overseen by Saeffer’s Service de la Reserche at RTF – and set about recruiting new members including Iannis Xenakis, Henri Sauguet, Luc Ferrari and Michel Philippot as well as usher in a new steady stream of eager musicians eager to study within what had rapidly become (and still is) a national institution – including a young Jean Michel Jarre!
Featuring the full versions of these seminal early works (abridged versions of which had previously appeared across two 7” singles on Disques BAM) the recordings presented here are the first fruits of this new alliance and served to lay the bedrock for the future of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales research which would later count the likes of Ivo Malec, Philippe Carson, Romuald Vandelle, Edgardo Canton and François Bayle (who went on to coin the term Acousmatic Music) amongst its members and cement its place in the annals of experimental, electroacoustic and early electronic music history.
www.finderskeepersrecords.com |
2016 |
€21.00 |
|
|
A Taste of MOLOKO PLUS / 1996-2016 |
do-CD |
A TASTE OF MOLOKO PLUS (1996-2016)
Format: 2 CD, Digipak, Download
Country: Germany
Released: 02.09.16
Genre: Alternativ Rock, Electronic
Style: Ambient, Industrial, Experimental, Drum & Bass, Dub, Rock & Roll, Plunderphonics, Darkwave, Cut Up etc.
Compiled by Rex Joswig
Artwork by Robert Schalinski
00 CD 1
01 Happy Anniversary
00 by The Excellent Listener 01:52
02 The Silencer
00 by The Hidden Sea 04:38
03 / 09 / 13 Take 1 / 2 / 4
00 by Jürgen Ploog 00:37 / 01:27 / 01:09
04 100° In The Shade
00 by The Fatal Shore 04:55
05 Sehn=Sucht
00 by Herbst In Peking 06:59
06 Backbone Break
00 by R. Stevie Moore 00:50
07 Baby, Scratch My Back
00 by R. Stevie Moore 03:05
08 Dan The Man From Ampellang
00 by Dim Locator 04:42
10 Resurrection Day
00 by Phil Shoenfelt 04:07
11 Imagine This
00 by Krohn Jestram Lippok 02:54
12 Immer Wenn Es Regnet
00 by Herbst In Peking 04:54
14 Drowning Fool
00 by The Hidden Sea 06:28
15 Wild Is The Wind
00 by The Fatal Shore 04:27
16 Time Bells
00 by Project Skull 04:46
17 Pee. Bee. Woman
00 by Badphish 06:51
18 Moos & Berge
00 by Britannia Theatre 08:13
19 Dunkler Shanty
00 by Herbst In Peking 03:11
20 Some Sunny Day
00 by The Excellent Listener 03:17
00 CD 2
01 Sadelectricity
00 by Mimetic 03:27
02 East 17 (dad version)
00 by Column One 06:27
03 Loop
00 by Medusa 04:48
04 / 16 Half Life / Storm Troopers
00 by De Fabriek 00:39 / 00:42
05 Warm Leatherette
00 by Machine de Beauvoir 03:06
06 / 19 Take 8 / Take 9
00 by Jürgen Ploog 00:50 / 01:12
07 Rydike
00 by Marc Wannabe 04:15
08 On The Road
00 by Gerome Nox 05:51
09 Quantum Insert
00 by Alfred 23 Harth & Wolfgang Seidel 03:32
10 1867
00 by Delphium 02:59
11 Douce Vie (Mimetic rmx)
00 by Herbst In Peking 05:02
12 Future
00 by Shroom & Al.x 04:43
13 Words
00 by The Excellent Listener 00:56
14 My True I
00 by The Same 05:43
15 The Right To Doubt It (edit)
00 by Column One 04:44
17 Am Abhang
00 by The Same 04:49
18 Pathology Cut
00 by Project Skull 01:15
20 Es Gibt Keine Freiheit
00 by Herbst In Peking 09:47
21 Auf Matrosen
00 by Automatic Noir 03:53
www.molokoplusrecords.de
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
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'... 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 |
|
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Avantgarde is happening because.. |
CD |
Full title: "Avant Garde Is Happening Because Collaborations Are Happening As Long As The Desire To Interact Fuels Our Hearts We Will Find Swarms That Build Moments And Space To Shelter The Worlds That We Are"// Released to coincide with the re-emergence of the festival at Schiphorst, Germany to celebrate "three days of utopia". The Avantgarde Festival is the legendary gathering of experimental music and performing arts brought to life by Jean-Hervé Péron (faUSt), Carina Varain (Mother of the Headquarters) and friends. This year re-born by Jeanne-Marie Varain, who grew up with the Avantgarde Festival and curated its program in 2014, and Ines and Julia (MuD, Logotorium, Krarque Jamaric ) who scouted several Actions at the Festival in 2013 and 2014 and decided to team up as AGF spirit and figured out a new format that supports collaboration and at the same time is able to sustain itself. The CD features exclusive material from the likes of Nurse With Wound, Faust, Qluster, Asmus Tietchens and is available in extremely limited quantities. This set is packaged in a heavy board, mini LP sleeve, complete with inner.
www.dirter.co.uk
|
2017 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Your Reality is broken |
LP |
A compilation of covers, reinterpretations and/or transformations of Contrastate tracks in celebration of their 30th anniversary. The inivitation to participate was limited to a select few artists who have over the years, in some shape or form, worked with Contrastate. Track A1: Recorded in 2016. The original piece "The People Who Read The Books" was from 1997 concerts in Erlangen, Muenster and Nevers. Track A2: Recorded in 2016 Track A3: Recorded in March 2017. Sound sources: "As Time Began", "Thirst For Knowledge", "A Thousand Badgers In Labour" and a self played cover version of "An End marked By Pessimism". Track B1: Recorded in 2017. The track originates from the album "A Breeding Ground For Flies". Track B2: Recorded in 2017. Sound sources: English Embers/In Absentia - plus original material Track B3: Recorded in 2017. Includes a printed inner-sleeve. Front cover artwork: "Das Tier ist tod" Back cover artwork: "Perinatale Grundmatrix I" Insert artwork: "Tre uomini sulla croce"
Tracklist Hide Credits A1 –Contrastate The Peolple Who Control The Information Recorded By – Contrastate 5:00
A2 –RLW Goodbye Great Nation 2016 Recorded By – RLW 7:31
A3 –Troum An End Marked, As Time Began Recorded By – Troum 6:21
B1 –Genocide Organ / Contrastate Son Of Sam Recorded By – Genocide Organ 5:46
B2 –Band Of Pain Re-establishing Beams (#9) Recorded By – Steve Pittis 6:09
B3 –État D'Urgence (2) Assassinate En Arrière-Plan Recorded By – État D'Urgence (2) 5:24
"Ever since their inception in the late 1980s, this UK project has simultaneously dabbled both in the worlds of musique concret and harsh electronics; two styles that are undeniably similar but have very few in the way of crossover artists, all with a distinct sense of irreverence. Active again after a lengthy hiatus in the early part of the 21st century, Your Reality is Broken is another piece of work that successfully blurs unnecessary lines; in this case if it is a tribute album to them, a remix collection, or a compilation of collaborations. In truth, it is all of these things at once, and it is excellent.
There are only five artists who were invited to participate in this release, each providing one piece that is either a reworking of Contrastate material, a collaboration with them, or in the case of the opening piece, Contrastate covering themselves. The remainder of Your Reality is Broken are artists that also work between those two aforementioned stylistic poles: RLW, Troum, Genocide Organ, Band of Pain, and État D'Urgence.
Contrastate’s self-reflexive contribution, "The People Who Control the Information," is built upon a different piece that was previously only performed live in 1997, "The People Who Read the Books." In its opening moments it is largely a spoken word performance, with ringing electronics filling the otherwise wide open spaces around the vocals. Sharp, grinding electronics tear through and hints of rhythm appear, which eventually solidify into an almost reggae like beat. By the time it all comes together, it is a bizarre combination of noisy electronics, spoken word, and dancehall beats; a strange combination no doubt, but also one that works very well.
Troum's "An End Marked, as Time Began" is constructed by the legendary drone act from three existing Contrastate works plus their own cover of "An End Marked By Pessimism." Besides the aforementioned song, this is pretty much the other most musical piece here. Troum blend the existing recordings into a sustained wall of cavernous sound, making for a murky and somewhat oppressive sonic feel. With snatches of voice peppered throughout and swirling strings later introduced, it comes together in a surprisingly melodic and classical-tinged form.
"Son of Sam" is a reworking of the same titled composition from the band's 2012 A Breeding Ground for Flies album that is credited to both Genocide Organ and Contrastate on the sleeve, so I am not sure if it is a collaboration or a reworking, but it is distinctly GO in sound. This is the modern day form of the legendary band, which is less about intentionally lo-fi noise and more atmospherically bleak. The treated and flanged vocals are of course there, as is the droning, abrasive Korg MS-10 synth, but the whole piece is very clean and well refined, more depressive than aggressive. Steve Pittis' Band of Pain uses material from English Embers and In Absentia to build "Re-establishing Beams (#9)": a mélange of echoing thuds and jarring, drill-like electronics that are at first right in line with old school noise sensibilities but eventually goes in to more restrained, subtle places.
Ralf Wehowsky (as RLW) and État D’Urgence each supply the more disturbing, discomforting tributes on this record. The former's "Goodbye Great Nation 2016" is a pairing of churning sub bass and piercing high frequencies that, while somewhat minimal at first, convey a splendidly sinister mood. Fragments of voice and chimes are weaved in, and with the random voices and mangled piano, it is an entirely disorienting and uncomfortable sounding composition. The latter’s "Assassinate En Arrière-Plan" is another where vocals are up front and demonically processed, making for the most sinister and horror-esque moments of this record.
Your Reality is Broken is a bit of an odd compilation, but one that is undoubtedly Contrastate, and the artists selected all reflect this idiosyncratic approach just as well. All of the artists contribute excellent reworkings or inspired pieces, but I also appreciate the classic compilation feel to the record. The mix of artists, the presentation, the style, it all reminded me of classic albums like the Rising from the Red Sands series or albums put out by RRRecords a few decades ago. It simply hits all the right buttons from beginning to end." [Creaig Dunton / Brainwashed]
|
2017 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Metaphors: Selected Soundworks from the Cinema of APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL |
do-LP |
"Apichatpong Weerasethakul is recognised as one of the most original voices in contemporary cinema today. His seven feature films, short films and installations have won him widespread international recognition and numerous awards, including the Cannes Palme d'Or in 2010 with Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Compilation album 'Metaphors' contains 14 soundworks carefully selected from his past cinema and other visual works since 2003, which includes Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Syndromes and a Century, Fever Room and more.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul has regularly worked with the same sound designers since 2003 and has always given importance to the personality of on-location sounds giving his films a sense of continuity. In post-production, he's fascinated by the manipulation of these 'live' sounds in order to express 'reality'. This reality doesn't necessary represent the actual sound of the places, but more a representation of the world in layered memories. Similar to the way he treats images, Apichatpong sometimes calls attention to the physicality and the fragility of the audio (and its apparatus) and to the process of audio manipulation itself.
In his cinema, Apichatpong prefers natural sound sources over music. Nevertheless, he often boldly incorporates popular songs that were persistent during the shooting. He doesn't shy away from using tunes that relate to his own personal memories. In this sense, Apichatpong values the spirit of authenticity much more than rigid manipulation of audio and weaves a complex and dreamlike soundscape in his cinematic repertoire.
Born in Bangkok, Apichatpong grew up in Khon Kaen in north-eastern Thailand. He began making films and video shorts in 1994 and completed his first feature in 2000. He has also mounted exhibitions and installations in many countries since 1998 and is now recognised as a major international visual artist. His art prizes include the Sharjah Biennial Prize (2013) and the prestigious Prince Claus Award (2016), the Netherlands. Lyrical and often fascinatingly mysterious, his film works are non-linear, dealing with memory and in subtle ways invoking personal politics and social issues.
www.subrosa.net
|
2017 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Metaphors: Selected Soundworks from the Cinema of APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL |
CD |
"Apichatpong Weerasethakul is recognised as one of the most original voices in contemporary cinema today. His seven feature films, short films and installations have won him widespread international recognition and numerous awards, including the Cannes Palme d'Or in 2010 with Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Compilation album 'Metaphors' contains 14 soundworks carefully selected from his past cinema and other visual works since 2003, which includes Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Syndromes and a Century, Fever Room and more.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul has regularly worked with the same sound designers since 2003 and has always given importance to the personality of on-location sounds giving his films a sense of continuity. In post-production, he's fascinated by the manipulation of these 'live' sounds in order to express 'reality'. This reality doesn't necessary represent the actual sound of the places, but more a representation of the world in layered memories. Similar to the way he treats images, Apichatpong sometimes calls attention to the physicality and the fragility of the audio (and its apparatus) and to the process of audio manipulation itself.
In his cinema, Apichatpong prefers natural sound sources over music. Nevertheless, he often boldly incorporates popular songs that were persistent during the shooting. He doesn't shy away from using tunes that relate to his own personal memories. In this sense, Apichatpong values the spirit of authenticity much more than rigid manipulation of audio and weaves a complex and dreamlike soundscape in his cinematic repertoire.
Born in Bangkok, Apichatpong grew up in Khon Kaen in north-eastern Thailand. He began making films and video shorts in 1994 and completed his first feature in 2000. He has also mounted exhibitions and installations in many countries since 1998 and is now recognised as a major international visual artist. His art prizes include the Sharjah Biennial Prize (2013) and the prestigious Prince Claus Award (2016), the Netherlands. Lyrical and often fascinatingly mysterious, his film works are non-linear, dealing with memory and in subtle ways invoking personal politics and social issues.
www.subrosa.net
|
2017 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Playing with Words |
do-CD |
The work on this audio compilation is part of an intermittent ongoing tradition of artistic investigation of spoken language. The pieces included here negotiate potential oppositions such as semantic play and abstraction, musical and narrative structures, speech and song, one voice and many. Influences have been drawn from many sources including poetry, music, song, theatre, typography and graphic art, philosophy, radio, performance art, linguistics, fine art, literature and of course the keen observation and experience of the very many varieties of human communication that we all encounter and participate in every day.
The concerns of these contemporary artists in many cases relate back to their historical antecedents such as the poets, performers and other artists working with sound in the early part of the twentieth century, including the Futurists, Zaum poets, Dadaists and Lettristes who sought to invent new languages and new words in order to express their vision of reality and to deconstruct and reduce the power of language. Other featured artists are examining and revealing the experiences and complexities of contemporary society by engaging with how spoken language works and manifests itself. These works reflect more recent developments in linguistics and the psychology and philosophy of language revealing how meaning is negotiated and transmitted between individuals and groups, across cultures and through languages and their translations.
This audio compilation has a companion online compilation release. They both feature the same artists but, in some cases, different tracks. A DVD of live performances by some of these artists is also available.
Many of the artists on this compilation have also contributed to Playing with Words: the spoken word in artistic practice which is available from Cornerhouse Books at www.cornerhouse.org. Cathy Lane / CRiSAP www.crisap.org / London / 2010
www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=1771 |
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Dark Ambient Radio Volume 3 |
CD |
"This compilation lets you know what it is right up front, and in some ways it flows together like a good radio show should. If you didn't know it was a compilation, it would be easy to think that it was the work of the same artist for several tracks. I had not heard of any of these artists, so I was interested to see what this group had to offer. Aspectee, Nepenthe, and Valerio Orlandini open the disc with three tracks respectively of nice spacey ambient. Mortaja mixes it up a bit with some ritualistic chanting. Crepuscular throws down some crunchy ambient with the feel of tectonic plates shifting. Myth Industries and Sjellos also departs from the space ambient feel with slow waves of rattling and light drumming. Sjellos takes on his own track with some drums that I didn't really expect to kick in, but it worked. Then he goes back to the comfort of droning ambiance. Winterbound provides the base for your next Halloween mix ' this has a nice horror movie soundtrack feel to it. Mytrip finishes us off with 'Small Humyn,' which has a nice heaviness to it. There is a feeling of pressure and depth, like the thick drone that you might find in the inside of a beehive. For me this was one of the standout tracks on this disc. Overall this was interesting dark ambient and it was curated well. If you want to hear some new blood in the dark ambient scene, this is one to pick up. This compilation is limited to 500 copies and weighs in at around 72 minutes." [Chain DLK]
www.darkambientradio.de
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
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Strain, Crack & Break : Music from the Nurse With Wound List Vol. 1 (France) |
do-LP |
After years of mythology, misinterpretation and procrastination Nurse With Wound’s Steven Stapleton finally chooses Finders Keepers Records as the ideal collaborators to release “the right tracks” from his uber-legendary psych/prog/punk peculiarity shopping list known as The Nurse With Wound List, commencing with a French specific Volume One of this authentically titled Strain Crack Break series. Featuring some Finders Keepers’ regulars amongst galactic Gallic rarities (previously presumed to be imaginary red herrings) this deluxe double vinyl dossier demystifies some of the essential French free jazz and Parisian prog inclusions from the alphabetical “dedication” inventory as printed the anti-bands 1979 industrial milestone debut.
When Steven Stapleton, Heman Pathak and John Fothergill’s anti-band Nurse With Wound decided to include an alphabetical dedication to all their favourite bands on the back of their inaugural LP the notion of creating a future record dealers’ trophy list couldn’t have been further from their minds. By adding a list of untravelled European mythical musicians and noise makers to their own debut release of unchartered industrial art rock they were merely providing a suggestive support system of existing potential likeminded bands, establishing safety in numbers should anyone require sonic subtitles for Nurse With Wound’s own mutant musical language. Luckily for them, the record landed in record shops in the midst of 1979’s memorable summer of abject apathy and its sound became a hit amongst disillusioned agit-pop pickers and artsy post-punks, thus playing a key role in the bourgeoning “Industrial” genre that ensued. On the most part, however, the list , like most instruction manuals, remained unreadable, syntactic and suspiciously sarcastic… As potential “real musicians” Nurse WIth Wound became an Industrial music fan’s household name, but in contrast many of the names on The Nurse With Wound List were considered to be imaginary musicians, made-up bands or booby traps for hacks and smart-arses. It took a while for the rest of the record collecting community to catch on or finally catch up.
Since then, many of the rare, obscure and unpronounceable genre-free records on The Nurse With Wound List have slowly found their own feet and stumbled in to the homes of open-minded outernational vinyl junkies, D’s and sample hungry producers, self-propelled and judged on their own merit, mostly without consultation of the enigmatic NWW map. But, to the inspective competitive collector’s chagrin, one resounding fact recurs, NWW got there first! via vinyl vacations, on cheap flights and Interrail tickets, buying bargain bin LPs on a shoestring while oblivious to the pending pension worthy price tags after their 40 year vintage, Stapleton and Fothergill, even if you’ve never heard of them, were at the bottom of the pit before “digging” became paydirt. And NOW at huge international record fairs that occur in massive exhibition halls (or within the confines of your one-touch palm pilot) amongst jive talk acronyms such as SS, PP, BIN, DNAP and BCWHES the coded letters NWW have begun to appear on stickers in the corner of original copies of the same premium progressive records accompanied by a customary 50% price hike to titillate/coerce the initiated as dealers extort the taught. Like “psych” “PINA” or “Krautrock” did before, “NWW” has become a buzzword and in the passed decades since its first publication The List has been mythologised, misunderstood and misconstrued. It’s also been overlooked, overestimated and under-appreciated in equal measures, but with a growing interest it has also come to represent a maligned genre in itself, something that all members of the original line-up would have deemed sacrilegious. Bolstered by the subtitle “Categories strain, crack and sometimes break, under their burden,” all bands on the inventory (many chosen on the strength of just one track alone) were chosen for their genre-defying qualities… A check-list for the uncharted.
Forty years after Nurse With Wound’s first record, Finders Keepers Records, in close collaboration with Steve Stapleton remind fans of THIS kind of “lost” music, that there once existed a feint path which was worn away decades before major label pop property developers built over this psychedelic underground. As long-running fans and liberators of some of the same records, arriving at the same axis from different-but-the-same planets, Finders Keepers and Nurse WIth Wound finally sing from the same hymn sheet resulting in a collaborative attempt to officially, authentically and legally compile the best tracks from the list, succeeding where many overzealous nerds have deferred (or simply, got the wrong end of the stick). Naturally our lavish metallic gatefold double vinyl compendium would only scratch the surface of this DIY dossier of elongated punk-prog peculiarities hence out decision to release volume one in a series which, in accordance with Steve’s wishes, focuses exclusively on individual tracks of French origin, the country that unsurprisingly hosted the highest content of bands on the list. Comprising of musique concrète, free jazz, Rock In Opposition, Zeuhl School space rock, macabre ballet music, lo-fi sci-fi, and classic horror literature inspired prog, this first volume of the series entitled Strain Crack And Break throws us in at the deep end, where the Seine meets the in-sane, introducing the space cadets that found Mars in Marseilles.
Like the Swedish flat-pack record shelves that attempt to house the vast amounts of vintage vinyl that goes into a multi-volume compilation like this, it is time to prepare your own musical penchants and preconceived ideas about DIY music and hear them slowly strain, crack and break.
https://www.finderskeepersrecords.com/shop/strain-crack-break-nurse-with-wound/
|
2019 |
€24.00 |
|
|
Anthology of Contemporary Music from Middle East |
CD |
Following the Anthology of contemporary music from the African continent, this new collection released by Unexplained Sounds Group, focuses on experimental and alternative music from the Middle East and includes artists from Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Israel, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Afghanistan, Cyprus. A kaleidoscope of sounds by artists rooted in their traditions, but at the same time projected towards the new frontiers of music. The minimal melody of Ahmed Saleh introduces us to the exploration of sound paths that unfold through the electronic experimentation of Cenk Ergun, the radical improvisation of Mazen Kerbaj, the pulsating and disturbed electronic of Tony Elieh, the noise drone of Nyctalllz, the tribal and psychedelic music, in the Velvet Underground style, by Afghan musician Naujawanan Baidar, the lysergic ambient of Bloom Tribe, just to mention some projects included in the compilation. An intricate and exciting sound puzzle in which the listener will find his favorite way to a new promised land of sound.
https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-of-contemporary-music-from-middle-east
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Strain, Crack & Break Vol. 2 : Germany |
do-LP |
With his ongoing commitment to like-minded archivist label Finders Keepers Records, industrial music pioneer Steven Stapleton further entrusts us to lift the veil and expose “the right tracks” from his uber-legendary and oft misinterpreted psych/prog/punk peculiarity shopping list known as The Nurse With Wound List. Following the critically lauded first instalment and it’s exclusively French tracklisting both parties now combine their vinyl-vulturous penchants to bring you the next Strain Crack & Break edition which consists of twelve lesser-known German records that played a hugely important part in the initial foundations of the list which began to unfold when Stapleton was just thirteen-years-old. From the perspective of a schoolboy Amon Düül (ONE) victim, at the start of a journey that commenced before phrases like kosmische and the xeno-ignant Krautrock tag had become mag hack currency, this compendium is devoid of the tropes that united what many would accurately argue to be the greatest progressive pop bands in Europe (namely CAN, Neu! and Kraftwerk) and rather shatters the ingredients across a ground zero landscape for both inquisitive fans and socially rehabbing musos to begin to assemble a unique self-styled identity. If Krautrock was the music that journalist told us lurked behind schlager (German pop) in the 1970s, then this record includes the music that skulked behind Krautrock and perhaps refused to polish its backhanded name belt. Including lesser-known artists like the late Wolfgang Dauner whose career proceeded and outlived the kosmische movement while consistently informing and outsmarting ‘em whenever they got stuck in their metronomic ruts, or how about Fritz Müller, the man who was to Kraftwerk what Stuart Sutcliffe was to The Beatles but had more in common with Yoko and quite rightly couldn’t give a shit about the Fab Four’s Hamburg roots. Elsewhere we have a plethora of German bands made for German audiences as they try and shed second hand flower power Americanisms and feel the benefits of much harder drugs and the realisations of difficult second album budgets while Kommune 1 newsflashes wipe smiles from everybody’s faces and replace them with opioid chic or acid-sarcastic grins. Bonzo Cockettes show us their Big Muffs and drummers ask for extra mics while Conny Plank goes for parliamentary office and gives babies good firm hand shakes for the camera. Strain Crack & Break Volume Two is the sound of Steve Stapleton’s sponge-like mind and the dividends of anyone who was brave enough to even peek inside those brick-thick gatefold covers never mind drop the needle, with tracks by Mr. and Mrs. Fuchs (aka Anima-Sound) who played their instruments completely naked throughout their anti-career alongside previously unpressed tracks by the scene’s leading Detroit-born African American drummer Fred Braceful who’s band Exmagma officially had the coolest record sleeves and track titles of ALL TIME (Torpedo Tits? Yes Please!). From an era where it was embarrassing to go into your local record shop and hum the tune over the counter, well that young lad Steve Stapleton was braver than that, and besides, these tracks are unhummable and at times unutterable. Did somebody in the crowd shout out for Joel Vandroogenbroeck! Good luck with that one. Stapleton is sharing. Even Stevens.
Over forty years since Nurse With Wound’s first album was released, Finders Keepers Records and Steve Stapleton take connoisseurs of OUR kind of music, back to the disused elevator shaft towards ground zero. Arrriving at the same checkout from different departments, Finders Keepers and Nurse With Wound continue to sing from the same hymnal with this ongoing collaborative attempt to officially, authentically and legally compile the best tracks from Steve’s list, where many overzealous nerds have faltered (or simply, got the wrong end of the stick). After Strain Crack & Break Volume One merely scratched the surface of this DIY dossier of elongated punk-prog peculiarities, our second lavish metallic gatefold double vinyl compendium drives a much deeper groove, which, in accordance with Steve’s wishes, focusses exclusively on individual tracks of German origin - the country whose music forged the prototype of the NWW inventory in the form of his secondary school vinyl want-list in the early 1970s. Comprising of disassembled free jazz, unshowered stoner psych, hypnotic prog, deranged monk funk and fuzzed out Deutschmark bin bonzo beats this second volume of the series throws us straight back in the deep end, putting the Bad in Baden and the odour in The Oder with little need for cheap Cologne.
Willkommen to another forgotten plateau found beneath the psychedelic underground, as Steve Stapleton and Finders Keepers dig new tunnels through the fabric of your vinyl wish-list, these German records are heavy, so find Solid Ground or watch you floorboards Strain Crack & Break before your bloody ears.
https://finderskeepersrecords.bandcamp.com/album/strain-crack-break-music-from-the-nurse-with-wound-list-volume-two-germany
|
2021 |
€27.50 |
|
|
An Oblique Reference to Zeros |
do-CD |
"A budget-priced collection of tracks by artists who've had releases out on Fourth Dimension Records or whose music has entered the label's orbit and made a good impression.
In an ideal world there'd be at least several albums by all concerned on Fourth Dimension Records, but the label operates from more or less the same dingy old basement it always has and subsequently has to limp along in usual fashion.
It is precisely because of this that An Oblique Reference to Zeros has been assembled. The music always comes first and because Fourth Dimension Records does not focus on one particular area of music and instead works with a broad range of artists, the idea of bringing a number of them together on a compilation so that listeners can check out the previously unfamiliar made a lot of sense.
Almost all of the tracks here are previously unreleased, remixes or recorded exclusively for this compilation, too.
Packaged in a 6-panel digipak including stunning artwork by Puppy38 and a booklet with text even pointing to what inspired the title, this is an ideal purchase for anybody whose interests in music dovetail with Fourth Dimension's.
And, no, the title had nothing to do with Eno! Artists include: Kleistwahr, Sudden Infant, Hand & Leg, Mad Masks, MAP 71, Alternative TV, Splintered, Hiroshimabend, Tabata Mitsuru, Richard Youngs, JFK + Klaska, Philippe Petit, Schrottersburg, White Pee, Helm, EXTNDDNTWRK, Zsolt Sores, Theme, Band Of Pain, Contrastate, Mahler Haze, Sion Orgon and Gad Whip."
|
2022 |
€13.50 |
|
|
\'Музыкальное Приношение\' (Musical Offering) - |
CD |
listen:
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/musical-offering-csr326cd
Available on CD (or any other format) for the first time outside USSR, five Soviet composers perform their works on the legendary ANS synthesizer.
Recorded in 1971, "MUSICAL OFFERING" is 6 tracks (42 mins) of experiments on the unique machine by: Eduard Artemiev (2 tracks), Oleg Buloshkin, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov, and Alfred Schnittke.
"MUSICAL OFFERING" demonstrates a 'musical' machine unlike any other and has long fascinated cutting edge, modern electronic composers, notably COIL and THE ANTI GROUP COMMUNICATIONS (TAGC) / CLOCK DVA, that have both released recordings utilising the ANS.
Try to imagine a score sounding by itself without a conductor; an orchestra without musical instruments. This magic is possible by using the musical ANS synthesizer. Created by Soviet scientist Evgeny Murzin over the course of 20 years, ANS is an instrument with which a composer can not only create but also draw their music without notes. You can see the twinkling of different lamps, the rotation of grooved glass discs... The drawings on the glass are 'sounding notes'. To listen to the drawn picture, press the button and a wonderful transformation will begin.
Inside the ANS are five rotating glass discs with 144 tones printed (by hand) on each one. Light is projected through the discs and onto photovoltaic cellbank which converts the light into electricity and sends signals to the ANS's amplifiers and bandpass filters. The ANS can generate 720 tones this way and, unlike a human musician, play them all at the same time.
Murzin dedicated his photoelectronic apparatus to Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, hence the name ANS. Scriabin, the creator of the 'Poem of Ecstasy', and a famous explorer of synesthesia, used in his works a highly chromatic, new type of harmonic style designed to express his beliefs, views and wishes. Soviet music lovers will already know recordings made on ANS from Tarkovsky's films Solaris, The Mirror, and Stalker, Konchalovsky's film Siberiade, and others.
Presented in a digipak with the new artwork by Abby Helasdottir (who also created the compelling promo video), complimenting the ANS process perfectly.
Officially licensed from Russian state label Melodiya.
Watch promo video (YouTube): bit.ly/Musical-Offering
Copyright © – ВТПО "Фирма Мелодия" (Melodiya)
All-Union Recording Studio. Recorded in 1971.
Recording supervised by Юрий Богданов
Mastered by Martin Bowes at The Cage
Track listing:
1. OLEG BULOSHKIN - \'Sacrament\' (3:32)
2. SOFIA GUBAIDULINA - \'Vivente-Non Vivente (Alive And Dead)\' (10:44)
3. EDUARD ARTEMIEV - \'Mosaic\' (4:05)
4. EDUARD ARTEMIEV - \'Twelve Looks At The World Of Sound\' (12:53)
5. EDISON DENISOV - \'Birds\' Singing\' (5:04)
6. ALFRED SCHNITTKE - \'Stream\' (5:57)
######################
"A new batch of Cold Spring CDs, and I must say... At least with one of them, they stole my mathematic sound nerdish heart. "Musical Offering" is a sampler with Russian composers using the ANS, probably entirely up to its limits. Two tracks by Eduard Artemiev and one track each by Oleg Buloshkin, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov and Alfred Schnittke. I only knew about Artemiev on this list because of his movie soundtracks. So to hear his work without a movie and, of course, images of empty landscapes, a brutalist-themed forgotten society and demise and a void enter my head, but fair is fair: all images were in colour. Nothing bleak or grey but the richness of the ANS is all over the place.
So for those who don't know what an ANS is all about, it's a Russian synthesizer designed over 20 years by Evgeny Murzin, and there is only one. It works with drawings on glass plates and devices that transform light into voltages, and those voltages create sounds. The glass discs spin, and well ... Wiki / YouTube is your friend here. Many artists have worked with the ANS, including Coil, The Anti Group Communications. Yes, [law-rah] also used original sounds from the ANS on their split with Cisfinitum (released on Fario). Maybe working on that release is the reason why I have a personal
weakness for this machine. I just couldn't get over how rich the sounds were that we got to use. Sure: A completely different thing than Coil being in the museum and drawing on the discs and us 'just' working with some recordings one of the museum guys did for us. Yet still ... I was impressed then, and I'm still impressed now.
For this disc, I am keeping the review smallish. Why? Because you already know if you are a) interested in neo-classical compositions by Russian composers. If you are, you will get this release and not be disappointed. It's as simple as that. If you are b) a nerd who loves different forms of synthesis like me, this album is one to consider. Because it's very varied and shows a lot of the ANS in 'its original environment': Russian composers on a Russian synth, and if you are c) curious about composition techniques, this will break your mind. Because from the ritualistic rhythmic parts in "Sacrament" (by Buloshkin), the 'voices' in "Vivente-Non Vivente" (by Artemiev) and the birds and frogs in "Birds Singing" (by Denisov), can you tell what is the origin of the sound? Is it a bird? Is it a recording? Or is it super ANS?
For me, it's not one of those reasons to love this album, and it's d) all of the above." [BW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Soundscape-Komposition. Aktuelle Positionen |
CD |
"Field recordings and recordings of everyday sounds are considered essential materials for Soundscape Composition. The term is not to be understood as a generic category for any compositional approach in which original sound is used. Rather, Soundscape Composition is based on a specific concept that shapes the compositional, formative process ad artistic statement of a production.[.] Soundscape Composition artistically points in (at least) two different directions: On the one hand, it points to an investigation of the dynamic relationships between listening, sound-making, and the anthropological significance of the auditory in all conceivable situations. On the other hand, it refers to a critical examination of given, imaginary or utopian soundscapes in art, everyday life, nature and media. From the text of curator Sabine Breitsameter with contributions from Hildegard Westerkamp, Christian M. Fischer, Sabine Schäfer, Ludger Kisters, Manuela Meier, Jan Jacob Hofmann, Javier Alejandro Garavaglia and Roland Breitenfeld."
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
NEW STATE OF FLUX |
do-CD |
listen:
https://reversealignment.bandcamp.com/album/new-state-of-flux
New State Of Flux was conceived by Raffaele Pezzella, head of the Unexplained Sounds network of aural disorientation, after Swedish label Reverse Alignment became a part of the network at the beginning of 2021. The extremely fine work released by label founder Kristian Widqvist from its inception in 2007 and over the next 13 years is a rare example of integrity and quality in terms of aesthetic choices, creating a collection of minimalist and isolationist gems by releasing a series of albums by musicians that have constituted a new paradigm in minimalistic ambient music. The New State Of Flux compilation has been curated with the intention of continuing that tradition in the same spirit of sonic exploration and philosophy, and adding some new names that we hope will be appreciated just as their predecessors were. Many of them will be the launch-pad for a new Reverse Alignment trajectory.
"I love a 2xCD compilation. Big compilations are a lot of fun, especially comps that exist to spotlight a particular label’s aesthetic, which is what “New State of Flux” is. (A quick aside: when I first read the title, I’d hoped that “New State of Flux” was a double-disc survey of 1980s Massachusetts cassette label A State of Flux… but no, it’s not. Someone should still do a reissue or comp of A State of Flux one day, though). This album was compiled by Raffaele Pezzella, who runs the Unexplained Sounds Group. A network consisting of several labels under one umbrella. There’s USG itself, which has put out important surveys of experimental music from Iran, Lebanon, the Balkans, China and more… and then Eighth Tower and ZeroK. This comp exists to spotlight USG’s newest partnership with the Swedish dark-ambient label Reverse Alignment, effectively now being run from Italy by Pezzella. The intent is to introduce Reverse Alignment to new listeners, which it certainly does.
Evidence of the label’s clear curatorial vision is that all 20 of the pieces on this compilation are of a similar mood and seem to run into one another. It’s hard to tell one artist/track from the next. For me, that’s one of the album’s strengths, especially since most of the artists’ names are unfamiliar to me; I was able to put on my headphones, press play, then close my eyes and soak it all in as if “New State of Flux” were a single thought by a single person. The album opens with a track by Jarl (aka Swedish artist Erik Jarl of IRM, Skin Area, & Sharon’s Last Party), one of the names I knew going in. His piece “Chemical Mirror” is a sombre, subtly psilocybic drone with echo-laden sci-fi bloops that hint at a sinister something below the surface. Taphephobia’s “A Journey to the Outside World” leans worryingly towards Hearts of Space territory, but recovers well enough. Another highlight comes from VelgeNaturlig, whose “Raga in Height Dimensions” consists of an insistent electric tone that grows somewhat more abrasive and unnerving, eventually breaking into a passage of delay-saturated instruments. One might be a sitar, but It's hard to tell. RNGMNN’s piece is another strong entry, a lugubrious slather of percussion and ghostly moaning. Some other names that stuck out to me are B*Tong (whose foreboding piece features the voice of NASA controller, informing someone of something distressing about to happen…), Freiband (aka Vital editor Frans de Waard/Modelbau), SITKA (a tape-delay lullaby), Ajna (classic post-Lustmord dark ambient) and Equal Stones (whose lighter, heavenly-choir sound is a welcome change of colour). In all, a solid and enjoyable listen and a fine introduction to the label for anyone who likes this sort of sound." [HS/Vital Weekly]
https://reversealignment.bandcamp.com/album/new-state-of-flux
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
| VAINIO, MIKA / PAN SONIC |
Kilo |
CD |
"MIKA VAINIO's first solo album for Blastfirstpetit sees him return to his classic power electronics, heavy beats approach that made PANSONIC garner a worldwide reputation.
The album developed from VAINIO's recent live sets to make ten tersely titled tracks inspired by the shipping container industry.
Four stars in Mojo " heavy-freight" ,The Quietus described it as "fearsome"." [label info]
www.blastfirstpetite.com
"Mika Vainio, one half of Finnish minimal electronic duo PanSonic, has a new record of atmospheric industrial music coming out. Louder Than War contributor Craig Johnson has been having a listen.
To be honest, it’s exactly what you’re expecting. It’s slow, atmospheric and industrial. The fact that it’s so predictable isn’t a bad thing though as that’s exactly how Mika Vainio made his name. If you’re good at something, why give up?
In a time where electronic musicians seem to spawn from every corner of the world, it’s easy for music to start sounding the same without any differentiation between what has merit and what doesn’t. In this case, Kilo is a really great document of how to make industrial ambience sound very, very good.
What we have here is a weird mix of ambient soundscapes and beat-heavy industrial trance; it feels like a soundtrack to some sort of brutalist post-apocalyptic rave. In my mind, it conjures up black and white images of deserted industrial space, filled with jagged edges and metal structures. It’s stark, yes, but it’s also quite therapeutic. I can sort of switch off and let myself become fully engrossed in this alternate world. Ironically, it’s not the sort of music you want to share with others.
I’m aware that writing this piece means I’m sharing my thoughts on the music with you but I mean share in a different sense. It’s an album that you only ever want to listen to when you’re on your own; late at night, early in the morning, any time of day as long as you aren’t in a group of people. I cant imagine this being the soundtrack to a dinner party or on the office stereo. This is subtle music that’s made specifically for the recluse. The person that wants to sit in his own company and be overcome by the powerful imagery these bursts of sound create.
The juxtaposition of calm, atmospheric pieces and heavy industrial beats work to give an almost frightening nightmare like state on track such as Scale. The whole album fits together with a strange contrast running throughout. At times it feels like it’s about to collapse in on itself, then comes a sudden burst of energy in the form of an industrial barrage or a eerie screech.
It’s removed from reality in a sense that it manages to project an alternative, abstract setting. I can’t imagine it soundtracking anything other than this industrial landscape I view in my mind. I think there’s a definite divide in the style of tracks here.
While some do have that calmer, more subdued tone, other has, overall, a fiercer and driving sound. Luckily though, they work together in perfect harmony. Never sounding out of place, the whole album flows and each new sound follows on logically, never letting you awake from the industrial dreamland you’ve suddenly found yourself part of.
I’m actually going to see Mika Vainio play at The Sage, Gateshead in June and am eagerly waiting being transported into this dream like state. I just want to be sat in a dark room, his industrial soundtrack taking me away from the reality of the world outside. Even just for a short period of time, I have a feeling it’ll be fantastic." [Lounder Than War]
- See more at: http://louderthanwar.com/mika-vainio-kilo-album-review/#sthash.s5DDP4Q1.dpuf
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| VAN DER VLEUTEN, MAARTEN |
High Intolerance toward low Energies |
LP |
"Van Der Vleuten, 1967 geboren, veröffentlicht mit der "High Intolerance Towards Low Energies" LP sein erstes Album unter seinem Geburtsnamen, den er fortan für seinen musikalischen Output verwenden will. "High Intolerance Towards Low Energies" ist eine von Tonefloat sehr ansprechend gestaltete LP, limitiert auf 500 Exemplare, und auf 180g Vinyl gepresst. Das luxuriöse Gatefold Cover mit einem eher rostig anmutenden Artwork trifft gut den submarinen Charakter des Albums: Man meint von der Wasseroberfläche des Meeres langsam abzutauchen, Druck baut sich auf, je tiefer man sinkt. Dröhnen in den Ohren und plötzlich sieht man in der Tiefe ein altes, mächtiges Schiffswrack auf dem Grund liegen. Der Rost zeigt, dass es da schon gar Jahrhunderte liegt. Neugierig und interessiert umkreist man es, aber irgendetwas scheint nicht zu stimmen. Flüstern und Murmeln, wabernde Stimmen und rhythmisches, maschinelles Stampfen. Nervöse, pulsierende Bass- Frequenzen und seltsame, gebrochene Melodiefetzen. Halluzinationen? Tiefenrausch? Man weiß es nicht. Maarten Van Der Vleuten gelingt es auf "High Intolerance Towards Low Energies" ein eigentümlich dichtes Gewirr aus Drohnen und Ambiancen zu schaffen, das in seiner Gesamtheit zu überzeugen weiß. Dass Van Der Vleuten mit dieser LP ein anderes Bild im Kopf hatte als mein submariner Eindruck, ist nicht weiter schlimm. Er legt den Fokus der Interpretation eher auf eine radikale Darstellung unserer sich immer schneller beschleunigenden Umwelt und will diesen Eindruck mit "High Intolerance Towards Low Energies" eingefangen haben. Diese Intention passt auch wunderbar zu dem unruhigen, fast bedrohlich wirkenden Charakter des Albums. Die enthaltenen 4 Stücke offenbaren eine nervöse Welt in der man entweder immer wieder ob der Bildhaftigkeit paralysiert und staunend stehen bleibt oder eben wie im Fieberwahn durch einen Irrgarten voller unruhiger, fremder Stimmen stolpert." [Creative-Eclipse]
"Amidst an infinite ocean of information, finding yourself is turning into a complex mission nowadays. On his latest full-length, ambient house pioneer Maarten van der Vleuten is returning to the memories of demolished Dutch monastery Regina Coeli, his head still spinning from the confounding excess of images and impressions. on his long and winding journey, he has come a long way from his early dance singles to being recognised as a widely respected, colourfully uncompromising personality. High intolerance towards low energies, pressed in a limited edition of 500 copies in a luxurious gatefold sleeve, has consciously been conceived as a radical representation of our rapidly accellerating environment: nervously pulsating bass frequencies and frenzied percussion are underpinning shattered sonic figments like the ground drone of a surreal urban raga, with shardes of song and prayer forming broken melodies. Finding his way through this menacing maze has certainly paid off for van der Vleuten: after releasing under 26 different pseudonyms over the last two decades, he has found his definitive musical identity on this haunting soundscape, with future works to be published exclusively under his common name. The album is pressed as a 180 grams black vinyl lp in heavy gatefold picture sleeve." [label info]
www.tonefloat.com
|
2008 |
€16.50 |
|
| VAN HASSELT, JAN & CHRISTOPH OGIERMANN |
Der Bau |
2 x MC + BOOK |
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/der-bau
"Ich will mich nicht aufspielen aber, sie verzeihen, meine Position ist die des, wie würden sie es nennen, religiös rituellen Spezialisten, was bedeuten würde, dass man mir alles glaubt. Das ist natürlich Unsinn. Aber da ist gar kein Bild. Also, wenn sie den Bau betreten würden, wäre alles nur schwarz."
Von verrauschten Audio-Kassetten erklingen seltsame Stimmen, Texte, wie herausgerissene Seiten aus einem Science Fiction Roman. Sie handeln von dem ›Bau‹, einem gigantischen Stahltank, unweit einer überfüllten Stadt. Fließt etwas hinein in den Bau oder heraus? Kann man ihn betreten? Und wenn ja, ist darin überhaupt etwas zu finden? Getragen, zersetzt und paraphrasiert von elektrischen Schwingungen, singenden Rückkopplungen und den akustischen Schatten der Zukunftsindustrie lässt Jan van Hasselts Lecture Performance ›Der Bau‹ ein dystopisches Kopfkino entstehen.
DER BAU wurde als Theaterperformance entwickelt und 2021 in der Schwankhalle Bremen aufgeführt. Die Performance erscheint nun als Buch plus zwei Audiocassetten im Schuber beim Verlag aufabwegen in Köln. Die Musik auf den Tapes des Komponisten Christoph Ogiermann entstand aus der Theatermusik und wurde um weiteres Material ergänzt.
Jan van Hasselt
Jan van Hasselt arbeitet als Theater-, Film- und Radioautor in Bremen. Seine Performances und Filme bewegen sich gerne an den Grenzbereichen zwischen Film, Kunst und Literatur. Sie wurden in Deutschland, der Schweiz und Österreich in Galerien, Theatern und auf Filmfestivals aufgeführt. Es entstanden Kollaborationen mit Marc Richter (Black to Comm), ANKK L and Christoph Ogiermann.
Jan van Hasselt is a writer, filmmaker and soundartist based in Bremen, Germany. In the last years he mainly worked for theatre, where he produced lecture performances combined with film and live music as well as hybrid performance formats. He collaborated with Marc Richter (Black to Comm), ANKK L and Christoph Ogiermann.
www.jvhasselt.de
Christoph Ogiermann
Geboren 1967. Beginnt 1990 auf Anregung von Erwin Koch-Raphael zu komponieren, schreibt seither Musik. Tätigkeit als Rezitator, Sänger, Geiger und Tastenspieler in den Bereichen Freie Improvisation / Konzeptimprovisation und europäische Kunstmusiken. Komponist. Kurator.
Abschluß des Kompositionsstudiums an der Hochschule für Künste Bremen bei Younghi Pagh- Paan. Weitere wichtige musikalische und philosophische Studien bei Georges Nicolas Wolff und Nicolas Schalz.
Born in 1967, Christoph Ogiermann began composing in 1990 at the suggestion of Erwin Koch-Raphael and has been writing music ever since. He received his diploma in composition in 2000 from the Bremen University for the Arts (Hochschule für Künste), studying with Younghi Pagh-Paan. He also undertook important musical and philosophical studies with Georges Nicolas Wolff and Nicolas Schalz. He works as reciter, singer, violinist and keyboarder in the fields of improvisation and european arts-music.
soundcloud.com/ogiermann
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/der-bau
|
2023 |
€30.00 |
|
| VELGENATURLIG |
Opalescent Pust |
CD |
"Our next release on the Winter-Light label is by the Portuguese sound sculpture VelgeNaturlig and is entitled 'Opalescent Pust'.
VelgeNaturlig is no stranger to Winter-Light, having appeared on our recent DCD compilation "...that first season", with his beautiful track 'Golden'. 'Opalescent Pust' has an entirely different feeling altogether, one of constant motion, one of change. 'Opalescent Pust'; the breath opal, the colour of pearl, the purest form of breath. A cleansing process, that of a purifying experience. Purity.
From the opening moments of the first track 'Onset', you know you are entering a world that is both familiar to you, but also somewhat alien at the same time. It's an inward journey that you have begun; a travel within yourself that you should feel comfortable with as it's you. But the dark tones and underlying menace of the music let you know that, in no uncertain terms, before you can reach that light, that purity, you must first traverse the dark paths of your own mind and wrestle with whatever it is you find lurking there. And so the tone is set.
Tracks such as 'Opal' push you further into the blackness where, lying there in state, you can hear the electrical impulses of your own thoughts, embellished through 'Amorphous Silence'. 'Diffraction','Gold Opacity' and 'Pust' will leave you floating and submerged in your own flotation tank. Drifting into nothingness, a time to shed and let go. 'Obsidiana', 'The Hum' and 'Plateau' push you upwards and on towards a ceiling of light, crashing first through barriers of your own constricting thoughts and feelings where finally...with 'Exhale', you can at last breath; the purest breath.
The album began life as a one take improvisational piece, which was then fine tuned in the studio by Ivo Santos (aka VelgeNaturlig), resulting in the fluid, organic wave of sound that you now hear. This full CD of new and original music comprises of 10 tracks of experimental drone and ambient soundscapes.
All music has been recorded by VelgeNaturlig, the end of 2016. Fine tuned by Ivo Santos, Home Studio in 2017. All tracks have been mastered by Cruel Sound Works. The cover concept and design is by Midnight Sun Studio © 2017.
The edition is presented in a 6-page full colour digi-pack. Running time 69:48."
www.winter-light.nl
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/opalescent-pust
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA |
Wisdom Thunderbolt |
CD |
"Wisdom Thunderbolt marks the triumphant return of Vibracathedral Orchestra after more than three years in the wilderness of intermittent performance, tangential projects, and unfindable limited editions.
The seven tracks on Wisdom are thee VCO's most rocking dispatch ever, neatly combining the Ra-like collage of tracks like "Wisdom Thunderbolt" with the insistent pulsing jams of "A Natural Fact" and "Order of the Broad Eraser." "Ochre Dust" and "Rainbow Whirlwind" are more in the old-school VCO thick-blanket of sound, with tuned-percussion melody peeking out from the fog. After a surprise opening, "Sway-Sage" heaves with raucous drumming (courtesy of Magik Marker Pete Nolan) under the swells of sound. Hard to imagine, but this is the first widely available music (except for the Tuning to the Rooster comp) from the VCO since 2003's acclaimed The Queen of Guess." [label info]
"First proper full length in a while from these ur-drone space
explorers, which is long overdue, considering the protracted near
silence of VCO, and Matthew Bower all but abandoning his Sunroof! in
favor of the noisier Hototogisu. Whatever you call that sort of music
that Sunroof!/VCO traffic in, very few other outfits have managed to
channel the same sort of ferocious guitar freakout and blissy ambient
swirl into the magical metallic drift that those two groups did.
So here we have Wisdom Thunderbolt, featuring the VCO usual
suspects (Neil Campbell, Mick Flower, Bridget Hayden, Adam Davenport) with a whole mess of special guests, underground drumlord Chris Corsano, the aforementioned Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Sunroof!, Hototogisu, etc.), Pete Nolan of the Magik Markers and John Godbert (Skullflower, Total) and the sound is exactly as we remember it. Thick and dense, swirling and blissed out, druggy and blurry,
smeared and shimmering. There is percussion, it mostly tinkles and
skitters, but occasionally pounds and swings, organs and synths are
woven into weird little buzzing soundscapes, horns wail and skronk,
guitars growl and jangle...
While the opening track is a ramshackle stumble, all over the
place, but in a very good way, the second track is where the band
locks into that perfect groove they've always been capable of. A
blown out stretch of raga like buzz, tribal drums underpinning a
simple riff, a spacey sea sick shimmer, all wrapped up in layers of
guitar buzz and hissy synth, rich and thick and totally mesmerizing.
The rest of the record is more of the same, longform buzz
drenched krautrocky drone jams, with some notable exceptions. The 12+ minute "Rainbow Whirlwind, which sounds like some lost Spacemen 3 jam, the guitars pulsing and throbbing, tones beating against other tones, the synths and guitars creating constantly shifting rhythms, interrupted in the middle by a blown out free noise fest, before
slipping back into spaced out pulse and dreamy drift.
And, the uncharacteristically 'rock'-y intro to "Sway-Sage"
that sounds like the Guess Who's "American Woman", before quickly
slipping back into some super distorted space jam, with a glitchy
buzz laid over a relentless rhythm, and with thick ropy swirls of
guitar and synth buzz burying everything in that distinctly VCO warm
washed out sonic blur." [Aquarius Records]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| VIDNA OBMANA |
The Face that must die |
CD |
Vidna Obmana – The Face That Must Die CD (OCCD32)
Vidna Obmana is a pseudonym used by Belgian artist Dirk Serries. He has been one of the most significant names in the ambient scene for more than three decades, releasing over more than 50 solo albums and numerous collaborations. Apart from his main ambient colleagues, Vidna Obmana originates from the industrial cassette network scene in early eighties. ‘The Face That Must Die’ was recorded when Vidna Obmana was slowly transforming into his trademark ambient signature. In-between the noise outbursts and his melancholic ambient music Vidna Obmana produced a few albums which are industrial-oriented but more of an orchestral and percussion nature, in the vein of Autopsia. With turntables, shortwave radio, voice and synths Vidna Obmana recorded one of his most underrated albums full of tribalesque, doom-risen and dark ambient atmosphere. Originally released in a limited run on Vidna Obmana’s own Mechanical Orchestration Music and almost around the same time issued by Trev Ward’s The Order Ov Wolves, who also narrates the opening track, this is verily an indisputable masterpiece accompanied with four rare vinyl tracks from the same obscure era to turn the edition into a true collector’s precious document. Limited to 300 copies in a 4-panel matte-laminated black & white Digipak.
Tracklist:
1 Prologue Voice [Introduction By] – Trev Ward 04:10
2 Doom Asylum 08:48
3 Angel Of Life 04:10
4 Grave Upon Body 07:20
5 Sweat Session Pt. 1 04:09
6 Almost Certainly 04:31
7 Proto Anguish 03:55
8 Entombed 01:41
9 Bring Out Your Dead 03:43
10 Second Praise For Little Hope 07:11
11 Hidden Voice 03:39
12 Sweat Session Pt. 2 01:59
13 Burnpassion 02:31
14 Inferno 05:00
15 Another Earth To Pass 02:19
16 Bondage Doom To Creator 05:19
credits
released April 25, 2017
Original Tape Release : 1988 (Mechanical Orchestration Music, Belgium)
Tape Reissue : 1988 (Order Ov Wolves, UK)
BONUS TRACKS :
13.14. from A Thunder Orchestra/Vidna Obmana split 7” (Climax Productions 1988)
15. from Motop 1 LP (IF Records 1989)
16. from Cobwebs TAPE (Epitapes 1988)
Vidna Obmana : electronics, loops, turntables, shortwave radio, voice. Introduction by Trevor Ward.
https://oldcaptain.bandcamp.com/album/vidna-obmana-the-face-that-must-die |
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Surreal Sanctuary / The Contemporary Nocturne |
do-CD |
"By releasing "The Trilogy" not so long ago, we have opened a new series in which we are trying to bring closer the VIDNA OBMANA albums, which have long been unavailable in regular distribution and which reach exorbitant prices on auction portals.
This time we took two regular albums to work on. "The Surreal Sanctuary", like "The Contemporary Nocturne", recorded with the guest appearance of Steve Roach, Jim Cole and Joris De Backer, originally appeared in 2000 on Hypnos as separate publications. However, their character, the time in which the compositions were created and the participation of the same guests combine them into an extremely poignant and musically rich entity. Therefore, together with the artist, we decided to publish a two-disc album, closing this chapter in the discography of Vidna Obmana.
All the material was remastered by Dirk Serries in 2018. Photos for this album were made by Martina Verhoeven.
The 2CD album is released in an 8-panel digipak, strictly limited to 400 copies."
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/the-surreal-sanctuary-the-contemporary-nocturne
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| 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 |
|
| VIGROUX, FRANCK |
Ballades sur Lac Gelee |
LP |
Black vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket, printed inner sleeve, artwork by Olaf Bender.
We met Franck Vigroux for the first time years ago at Berlin's Berghain during a soundcheck. At that time he performed with Mika Vainio, with whom Vigroux often worked together.
The first track on »Ballades sur lac gelé« dates back to that time. It was created under the impression of this collaboration and friendship with Mika Vainio. This album is dedicated to him.
Vainio's oeuvre is also significant in connection with the history of raster, so it was only logical and our wish to release this album by Franck Vigroux.
With the beginning of the corona pandemic, Franck Vigroux took up this early material again, he continued to formulate it and completed the present album »Ballades sur lac gelé«. The title already defines the theme of the ballad, a "song/poem with very minimal structures" (quote Vigroux).
"Ballade" is also a play on words with the French word "balade", in this sense a ramble, a ramble over a frozen lake. The reduced, cool structures reflect this. But at the same time, under the surface, the (often distorted) sound carpets steadily increase to immense power. Like ice that grows and tectonic forces that have to erupt, glacier-like.
Vigroux is very skilled at creating music in this minimalist setting. The intertwining of very few musical elements creates a kind of soundtrack that is multi-layered and at the same time universally intelligible.
»Ballades sur lac gelé« will be released on June 26th, 2020 as a digital pre-release exclusively on our sites. The physical formats, i.e. CD and vinyl, can be pre-ordered. The official worldwide release date will be announced at a later point in time.
https://raster-raster.bandcamp.com/album/ballades-sur-lac-gel
|
2020 |
€21.50 |
|
| |
Atotal |
CD |
New full length album of Franck Vigroux's uncompromising signature sound of colossal electronic music. Atotal gathers material from Franck's latest live A/V of the the same name. Working with his long time visual partner Antoine Schmitt, ATOTAL is an audiovisual performance aiming to reconstruct in order to better deconstruct the processes of imposition of will by repetition and absolute synchronism, to propose a breach to a potentially life-saving decoincidence. The total work of art, when pushed to its paroxysm of absolute coincidence of the perceptions of a captive spectator, is similar to the techniques of mental manipulation of totalitarian regimes, proceeding by annihilation of the critical mind, repetitive semantic pounding, subliminal messages.
The ideal of a deterministic universe of Newton in which everything rationally stems from its causes, in which everything is predictable like a totality for Laplace’s daemon, where everything can be considered already written, has been undermined in the infinitely small of the uncertainties of Heisenberg which tell us that it is impossible to know everything about a particle, in the quantum mechanics of Schrödinger which reveals to us that the looker affects the looked-at, and in the infinitely abstract of Gödel’s incompleteness which explains to us that certain things are literally unexplainable. The show ATOTAL slips into these flaws and, like a clinamen of Lucretia, deviates the visual and audio atoms from their destiny.
Mastering by Denis Blackham. Artwork by Mostafa Khaled. With the support of Adami 365
Vinyl Edition of 300 copies in matt laminated Sleeve.
11 Tracks. Running Time 55:10. UPC: 0694536563278
CD Edition of 300 copies in matt laminated 4 panel Digipak.
11 Tracks. Running Time 55:10. UPC: 0694536563285
https://aesthetical.bandcamp.com/album/atotal |
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| VIOLENT SHOGUN |
Breath and Steam |
CD |
Breath and Steam’ is the latest CD album by Rémi Dazet, the mastermind behind Violent Shogun. He's been active lately also with other projects like Hattifnattar, Cryptofascisme and Mold, which are swimming in the similar experimental noisy waters. All those projects stand on their own feet, and the releases have been well thought out and nothing less than brilliant. Nevertheless, Violent Shogun can be seen as his main project, and it's always exciting to see which directions the sound is progressing to next. Sound palette on ’Breath and Steam’ is hard to describe with usual genre definitions like ”harsh noise” or ”industrial”, as the overall atmosphere is very unique. Remi has developed his tools further and uses them skillfully for scanning the depths of his own sonic ocean. This album is very focused. It's minimal and breathtaking at the same time and not least of all, it carries a strong message
https://satatuhatta.bandcamp.com/album/breath-and-steam
"Behind Violent Shogun, we find French musician Remi Dazet. He too works (worked?) under other guises, such as Hattifnattar, Cryptofascisme and Mold, all of which are, so says the label, "swimming in the similar experimental noisy waters"; why a different name, I wondered. Violent Shogun is called his primary project, and the cover mentions the use of tape loops, Serge and Eurorack modular synths, metal junk and apathy (not sure how that translates into sound). The album is dedicated to people who have shitty jobs around the world, working for "the classist, ableist, and racist ruling elite". While hearing this music, none of this message comes through, I think. I leave it up to your discretion whether that is good or bad. The loops are the primary focus, rough and ready; they are brutal attacks, not in the harshest of senses, but instead controlled and creepy. Whatever Violent Shogun sticks on these loops is another mystery; my ideas range from field recordings to bashing. A bit of junk and the odd bleep from a synthesizer. Whatever emotions are summoned here, fun isn't one of them. Throughout these thirty-seven minutes, the overall mood is one of depression. But that is an emotion that some people thrive upon, so there is pleasure in the pain, the agony and the ecstasy, if you get my drift. I enjoyed this noisy take on lo-fi sounds, which made it stand out from the traditional flock of noise mongers." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| VISHUDHA KALI |
Prem Genocide |
CD |
Erste „Fabrik – CD“ dieses Projekts aus St. Petersburg, das ausschließlich Stimme(n) als Soundquelle einsetzt und damit rauhe, effektierte, destruktiv-emotionale Stücke aus Klang & Geschrei & found sounds (Chöre, Gesänge) schafft... damit verbunden ist eine Radikalkritik an der zerstörerischen Spezies Mensch. Spezielles Cover mit Banderole und Siegel.
First CD by this project from St. Petersburg, Russia. Raw processed voice-only tracks, destructive & emotional pieces made out of screams and feedbacks and found choirs, etc. , dedicated to the “parasite man”. Harsh and depressive at the same time.
“Prem Genocide is the first album of the one-man project from St. Petersburg. Vishuddha Kali is the art of destruction, musical project, consisting of sounds produced by man's mouth only. All the sounds on the given album are only vocal sounds of different trends of breath & speeches, forwarded through a lot of processing & distorters, but still they are the sounds of the voice only. Creative work of Vishuddha Kali is devoted to total genocide that takes place in human society. It dedicated to humanity's striving for self- liquidation & destruction. Every track is devoted to one of the stages of this destruction. All the texts being gathered together are a small letter addressed to the man, who realizes its place in the nature, who realizes himself as a small not-separated particle of the surprising manifestation of this life. CD comes in oversized foldout cover sealed with a black wax & includes 2 postcards Ltd. to 300 copies ..... Absolute masterpiece!!!” [label description]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| VIVENZA |
Realites Servomecaniques |
BOOK / CD |
"Deluxe CD book, 32 pages, pictures & texts in three languages: French, English, Japanese. 'Réalités servomécaniques' is an improved version faithful to the original recordings with visuals specially reworked, answering to a categorical assertion, theoricaly and practicaly on Vivenza's bruitist point of view, who presents sounds, 'noises', under their rawest and genuine aspect: sounds are machines / machines are sounds. Thus Vivenza captured the essence of factories with a strong sense of austerity, radicality, verticality, including thick smokes and intense darkness of industrial landscapes, as Réalités servomécaniques directly refers to the triumph but also decline of heavy industries in the 80s. The mechanics, cogwheels, forges and machines smash us in the face in a radically powerful way, being at the same time under our eyes and inside us, at the heart of our selves, in an ultra realistic way while listening. We are then, with Réalités servomécaniques, plunged in the midst the machines, and in the machines, with a surprising and striking strength. 'Machines are sounds / sounds are machines!' " [label info]
http://rotorelief.com
|
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| VLOR |
A fire is meant for burning |
CD |
Ähnlich wie THIS MORTAL COIL eine Art 4AD-Supergroup waren, bestehen VLOR aus Musikern des Labels SILBER aus North Carolina.
Die Musik: Minimale Gitarrenpickings & -riffs vermählen sich mit Electronics und anderen Instrumenten, einsame driftende & melancholisch schöne Instrumentals mit Drone-Folk- & Wave-Nähe sind dabei entstanden.... einmal singt auch JESSICA BAILIFF...
"Vlor is Silber's This Mortal Coil-like supergroup, featuring members of the roster in collaboration with label head Brian John Mitchell. Joining him in the jam-sessions are Rivulets' Nathan Amundson, Jessica Bailiff, Aaartika's Jon DeRosa, Remora's Jesse Edwards, and Lycia's Mike VanPortfleet. The music found on a fire is meant to burn is mostly instrumental, all guitars, and fits nicely between the folk/rock/drone stylings of the collaborators. At times the music is rough, such as on "Houses Not Homes" and "New Machine," other times, it's extremely hypnotic, such as on "Wires" and the rare vocals of Bailiff on "Suncatcher" makes for a nice treat amongst the focus on instrumental acumen. This is mood music for the thinking man; it's never too dull, never too flat, even though it is mainly an instrumental collection. Best moment: the gorgeous ambience of "Days Like Smoke," where Mitchell and Mike VanPortfleet turn in a Lycia-like soundscape that's extremely lush and utterly beautiful." [Joseph Kyle, Mundane Sounds]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| VOISEY, VEN (V.V.) |
Note |
CD |
"C.I.P. and crank satori are proud to announce their co-release of the first CD by v.v., "note." v.v. are the initials of Ven Voisey, a sound artist and sculptor from Oakland, California. "note" evolves as a series of meticulously crafted sound events drawn from myriad sources, including a dynamic range of hisses, crackles, and tonal hums, field recordings, electronics, and acoustic instruments. While his work has been placed in the same arena as artists such as Joe Colley (Crawl Unit) and Toshiya Tsunoda, Ven's deft composing skills and innate sense of sound elements clearly define him as an artist with a unique vision for realizing captivating and rewarding audio. Ven's previous titles on cassette and CDR has been met with critical acclaim; with the release of "note," C.I.P. and crank satori hope to introduce v.v. to a much wider and deserving audience." [label info]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| VOLCANO THE BEAR |
Classic Erasmus Fusion |
do-CD |
Was soll man zu dem britischen Quartett VOLCANO THE BEAR noch sagen? Wer auf der Suche nach überraschender & neuer, (noch) nicht klassifizierbarer Musik ist, die nicht am Computer entsteht, muss hier einfach mal reinhören!! Ihre Musik mit Einflüssen aus Folk, Drone, Avant-Rock & Impro-Jazz ist nicht nur oft irgendwie “weird” und verquer, sondern weist auch streckenweise grosse harmonische & elegante Schönheit auf... wie immer ist vokales Material omni-präsent!
“.... zeigt Antifolk flippernd zwischen Didgeridoo und Handy, Daumenklavier und elektrischer Störung, als Folklore des Absurden, die es fertig bringt, in raffinierter Unschuld zerebralen Goldstaub aufzuwirbeln..” [Bad Alchemy # 51]
„...Describing Volcano the Bear's music is about as difficult as identifying the instruments. The quartet's arsenal of gear is transcendant of time and space, culled from different cultures and different eras, from classically orchestral woodwinds (albeit sometimes just blowing through the mouthpiece) to African thumb piano, helicopter sounds, thunderstorm and rain and running water, medieval squeeze boxes, squeak toys, chirping or crying bird sounds, and Asian stringed things. While improvisation has been integral to the band's development, Volcano the Bear can always be counted on very cold-calculated and composed songs appearing on their official studio albums. Their arrangement is loose but never wanky or show-offey. Perhaps it's this lack of soloing and pretention that has kept them from appropriate recognition by some of the major experimental media in favor for a whole "free folk"/"weird rock"/"new weird America" obsession.“ [Brainwashed]
"VTB have crafted a strange geometry in their musique concrete between celestial duck honks and what sounds like a flood in the living room, there are more than a few occasions of heads cocked at the speaker in mundus caninus. Of course, this bodes well for humans, too. Augmented by all the dog friendly moments is a double album of sprawling musical invention. Record one births gently into a lo-fi-adelic Comus-like saline that even might even win over the Devendra crowd, if the Devendra crowd had ingested just a little too much mushroom tea on that day and left their ironic trucker hats at the door. Song becomes fever dream and then pitches into a barren place of low estate and low chanting whose Residents might well be Eskimos. With typical minimalist pageantry, VTB mutate from piece to piece, punctuating along the way with surprise sounds that the aforementioned dogs love so well; the kinds of quirks that make Nurse With Wound and P16.D4 records such fun listens. VTB spin some very melodious tales, which are subliminally hooky, after a fashion. Spiritual and surreal are sisters. Quiet ritualism queues with dadaistic and with progressive harmonies, together on the same fractured, out world, sing-along journey. And that's just record one. Record two crawls slowly from the echoey ooze, grows legs and then presents as a different and, in many ways, more dramatic creature. A long, shifting organ drone becomes a deeply psychedelic statement that bleats loud and strong like an acid bleached Spiral Insana or a sneaky This Heat.” [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| VOLCANO THE BEAR / LA STPO |
The Shy Volcanic Society at the Beat and Bird Parade |
CD |
"A split CD containing five tracks from Volcano the Bear and four by STPO. The French group STPO is a long existing and very underestimated group with limited releases over the years. Their history of dadaist and experimental music started in 1984. Beta-lactam Ring released and re-released some of their older material. For this release they choose four tracks that were recorded in 2003 and were not included on earlier releases. These tracks again illustrate their very odd musical universe. I admire them for staying close to their unique musical vision and language. For Volcano the Bear things are opposite in at least one aspect. Namely, they released already a bulk of records in the past. Less bizarre then STPO Volcano the Bear refer in their experimental music to folkmusic. Their compositions stay somewhere in the middle between song-structure and soundcollage. Also they are one dimensional compared to the compositions of STPO that are structured along the inimitable logic of their musical fantasies. The same for their carefully worked out arrangements. The over the top and very expressive vocal work by Pascal Godjikian is the heart of most of the tracks on this CD. Can't get enough from them." [DM, Vital Weekly]
"CD issued early May 2009 as an edition of 500 copies in a full color gatefold sleeve. A split album with Volcano the Bear and La STPO. VTB tracks 1-5 and STPO tracks 6-9. Bears and Birds, oh my! One side keeps the hot hot. And the other keeps the weird weird. VTB’s typically atypical entomological set scratches like a hive that has evolved just to the point of thumping out tribal fealties to its giant insect God-Thing. Environmentally ritualized sub-rhythms mix musique-concrete with actual concrete, forming freakishly minimal foundations for the hive of whatevers to swarm within. Noise, once again, for heroes. All this, of course, juxtaposed against France’s hidden reverse: La STPO, who absolutely let it blurt. Their pounding system of post-post-punk-neo-Zeuhl cracks the mantle, with bass lines thicker than Sequoias. And louder than screaming Sequoias. La STPO vacillates between two extreme extremes: something approximating a kind of industrial strength nouveaux bâtiments s'effondrants (German buildings are not the only ones susceptible to collapse), and crushing riffs ala SunnO))). Pascal Godjikian’s fierce grunts and barks keep the hive on the other side believing he is their God-thing. He is someone’s God-thing, that’s for sure." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
"Diese Split-CD vereint Stücke zweier experimenteller Bands, Volcano the Bear aus England und La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux aus Frankreich. Beide bieten, so viel vorweg, alles andere als leichte Kost.
Volcano the Bear zeigen sich bereits reichlich unkonventionell. Die bis auf einige textlose Lautäußerungen instrumentale Musik wälzt sich wie ein zeitlupenartiger Klangstrom aus den Boxen, ohne dabei eine rechte Form anzunehmen. Streich- und Blasinstrumente mäandern entlang, allerlei Schlagwerk rumpelt vor sich hin, dazu knurrt oder brummt ab und zu jemand, was letztlich wie ein weiteres Instrument klingt. Einige undefinierbare Geräusche vervollkommnen das Ganze. Da hört man gelegentlich schrilles Kreischen wie von einer Kreissäge, oder wurde da ein Instrument malträtiert? Wer weiß. Ein andermal spielt eine einsame Flöte (oder ähnliches) eine seltsam schiefe Melodie, nur von sporadischen Beckenschlägen begleitet, oder Blechbläser stimmen eine Art ländliche Weise an. Äußerst kurios.
So strukturlos diese Klänge sich über weite Strecken zunächst präsentieren, herrscht doch nicht völlige Planlosigkeit, es scheint doch irgendein System dahinterzustecken. Auf jeden Fall entwickelt diese Musik nach anfänglicher Skepsis eine starke Faszination.
LaSTPO agieren hier noch ein ganzes Stück avantgardistischer als auf ihren mir bisher bekannten Alben. Vor allem die Stimme von Sänger Pascal Godjikian schlägt hier noch wildere Kapriolen, es ist kaum möglich, dieses permanente Knurren, Bellen, Heulen, Brüllen, Würgen mit Worten adäquat zu beschreiben. Da glaubt man, der selige Demetrios Stratos von Area sei wieder auferstanden! Dazu liefern seine Mitstreiter Klänge, die mit dem üblichen Verständnis von Rockmusik, auch von progressiver, kaum noch etwas gemein haben. Das ist zu großen Teilen schon radikale Anti-Musik! Da knarzen Streicher in Zeitlupe, als würde ein alter Holzschrank quälend langsam über einen Dielenboden gezerrt, Bläser schnarren, Schlagwerk rasselt, bis unvermittelt eine gigantische Lärmeruption einsetzt, in der die einzelnen Instrumente nur noch durcheinander purzeln. Les Oreilles Internationales treibt es in dieser Hinsicht auf die Spitze, es wirkt wie ein einziges Konglomerat unterschiedlichster Arten von Lärm. Und immer wieder die brutalen Lautäußerungen, als deren Urheber man kein menschliches Wesen annehmen möchte.
Diese Lärmorgien sind wirklich so ziemlich das krasseste, das ich je gehört habe. In Worten lässt sich kaum beschreiben, was hier auf den Hörer einprasselt. Grandios! Mehr davon! Warum gibt es nur so wenige CDs von LaSTPO? Tipp für alle abenteuerlustige Hörer! Und wer die Gelegenheit hat, die Band live zu sehen: Hingehen! Es lohnt sich!" [Jochen Rindfrey / Babyblaue Seiten]
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| VOLGA |
Pomol |
CD |
Trancig-tribale, durchaus ungewöhnliche hypnotische und z.T. sehr wuchtige Beats, ost-europäisch anmutender weiblicher Gesang, harmonische Flächen & Instrumenteneinsatz, manchmal hat das sogar einen Orient-touch, manchmal klingt es mehr nach Electro-Wave der 80er.. . Atmosphärischer, einnehmender Avant-Pop aus Russland!
"VOLGA stammen aus Moskau, kamen 1997 zusammen und arbeiten seitdem extrem hart: auf Touren haben sie einiges der Welt gesehen und zehn Jahre nach ihrer Gründung steht mit "Pomol" ihr insgesamt siebtes (und fünftes Studio-) Album in den Startlöchern. Mit Alexei Borisov, der als bekannter Solokünstler elektronische Soundkunst erschafft, weben VOLGA einen dichten Electronica-Klangteppich, der mit bunten Mustern aus elektroakustischen Elementen, mantrischen Tanzrhythmen und traditionellen, schamanischen Folktexten glänzt. Die Texte von Sängerin Angela Manukjan stammen aus der russischen Folklore des 19. Jahrhunderts und lässt die Volksgesänge umso einzigartiger wirken. ,Pomol' ist auf der einen Seite eingängig und heimelig, auf der anderen Seite düster und akustisch kontrovers; aus den beiden Polen entsteht Musik, die das lose Konzept des Pop gründlich auf links zieht." [Cargo]
"The latest album by this Moscow-based group, scheduled to go into production anytime shortly, alongside the above release. Thirteen wonderful tracks that, helmed by the powerful, dynamic, expressive and unique voice of Angela Manukjan, sway between electronica's moody yet accessible outer reaches, folk and other traditional music, plus the same kind of sensibilities ensnared so well by
contemporary pop's more wayward souls such as Bjork and Sigur Ros." [label info]
www.lumbertontrading.com |
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| VON EULER-DONNERSPERG, DITTERICH |
Blauholz |
BOOK |
"Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg: Blauholz
Knarrende Strahlen stehen unbewegt über dem Sand. Nichts Harmloses birgt sich unter den Latschen und Kiefergliedern, denen man eigenartige Hilfslosigkeit ansieht. Schwach singt das Holz, trägt sein Lied über die Streu, die sich staubend über den müden Grund ergießt. Rindenbrot bettet sich gelassen auf die Matten, die sich längs unter die Büschel dahinstrecken.
Spitzhafer, Wegerich, allesamt dörrend, recken Flügelchen hoch, winken schwach gegen den Wind und versuchen, zu lächeln. Das Zahnweiß erstirbt unter dem Glast des Wollplunders aus Samenwolle und Brennnesselweben, deren Leuchtlunte ganze Buschzeilen deckt.
Starrer Ramsch aus Grassoden, Krüppelbüschen und Moder, der noch das tapferste Hölzlein erfaßt, um es den wuchernden Brachen einzuverleiben, steht schlafend neben den Wegen, wo sich das Streuland gegen die Ungemütlichkeit der Drögnis verteidigt. Kohlenmeiler ducken sich hasig hinter die von der Geschichte dahingespuckten Verwerfungen. Lehm kleistert die Gänge, sofern sie noch zu begehen. Der feuchte Dreck klebt krötig an den vom Morgenlicht verlassenen Hängen. Das Wechselgeschrei der Saatkrähen knarzt blechern röhrend über das wüste Hochamt aus Bodenrotz und Totenwald. Die Blödnis des Staubs, dem Niemand – nicht die Kalksenke, nicht die Sandkornbüchse, nicht der Sonnenbrand auf den Resten des Grases – Mut zum Erwachen zusprechen mag, packt und würgt voller Sanftnis und Großvaterliebe die Weiler, wo es nach Naßfäulnis wie in hundert Jahre alten Grabgruften stinkt.
MOLOKO PRINT 017 | 2015
Gestaltung: Robert Schalinski
Darstellungen aus Leichte Artellerie Fibel (1936) und Unterrichtsbuch für Soldaten (1938)
Paperback, 242 Seiten
ISBN 978-3-943603-18-7" [publishing house info]
www.molokoplusrecords.de
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Verdunkeln. Der Feind sieht Dein Licht |
BOOK |
Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg: VERDUNKELN – Der Feind sieht dein Licht!
EWIGER WALD
Wer kennt sie schon – die einsamen Wege der Welt, auf welchen es dumpf schackert und schockelt, rackelt wie gockelt? Wo der Hauklotz vom Arm des Waldmeisters widerhallt und sich der Stunkschierling still um den Schälpflug schmiegt? Wer kennt schon den Strahlenschimmel, der seine Netze auswirft, die Sporen in Zersetzung und Fäulnis verbläst und feingewirkte Latzdeckchen über den Wanderboden wirft? In der Dungstätte des geflocktstieligen Hexenröhrlings, dem auch das Kinderzerren nichts anzuhaben vermag, verflanschen sich all die verstoßenen Stinkröhrlinge und –morcheln, deren Leibesbeutel den Staub der Jahrtausende bergen und auf ihren Dungfladen die Schamfugen wetzen.
Inhalt
1. Die Pein vom Haupte trennen
2. Ich und Ich
3. Schnutbriggen
4. Kunst Statt Kunst
5. Keiler
6. Knüllungen, Wulstungen, Klumpungen
7. Entgeistung
8. Entgründung
9. Wie man einen kahlen Frosch entfedert
10. Schöne müde Welt
11. Kinder des Untergangs
12. Stube
13. Mehl
14. Ewiger Wald
Knüllungen, Klumpungen, Wulstungen. Zwischen einem Schriftsteller und seinen Lesern sollte immer Krieg herrschen: Industrial words for industrial people. Euler-Donnersperg, Sachwalter des Werkbundes und der Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien Hamburg, bekennender Kriegshetzer und Förderer von Feindseligkeiten, mit einer seiner abgestandenen Weltanschauungskaltschalen.
www.molokoplusrecords.de
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| VON HAUSSWOLFF, C.M. (CARL MICHAEL) |
Squared |
CD |
"digipak designed by Richard Francis. Ltd. to 300 copies
On “Squared”: Squared consists of two longer pieces. a) is a recording of a live performance executed at ZKM in Karlsruhe. It is an abstract piece of music that has evolved during the time the composer has performed live - since 1980. For the composer, generally, a live performance
is always the "same thing", but listening to the early recordings it occurs that the music has changed drastically - only the format is still there. This is analogue to life in general - Earth looks the same like always, but,
of course, it isn't. This piece won the Karl Sczuka Price Price in 2014. The piece is a co-production with ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe and Südwestrundfunk (SWR).
b) is a piece using the sound generated from the soil in the German cemetery in Montevideo, Uruguay. With a technique called emission spectroscopy the composer has experimented with the frequencies that emits from the actual
material in the ground and by pulling out samples from these recordings, organising them and looping some this piece became the soundtrack for the film "North Cemetery, Montevideo, Uruguay" directed by Jan Håfström, CM von Hausswolff and Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena.
Biography:
Carl Michael von Hausswolff lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden Since the end of the 70s, von Hausswolff has worked as a composer using
recording technology as his main instrument and as a visual artist using video and still photography as well as other media.
He currently curates the sound-installation FREQ_OUT (including artists like Jana Winderen, JG Thirlwell, Finnbogi Petursson, Anna Ceeh and others) and collaborates with artist Leif Elggren, film-maker Thomas Nordanstad, EVP
re-searcher Michael Esposito and author Leslie Winer. He has exhibited in documenta, Kassel, the biennials in Venice, Moscow, Liverpool, Istanbul, Sarajevo etc and in Rijeka, Stockholm, Nicosia, Tokyo, London, New York etc. His music has been played in festivals such as Sonar (Barcelona), Red Bull Adademy, CTM (Berlin), L’audible (Paris), el niche
Aural (Mexico City) etc. and released on record by labels alike RasterNoton (Berlin), Touch (London), Laton (Wien), auf abwegen (Cologne), iDeal (Göteborg) and MonoType (Warszaw).
www.cmvonhausswolff.net" [label info]
www.aufabwegen.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| VOWINCKEL, ANTJE |
Terra Prosodia |
CD |
"Sound composition with dialects and disappearing languages from Europe
With: George Cadéac, Nesa Engler, Don Eoil, Remy Graillon, Ingvar Larsson, Peter Meyer und Ingrid Wahlgren
1. Rumansch
2. Gutamal
3. Provencal
4. Wallis-Deutsch
5. Provencal
6. Gascon
8. Scottish-Gaelic
8 Tracks (33′46″)
CD (500 copies)
Currently about 6000 languages are spoken on the world. Most of them will disappear soon – and together with them a meldodic richness of human expressivness. However, the fact, that dialects and disappearing languages are only spoken by a few people has one advantage: only if one does not understand the contents it is possible to really listen tot he sound, saying far away from their homeland these languages unfold their musical enchantment (charme?). What you find are melodies that nobody invented (conceived of?). They arise in the process of impulsive speaking, on the grounds of oral tradition. Landscapes seem to continue there with melodic heights and valleys. Often single sentences remain in our heads as catchy tunes.
In Terra Prosodia people tell a short spontanuous story based on a personal experience. Stories about storms, excursions, accidents and so on. Particularly speakers who have spent their lifes in remote valleys or islands often speak with much more distinct modulation. This expressiveness gets lost quickly one cou live in a big city.
In the compositions the contents of these stories do not matter any longer. The pieces focus on the melodies in the dialects and add second instrumental or humed melodic voice. By this also the melody of the speaking voice is underlined. In the beginning the second voice will imitate the speaking voice, later becomes indpendent and follows own directions. As soon as the focus of perception is on the melody, you can listen to both lines as independent voices.
During my work I found out, that an even more exact decoding and mapping oft he intervalls (which would be possible technically) on no account lead to better results. Quite the contraray the effect of a catchy tune that occurs when you remember the melodies is based on the fact the our brain is already during hearing looking for characteristic figures and intervalls. Our ear behaves like the eye in a stalagtite cave. In a vast array of stalagtites and stalagmites we always remember nothing then typical single shapes. „Look, that looks like….“. Only this mechanism allows us to remember something of huge amount of shapes.
(Antje Vowinckel, translation: Chris Heenan)
Text by Christina Kubisch:
Many things disappear and only then gets attention. Images, texts, sounds appear in archives in audio-visual documentations in the net.
But archiving the no more living existence is partial maybe even sometimes absurd or naiv. Language only can remain vivid and interesting, if it is spoken everyday. When it is staying in a process of change, articulated by different persons, when it is depicting facts, information, thoughts, emotions and so on.
Antje Vowinckel’s Terra Prosodia makes happy and sad at the same time. The musicality of the spoken word sinks in even more by the melodical adaption as in case of pure listening of an unknown lanugage. You admire the beautiness and complexity. You instantly wish to speak one of these languages yourself for not leaving them to archivars and linguists but forward them to people who would use them in future.
In Terra Prosodia Antje Vowinckel succeeds in a wonderful mixture of a political important theme, a formally convincing process and a subtle and profound humour, that is hard to find. Once you have listened to the voices you will listen differently to spoken language in every day life." [label info]
www.gruenrekorder.de
www.gruenrekorder.de
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| VOX POPULI! / VOX 231 |
Ebats Spirituels |
LP |
Reissue of the same-titled tape, originally out in 1986 on CTHULHU Records (as CR 03).
With this release, VOX POPULI! offers, in collaboration with Pierre JOLIVET from PACIFIC 231 (as VOX 231 on this album) some deep dark atmospheres and ritualistic sounds using acoustic instruments such as flutes, cornet, guitar, trumpet, zither, as well as electronics : synthesizer and sequencer, many effects and voices. Lyrics in Persian. All material remastered.
LP comes in a limited edition to 491 copies on velvet purple vinyl including a folded 45x62 cm silk-screened poster on 120 g deluxe textured paper.
https://nuitetbrouillard.bandcamp.com/album/vox-populi-ebats-spirituels
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| VROMB |
Chorégraphie. Electro-Bruits et Tonalites Low-Fi |
CD |
"for more than twenty years the canadian project vromb a.k.a. hugo girard has masterly transformed a plethora of different inspirations into sound, resulting in a multitude of releases based on many topics. for the realization of his recent opus, girard drastically changed his approach: instead of choosing an exterior subject he wanted to transcribe the tones and voices generated in his own mind, keep hold of them and etch them onto record, and thus he is the choreographer of imaginary sounds which become physical musical entities.
'chorégraphie' demonstrates vromb's incredible skills at handling his' analog electronic equipment, which means in large part the sound manipulations are created by directly using the machines with only a little part of computer assisted sequencing, audio montages and overdubs. subliminal trance-inducing beats, mighty pulsating sub basses and repetitive sequencer textures enriched with surrealistic ambient dronescapes and hugo girard's recognizable voice generate a steady but everchanging semi-ritualistic flow which was, is, and will be associated uniquely with the sonic world of vromb.
a wonderfully composed album which allegorizes the disposal of the sounds created by an artist's inner self, and at the same time an essential listening for those with a different view. highly recommended." [label info]
www.ant-zen.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| WAKHEVITCH, IGOR |
Hathor |
LP |
"Subtitled "LITURGIE Du SOUFFLE POUR LA RESURRECTION DES MORTS", this is probably Wakhevitch's most esoteric and occult-influenced work. Some sort of dark ritual for synthesizer and orchestra inspired by Kabbalistic writings where Igor's trademark bottom heavy electronics pulse, wizz and sweep to a backdrop of heavy tribal drumming. Elsewhere, menacing and majestic spoken word passages open us the doors to the netherworld, leading you into an esoteric sound ritual that sounds spooky, virulent, powerful, droning, entrancing and mystical at the same time. Again Wakhevitch brings together disparate elements, bridging apparently unrelated musical forms and integrate them in order to deliver another unique work that sounds strangely prescient and recalling at the same time works from Mort Garson (Black Mass), Ruth White (Flowers Of Evil), Terry Riley (Surgery Persian Dervishes), Stockhausen (Stimmung), Tangerine Dream (Zeit) or early Klaus Schulze (Irrlicht)." [label info]
www.wah-wahsupersonic.com
|
2013 |
€23.00 |
|
| WARDROBE MEMORIES |
Early Years |
2 x MC |
"The first self-titled wardrobe memories album (also sometimes called '1999' in some circles) was released on CD-R with a do-it-yourself plush artwork - the first catalog number on the small underground label „schneetreiben“. with just a limitation of 20 copies this handmade item was quickly sold out. in the same year wardrobe memories released its second album „grand canyon tracks“ - again on label schneetreiben with the same strict limitation. this double cassette re-release documents the first wardrobe memories years. Comes with button-object, postcard and yellow shell coloration. Limited to 50 copies." [label info]
www.voluntarywhores.de
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| WATERCOLOURED WELL |
Arsonist's Rebirthday Audition |
CD |
"This is debut album of the german band consisting of various artists who are involved into the experimental music scene since 80s, each one is quite well known through own activity, but for this album, they gathered altogether for the first time. Seven improvised tracks are recorded in the best way of post-industrial jam sessions of the past.
Release date is 10th June 2012. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase."
www.monochromevision.ru
"The album "Arsonists Rebirthday Audition" Water Coloured Well is of one different order. Originally from Germany, but with another musical intent. Seven musicians and a visual artist came together in the Walpodenakademie in Mainz and went together to work without rules and without purpose. The result are seven improvisations and some drawings.Also here the musicians do not play over the top and are inspired by the multitude of angles and sound capabilities and achieve a surreal atmosphere. The drawings of Barbara Rössler are dynamically and related to the underwater life and not earthly. The music has the same intension. Not of this earth, but somewhere far away, where people are free to make music as they want. Two beautiful releases, highly recommended." [JKH/Vital Weekly] |
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| WENZEL, BETTINA |
Mumbai Diary |
CD |
VOICE as Instrument of Affection
Sound diaries have their seductive appeal. Unlike written memoirs, sketches, cartoons and photo journals they share a common feature with film documentaries – the temporal sound-image. Deprived of visual information (and of predominance of sight), sound-image attracts listeners’ ears, penetrates their bodies, permeates through their minds, initiating the process of imagination and articulating lived as well as imagined experiences. No escape; intrusive meanings are always present. In contrast to moving images that reduce space and vision to the surface and depth of a screen, sound-images are capable of not only extending the listeners’ universe but also making them aware of and signifying the impulses within their bodies. If combined with appropriate musical expression, as in the case of Bettina Wenzel’s Mumbai Diary, the ambition to represent the unique artistic intention in correlation with genius loci and intimacy of a place where one finds oneself in a particular moment succeeds in producing interaction.
Wenzel’s abstract voice finds proper structural support in the concrete soundscapes (of urban origin) she created from the field recordings during her artist residency in Mumbai; it bodily spaces the intervals and foldings that house voice as their natural constituent. Although we do not see her, we feel that she is singing with her entire body; it is the body which paints the vocal lines and pointillistic textures onto the surface of a sound time-crystal. The resulting form was neither composed nor improvised; it was created by affection. As we know (from Bergson and Deleuze), the affection is coupled with the body that offers the internal space for the act of affection.
Mumbai Diary is therefore not an itinerary, it does not provide listeners with any space-time coordinates or information from the life of its author. Rather it is a sound album, a collection of sound-images, thoroughly arranged by the memory as well as by the taste and style preferences of its compiler, composer and adapter in one person. She compiles out of the obsessive need to give a new meaning to the recorded fragments of her memory. She composes because she desires to manifest her relationships with the world and other people through a new meaning that is no longer dependent on the old codes and conventions of art communication and music making. And finally, she adapts the compiled and composed result to her instrument of affection – VOICE. It is the VOICE that brings into the memories of Mumbai, now embodied in the sound-images, the affection from outside – from the body of their originator. And the same VOICE generates later the affective response in the listeners, whose memories are not bound to the above mentioned genius loci. The VOICE becomes the guide through the unknown soundscape, thanks to the VOICE the soundscape becomes familiar to the listeners.
So, what can listeners hear (and feel) during the affective sound walk Bettina Wenzel invites them to? Unconventional, extended vocal performance used as a means to define herself against a foreign culture. Pleasure of the immediate need to vocalize. Barthesian grain of the voice in full effect. Expressive voice escapades against sound patterns alienated from their original environment. Improvised vocal comment to an appropriated religious song disturbed by traffic noise. Suggestive percussive textures woven from metallic sounds and breathing noises. Unidentifiable sound objects versus clear vocal intention. Unexpected juxtapositions of ambitious onomatopoeias and indeterminist formalisms. Potential stimuli to fictive narratives…
As the chronology and causal-consequent relations are no the focus of in this sound album, you can listen to its impressive sound-images-affections in random order. M.D. could stand for Mumbai Diary as well as for membra disjecta in this case.
Jozef Cseres, aesthetician of arts
September 2010
www.wenzelvoice.de
www.wenzelvoice.de/mumbai
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=553258571
mail: bettina@wenzelvoice.de
All COMPOSITIONS BY BETTINA WENZEL
FIELD RECORDINGS/ VOICE/ AKAPPAIKINNARI BY BETTINA WENZEL,
APRIL–SEPTEMBER 2009, MUMBAI
MIXED BY BETTINA WENZEL, MAI 2010, COLOGNE
MASTERED BY JOKER NIES, JULY 2010, COLOGNE
PRODUCED BY BETTINA WENZEL
PHOTOS/ DRAWINGS BY BETTINA WENZEL
Artwork BY CHRISTA MAREK
TEXT BY JOZEF CSERES
© Bettina Wenzel 2010
www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=3722 |
2010 |
€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 |
|
| WHETHAM, SIMON & FRIENDS |
Meditations on Light |
do-CD |
"In 2009 Simon Whetham was commissioned by painter Kathryn Thomas to compose a surround sound composition and installation to accompany her Darkspace project, a series of paintings inspired by the infinity of the cosmos, which was exhibited as part of her biggest solo exhibition to date, 'Lightyears'. The composition was also mixed down to a stereo version, mastered by Scanner, and released on Simon's own label, Traceable Echoes, to be available to visitors of the exhibition. Many other artists heard the work and gave praise to this departure from Simon's work up until that point, as for the first time he had composed with much more musical elements, and an idea
emerged. Simon was already planning his own reworking of the raw materials of 'Lightyears', as he felt the brief was very restrictive, and wanted to hear the results of using the same material without these constraints. He also offered the opportunity to all artists who responded positively to the work to produce their own characteristic interpretation of the composition.Here are the results; a common thread is evident, but very individual voices are heard, leading you on an immersive, engaging journey..." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| WHITE STAINS |
Singleminded Dualisms |
CD |
WHITE STAINS came into the minds of many listeners thanks to the regular debut album, recorded together with Psychic TV "Live At Stockholm". However, the history of this band and its metamorphoses goes back much further. Founded by Carl Abrahamsson, from the beginning it served as a tool for proclaiming manifestos inspired by the works of, among others, Aleister Crowley (White Stains is the title of one of the most important texts of the British magician) and other proponents of free thought. While the issues they raised were invariably focused around the subject of occultism and secret knowledge, in the musical layer the band underwent many metamorphoses: from occult/gothic rock through ambient to experimental electronics. As their style crystallized, Carl and Thomas Tibert renamed White Stains to Cotton Ferox. This publication opens the series of reissues of the Swedish group. It is a collection of all short publications that preceded their debut, recorded in the years 1987-1989 and released in the same time only on vinyl 7" and 12" EPs. So far, they have not been available on any other medium. The whole thing was provided with a proper commentary by Carl Abrahamsson, which is a great introduction to listening to the material, pointing to the context in which the compositions contained therein were created.
On the occasion of this publication, we have prepared a special collector's edition in a wooden box, limited to only 50 pieces, which, apart from the regular CD, contains various extras: cards with replicas of the original covers, a sticker, pins and a backpack (bag) with the characteristic logo of the Swedish band.
credits
released June 15, 2023
Previously released / tracks taken from:
1. Sweet Jayne*
2. Here to Do*
(1988, AOIT 001, 12” 400 copies w 40 in purple vinyl)
3. It’s Yours If You Want It*
(1988, TOPYSCAN 002 PETS, track on the compilation LP “Swedish Exotica Vol 1”, 1000 copies)
4. Express Your Desire*
5. Death At Hand*
(1989, TOPYSCAN 004, 7”, 500 copies)
6. The Energy**
7. Phase of Madness**
(1988, TOPYSCAN 001, 7”, 93 copies, with 23 copies in red vinyl)
8. The Awareness***
9. My Hallucination***
(1989, TOPYSCAN 003, 7”, 93 copies, with 23 copies in blue vinyl)
10. The Result***
11. Ov Like Mind***
(1989, TOPYSCAN 007, 7”, 93 copies, with 23 copies in green vinyl)
* Carl Abrahamsson: vocals, Jan Ekman: lead guitar, Tomas Sandell: guitar, Johan Sandell: bass guitar, Nicklas Hansen: drums
** Carl Abrahamsson: vocals, bass guitar, Jan Ekman: guitar
*** Carl Abrahamsson: vocals, Peter Bergstrandh: bass guitar, Jan Ekman: guitar, Thomas Tibert: synthesizers
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/singleminded-dualisms
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| WHITEHEAD, CHRIS |
Ravenscar |
CD |
“Ravenscar stands 600ft above the restless North Sea. To many it is simply a stopping off point between Whitby and Scarborough, commanding expansive views of the beautiful North Yorkshire coastline. Yet this place is also a canvas on which the overlapping layers of history have left their fingerprints.
The recordings that form this work were collected over two years during various seasons and in a range of weather conditions. Natural materials collected from the site were manipulated in several ways to add a sense of intimacy and perspective.
Although the piece is intended to be listened to as an unbroken whole, five distinct phases are passed through:
Wind: A consequence of Ravenscar’s exposure is its surrender to the wind which sculpts the cliff top trees and relentlessly batters the sparse buildings. Much the same prospect must have confronted the Romans when they built a signal station here in the 4th century AD.
Alum: In 1640 alum was discovered in the rocks, the production of which became the first British chemical industry. An alum works was built on the cliff top where the complex production process took place. It involved fire, seaweed and huge quantities of stale human urine.
Tunnel: When the railway came to Ravenscar in 1884, W. H. Hammond paid for a 279 yard tunnel to be built so that the view from his house was not compromised. The line closed in 1965. The disused tunnel now remains as a dark and baleful monument to the ghosts of steam.
Grass: In 1897 the Ravenscar Estate Company Ltd. began building roads, laying sewers and creating gardens. Their optimistic vision to fashion a holiday resort rivalling nearby Scarborough bore little fruit. Few plots were sold, and in 1913 the company folded leaving nature to reassert her dominance.
Radar: The stark remains of a Second World War radar station stand at Bent Rigg. Operational from 1941 to monitor shipping and aircraft, these long redundant concrete buidings are now used by sheep as a welcome refuge from the unceasing winds.” (Chris Whitehead)
www.unfathomless.net
"This Whitehead is not to be confused with the other, Gregory (of whom we haven't heard much lately, sound wise that is) and I don't think I heard music from Chris Whitehead before. He did his bunch of field recordings in a place called Ravenscar, in North Yorkshire but he also uses materials which he retrieved from the site. I looked the place up on google maps and it looks like a quiet small place near the coast. But maybe that was something I could have told you from listening to this forty-three minute work. It starts out with sea waves, it has the cracking of leaves, rusty agricultural devices (which occasionally buzz), all melted in a fine long piece that has somewhere between the twenty and thirty break (indicated on the cover as 'Tunnel') some hollow sounds, the tunnel probably, and some close range fire like sounds. It has a nice drone like texture to it. Towards the end the live farm stock plays a small role too, as well as a bit of street sounds. This is not the work of pure
sound documentation which we sometimes see in the area of music, but Chris Whitehead has perhaps (!) processed a bit of the sounds, and if not, then he surely did a more than fine job in putting all of these recordings into an excellent audio picture of that area." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| WHITEHEAD, CHRIS / ANDREA BORGHI |
Wade's Causeway / Gelazen |
CD |
SEMPERFLORENS label begins a series of Split-Discs. time will tell whether this idea good or bad. But I sincerely hope that you will accept this venture with dignity and appreciation. The series opens with two small works of...
Chris Whitehead
Chris recorder material exclusively for our label. The source of inspiration as well as workplace for this record became the abandoned Roman. This abandoned architectural monument is filled with diversity of nature's ambient sounds and Chris' reflections about the symbiosis of life and death. This is gorgeous and nuanced sound work worthy of multiple immersion to reveal the hidden at first glance facets.
Andrea Borghi
In recent years, Andrea Borghi focused on study of substitutability of material and sound. He makes sound directly from the concrete material through "discomateria". He is experimenting with different materials such as glass, plastic, metal, and more recently, marble. In discomateria one play, treated and processed and generate sound in real time. And at the same time discomateria is independent works of art. So, all tracks on this album are mainly documented pieces of process of improvisation.
format: CD in digifile ltd. 300
www.semperflorens.net/sf01sp.html
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| WHITMAN, KEITH FULLERTON |
Lisbon |
CD |
„KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN ist nicht nur irgend ein umtriebiger Musiker der seiner Zeit voraus scheint, er ist einer der Wenigen, die denjenigen, die da noch kommen mögen, neue Straßen pflastern. "Lisbon" ist bereits seine fünfte Veröffentlichung in den letzten drei Jahren und entstand auf seiner letzten Europatour im Galeria Ze Dos Bois in, genau, Lissabon. In den 41 Minuten Spielzeit vermittelt "Lisbon" einen sehr guten Einblick in die Whitmansche Herangehensweise der Live-Umsetzung seiner Idee von Musik. Aus diese Zusammenführung synthetischer als auch organischer Elemente lässt WHITMAN mit "Lisbon" einen atonalen, düster, dynamischen Monolithen erwachsen. WHITMAN war nach langer Tour ausgebrannt und mit Tinitusproblemen in Lissabon angekommen und wand sich frisch inspiriert vom Zauber der portugiesischen Hauptstadt neueren Klangforschungen zu, bei denen er neue Aufnahmetechniken entwickelte und erprobte. Eine Zeit, in der sich auch seine Herangehensweise, weg vom ausgefeilten, perfektionistischen hin zum Fehler und Natürlichkeit zulassenden wandelte.//
Those of you who have been lucky enough to get a copy of the recent "22 Minutes for Electric Guitar" tour-only mini-cd on Entschuldigen may have an idea of just where my head's been at over the past year or so regarding the evolution of the "Playthroughs" system of live/real-time guitar/computer synthesis; the piece I often play in concert has gradually been getting much darker, more dynamic, and in general; monolithic. I've started to embrace traditional "loud guitar" concepts (via a collection of bizarre, home-made/boutique guitar pedals) along with the sine-tone throb and "slow aerosol dispersion" of the classic "Playthroughs" material. More recently, I've augmented the pure-guitar sound(s) with a collection of small, battery-powered sound-devices and several tapes of "automatic synthesizer compositions" (recorded this past summer on the same Serge Modular Protoype and Buchla Music Box 100 systems used on Multiples) and field recordings from all over god's green earth. Finally, on top of all that I've re-kindled my love of Alvin Lucier-lineage process music by placing microphones and small speakers / fm receivers / speakers around the space, capturing the sounds as they occur at various points in the room, feeding them back through the central artery that is the max-msp-based playthroughs patch, then out again to any number of locations... This recording, captured to hard disk on stage at Galeria Ze Dos Bois on October 4th 2005, is in my mind the perfect encapsulation of all of these elements into a single lilting piece of static sine-tone harmonics, squared-off electric guitar haze, clangorous roomtone eruptions, and high-end synth freakouts...” [Cargo / press release]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| WICKED MESSENGER |
Officium Nocturnum |
do-CD |
"Each disc has its own catalog number, Plague 017 & Plague 018, and is housed separately in smartly designed cardboard jacket.
Do not file under dark ambient.
Tracklisting
1-1. Movement I (27:38)
1-2. Movement II (26:57)
2-1. Movement III (51:27)" [label info]
Reviews
"Some important dates and facts ...
539 bc: Cyrus II The Great concurs Babylon.
June 11th 323 bc: Alexander The Great dies.
64: Saint Peter dies in Rome.
June 8th, 632: Mohammed dies in Medina.
April 2, 747: Charles The Great is born in Herstal.
November 10th, 1483: Luther is born in Eisleben.
June 22nd, 1812: Napoleon declares war to Russia.
1913: Luigi Russollo introduces his "Intonorumori" to the world.
1959: Ornette Coleman releases The Shape Of Jazz To Come on Atlantic.
1986: Hellbastard releases their Ripper Crust demo.
March 2010: Wicked Messengers double CD Officium Nocturnum is released on Plague Recordings.
2013: The BBC broadcasts a documentary about undercover reporters that have filmed in dark rooms, watching 70 year old Catholic priests doing a bizarre occult ritual. Is it drugs? Is it a spiritual experience? Is it a religious experience? Questions that are not asked by the reporter but are asked by the music that accompanies this documentary. Music that makes you start to think about what is and what is not. The kindergarten-version of this documentary uses Sunn O)))'s Monoliths & Dimensions as soundtrack. The adult version of the documentary uses Officium Nocturnum as soundtrack.
2023: Vinyl-on-demand releases a Wicked Messenger 6XLP box.
3078: The human race is exterminated.
That's it folks."
(mudbirdshivers.blogspot.com)
***
"A new direction for Mr Messenger, evocative of medieval europe, the inquisition, dark monasteries, fire, torture and death. Followed by cataclysm, disaster and doom. It is intriguing, unsettling and hypnotic all at the same time and I really enjoy it.
New sound elements are very welcome such as church bells, monk chanting etc as well as the general mass destruction we have come to enjoy from WM. I was surprised by the spoken word section on the second movement but fascinated by the dark tones from a sacred text.
I'm glad that WM has continued to produce excellent work and it is a departure from the last album Vision Rites, showing that there is continued innovation in the areas of deep dark horror soundscapes and Grand Ambient.
Congratulations!"
(B.L.Underwood, UK)
www.plaguerecordings.com
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| WICKHAM-SMITH, SIMON |
Love & Lamentation |
CD |
Eine kaum zu beschreibende, faszinierende Klangwelt (basierend auf Bearbeitungen von vokalem Material) betritt man auf der neuen CD von SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH. Ob er ein buddhistisches Gebet verfremdet, einen poetischen Text von mehreren Personen gelesen multipel übereinanderlegt, oder Klagegesänge von Psalmen mit dem Sazspiel & der Stimme des türkischen "Troubadours" ASIK VEYSEL SIRSOGLU auf seltsamste Weise verbindet: stets schafft er so ungewöhnliche Ergebnisse dass man das Gefühl hat, etwas derartiges garantiert noch nie vorher gehört zu haben - auch die emotionale Wirkung beim Hören hat etwas ungeahntes, noch nicht eindeutiges...
"... Its not easy to describe the music of Wickham-Smith, both from how it was made and how it sounds. Perhaps he uses a computer to alter his sounds, but I tend to believe that's only in the final stage of the process. I envisage his music as generated with lo-fi means: worn out cassettes, cheap samplers, reel-to-reel tape loops. There are three pieces on this album, all of which seem to be dealing with voices, altered and otherwise. Wickham-Smith takes these, makes loops out of them and crafts a minimalist changing pattern with them. Through the various techniques, which I hope to be lo-fi as outlined before, the sounds are a bit hissy, static, crumbled, warped, folded and of a lower resolution. Chanting like in 'Sandokai' or the three parts of the title piece, or more poetry spoken word in 'The Kin-Kindness Of Beforehand', this is all excellent stuff, bringing back the good memories of his older work (which, if Vital Weekly wouldn't consume so much of my ear-time, I would grab out and play again). Wickham-Smith's music is like an anthropologic quest for voices connected of rituals, all over the world, from Tibet to Egypt, but he manages to give things a twist of his own, while maintaining a zen-like character to them. Great one." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"... The "Sandokai" ("The Harmony of Difference and Equality") is a prayer written by the eighth century Japanese Zen teacher Sekito Kisen. The basis for this piece was a tape given to Wickham-Smith by a nun of a recital at her monastery. He wanted to create of this sample a prayer without borders, a follow-up to an earlier work, Ave Regina Caelorum (2000, released on Extreme Bukake [VHF65]), in which he used the Latin plainsong of a prayer to the Virgin Mary in much the same way. The organ sample at the end is from a piece by Erik Satie, whose spirituality was equally strange and eclectic. All the samples have been stretched and pitch-shifted beyond (immediate) recognition; to the ears they have melded into something that seems at once both ethereal and solid.
"The Kin-kindness of Beforehand" grew out of his "Multiple Tongues" project, a series of pieces in which Wickham-Smith exposed the spoken word in many different languages to a series of digital manipulations. The Kin-kindness of Beforehand is divided up into several distinct sections, each of which took on a particular persona during its creation. For the composer, this was the most complex of all the "Multiple Tongues" works, because he wanted to use specific strings of words and the quality of writer Rachel Becker¹s voice somehow to comment on each another.
"love & lamentation" started life as a setting for voice and electronics of part of the biblical Book of Lamentation, but it quickly became clear that the literal setting of words was not going to convey the melancholic intimacy that needed to be expressed. As a teenager Wickham-Smith had heard Alain Gheerbrant¹s wonderful ethnomusicological recordings of a blind Turkish troubador and had fallen hopelessly in love with his voice and exquisite playing of the saz. About the same time, through his friend Richard Youngs, he had discovered also the ex tempore psalm singing of the Scottish Isle of Lewis. Fifteen years later, he decided that these two could be made somehow to work together to show the love and lamentation which he felt they both held in their deeper recesses, and which he wanted to present in this new piece. The result is a strange melée of feelings, repetitions and textures. From time to time we hear a somewhat bizarre percussion sample, which he had first worked on in 2000. Part 3 opens with an offcut from an unreleased (and now never-to-be-released) piece from 1999 called Deaf Piano. Veysel¹s voice starts the piece and revolves through Part 2 in a kind of hippy trance love-in fashion. The congregation from Lewis sing their melancholy in a sparser and maybe wilder ways and die slowly away into the distance at the close." [label info]
www.pogus.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| WOLFSKIN FEAT. OBJEKT4 |
The hidden Fortress: A Revisitation |
CD |
"Wolfskin is one of Europe's finest and most original ritual ambient acts. Over the years they, along with their partners of Forgotten Blood, are surely responsable for putting Portugal on the dark-ambient map. 'The Hidden Fortress' is both their first and last output: originally released as a cassette tape back in 1995, Johan Aernus decided to close the Wolfskin circle with a remastered and partially re-recorded edition of that same record. On his last journey to the hidden fortress, he took a companion with him: Swedish audio-genius Objekt4 gave the whole record a new life & dynamic. This record was years in the making, no risks were taken to prevent this from becoming a worthy testament for one of the most exciting dark-ambient acts Europe has known." [label info]
www.neuropa.be
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| WOLLSCHEID, ACHIM |
60xX |
CD |
Soundmäßig wohl das zugänglichste Material, das der Frankfurter Konzeptkünstler bisher produziert hat. Digital verwobene found sound-Wellen, v.a. Streicher, vermischen sich mit Störgeräuschen in endlosen, ratternden Kaskaden.. immer in Bewegung und Veränderung. Sehr vital und geräuschhaft schön ! Als Soundquelle dienten seine eigenen Radiosendungen..
„ While the common modes of broadcasting, distributing and listening to sound seem to be changing rapidly it may make sense to tune into that process and give way to a flexible organisation of sonic structures - 60 x X bases on my monthly broadcast on Radio X, Frankfurt a.M. (www.radioX.de) I use all available players at the radiostation to play different records, CDs and cassettes from my archive at the same time. The resulting layered stream of sound is re-structured and re-composed by a real-time computer-program. Composition thus becomes a method to select, transform and develop sonic presence on the brink or randomness. This ritornell CD is a re-structured version of recordings from such
broadcasts. The first 60 min of 60 x X was broadcast on resonance fm, London in 2002. (www.resonancefm.com). This ritornell CD (post-produced at FTF Studio, Frankfurt a.M.) is the
second edited version - evenly underlaid by a grid of indexes that separates the sonic stream into 60 pieces. - (both shuffle mode and sequential play are recommended). Artwork by Charly Steiger.” [press release]
|
2003 |
€13.50 |
|
| WORBY, ROBERT |
Factitious Airs (Electronic Music) |
LP |
This LP by Robert Worby (Langham Research Centre) focuses on recorded sound and structures made with recorded sound. How the original sound was produced and the objects used in the production of the sounds is of secondary interest. Tiny details in the sounds are important and what might appear to be insignificant, dull or uneventful is often salient. Acute, obsessive listening brings these elements to the fore.
In the process of making these structures, meaning begins to emerge and unfold. This is always highly subjective, ambiguous and uncertain and might fleetingly resonate with many ideas, objects, narratives and situations that are not connected with sound.
Inspiration often comes from existing music but also from the entire history of ideas and, again, a tiny detail might produce a kind of creative resonance. Curiosity is predominant and drives forward the process of composition.
"Can a music made with the modern tools of digital music and contemporary production sound eerily as if created with the same equipment that Stockhausen, Henri and Berio all availed themselves of in the radio studios of the 50s and 60s – and yet sound bright and fresh to the ears of today's listeners? Robert Worby shows us how, with Factitious Airs." — Carl Stone
|
2020 |
€25.00 |
|
| WORLD DOWNFALL |
When the World ends |
CD |
"Steeve Bouchard with 12 new tracks from WORLD DOWNFALL / this album is a nightmare of power-electronics / last track is a collaboration with BARRIKAD." [label info]
"...Have you ever listened to a harsh noise PE album that actually manages to make you feel slightly light-headed? Well, this latest effort from Steeve Bouchard’s (Bleak Existence) World Downfall project achieved just that very thing with me. After listening, on headphones, to the sound of rasping industrial machines drilling into my pleasure centres and boring them out for something close to an hour, I almost felt like I was just about to burst through to a higher form of consciousness – either that or my brains were attempting to dribble out of my ears. All flippancy aside, this is a harsh, unforgiving album, simple in execution but devastating in effect. Utilising a very Whitehouse-esque line of attack, with most of the tracks consisting of a buzzing, rasping backing of grating electronics, augmented here and there with industrial strength machine noises and topped off with distorted vocals, both spoken and shouted, it’s in essence a very direct aural assault. It’s unrelenting and not for the faint-hearted; and in some respects requires a feat of endurance on the part of the listener, as after a while the sameness of a lot of the tracks can become something of a monotone blur. Occasionally even I found myself losing the thread somewhat...." [S:M:J63 / Heathen Harvest]
www.lwhite-records.de
|
2008 |
€6.00 |
|
| WRIGHT, PETER |
An Angel fell where the Kestrels hover |
CD |
"An Angel Fell Where The Kestrels Hover started life as the second part of a two album reflection on my emotive responses to seasonal changes, both in a personal sense and also a more social and geographical sense. My double CD Snow Blind, recorded at the same time and released earlier this year on Install, captures the foreboding darkness and gloom of winter, whilst An Angel Fell... focusses on the spring and summer months, and as a result has a generally sunnier disposition.
Obviously there's a direct literal interpretation at work here, the music is brighter and more melodic, perhaps even sensual, without as much harsh discordance that is predominant on Snow Blind. On 'Lavender Buzz' the seasonal inspiration is most literal, where the foundation of the piece is from a strategically placed microphone in the middle of a clump of lavender plants recording bees collecting nectar from the flowers. But also, as the music was actually recorded during the summer I only had to look out the window or take a walk in the nearby Streatham Common to get a sense of the type of almost lazy sounds I wanted to create. Ironically, this was also one of the wettest July's on record in the UK and the frequency of the often violent thunderstorms also tainted my creative thoughts, neatly juxtaposing light and dark textures.
Aside from the weather, location was also an important factor. I made these recordings in London, England, where my wife and myself were living at the time. This is an album heavily influenced by living in that sprawling, chaotic urban jungle, as most of my last few releases have been. Reflections on physical and mental space are frequently wrapped up in the sounds I make, even at their most abstract. London was my home for nearly 6 years and this was the last recording I made consciously referencing and musing on the city before we moved back to New Zealand in 2008. In many ways it represents the closing of a circle that started with my first UK-based recordings that appeared on Yellow Horizon (PseudoArcana, 2004).
The titles I come up with for my music can be fairly oblique, often abstract and meaningless, but they can reflect my mood at the time I make the sounds themselves. Sometimes they are socially or politically motivated, sometimes very personal and inward-looking. At their most poetic they can be a substitute for lyrics, but the titles are not necessarily designed to lead the listener into a particular train of thought when listening to the sounds. The album title, An Angel Fell Where The Kestrels Hover, was one of the first I came up with when previewing my early mixes on headphones sitting in a South London meadow watching a kestrel circling high above looking for field mice in the long grass. I could immediately see a connection to the birds movements and the way my music drifts and floats. The kestrel's hovering flight, almost like a hummingbird, beating it's wings and making minute adjustments in the wind, allowing it's head to remain absolutely still to enable it's sharp eyes to spot movement in the ground metres below is amazing to watch. And I liked the idea that maybe it could see something in the grass that us mere mortals can not, like a fallen angel." [Peter Wright]
www.spekk.net
|
2009 |
€15.50 |
|
| 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 |
|
| X-NAVI:ET |
Brain Overloaded |
CD |
"The album is dedicated to William S. Burroughs - one of the most enlightened minds of the era in which we are to live. The author of the paintings used on the cover is Ewa Bińczyk, an artist from Toruń.
Performed, recorded and mixed by Rafał Iwański
2008-2011, studio Eter, Toruń, Poland
limited to 444 hand-numbered copies
packaged in ecopack + postcard" [credits]
www.zoharum.com
"Rafal Iwanski is the man behind X-Navi:et, but also the man behind Hati and to his personal use he has analog filter machines, analog synthesizer, digital drummer, electronic effects, sampling unit field recordings, acoustic objects and microphones. All of the pieces were recorded over a period of three years before it was finally edited to this release. Like Rale (see elsewhere) this is at that same cross road of noise, improvisation, musique concrete, drone and such more, but throughout it doesn't seem to match Rale (or various others). X-Navi:et's music is a bit more noisier, a bit more single minded and a bit less worked out. X-Navi:et goes for the bigger picture, in single colors and lacks the refinement of others in this field. However I thought this was quite a nice one too, as it moves around, shifts that particular field of music upwards and towards the area of noise perhaps and makes a release that I do quite like for what it is: a sturdy, monolithic work of mild noise." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Dead City Voice |
LP |
"Dead City Voice" is the second vinyl album by Rafał Iwański aka X-Navi:Et(of HATI, Voices of the Cosmos, KAPITAL, Innercity Ensemble fame). It's the follow-up to acclaimed "Soundtracks for the Dying Moments" LP released on Instant Classic last year. It contains 6 new electroacoustic compositions recorded from 2010 to 2013.
The theme of the city has appeared in the modern art territory quite a few times before. Wim Wenders, a cult German director, once said that "thecity shapes people, leaves its stigma on them and deforms them to its own likeness." Murray Schafer, a Canadian composer, while working on the concept of "soundscape", claimed that many of the surrounding sonic incidents infiltrates the music of our times. Following the footsteps of Charles Baudelaire among others, urban artists, Rafał Iwański and Ewa Bińczyk, replayed the city, penetrated its spirit and echoed it in their activities. Telling the city by means of sound and vision is becoming an inward journey as well.
Inside the cover one can also find the literary text by Dariusz Brzostek (Ph.D. at the University of Toruń, Poland) - a literari, anthropologist and music journalist who has collaborated with many magazines, such as Glissando, Trans/Wizje, Antena Krzyku, Teksty Drugie, Magazyn Fragile.
Visually the album is of the highest value. The gatefold cover is adorned with works by Ewa Bińczyk. Additionally, a special edition of 33 copies will include genuine intaglio prints signed by the author making it a true collector's item.
The album was released by Zoharum in collaboration with Eter Records, a label set up by Rafał Iwański to release music by his projects X-Navi:Et, HATI, Voices of the Cosmos in digital and analogue formats.
The album is released in a gatefold cover in a strictly limited edition of 250 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"On vinyl, in a fine fold out cover, we find Hati's Rafal Iwanski's solo project X-Navi:et. Both this and his Hati project are quite active when it comes to releasing music, so you could wonder: do they ever sleep? The main concept behind the six pieces on his new LP is the 'city', but not in a very strict sense I would think. This is not twice 20 minutes of city sounds, or something like that set to music, but pieces that depict the sounds of city through musical means. He uses analog filter machine, analog synthesizer, sampling pad, loop system, hulusi, bells, rattles, metal objects, field and found recordings and effects. Me think that a lot of the acoustic sources here have been sampled and treated extensively before finding their place inside a composition. Take for instance 'Tinnitus Auris': the tinkling of bells are the sounds that a lorry makes when trying to park. Next to that we hear a conveyer belt like sound - the other cars on the same street. Below that is a fiery drone-ventilation shafts on the side walk. That's what I heard. In the other pieces there is a similar liveliness, which we find a big cities - not in the street where I live, and not many cars or people pass on an ordinary working day. But of course all of this is easily said, when you look at the title(s), the picture, the text and such like and make these connections with a big city. I wonder what someone would imagine playing this music as it is, without knowing these references; it might not be the city. But who cares about that? We know what it is about and it's the gesamtkunstwerk that counts. This is a beautiful record of some fine, dark ambient music, with a nice industrial touch to it, very occasionally. Great release!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| XENAKIS, IANNIS |
Persepolis |
LP |
"Format: 180gr LP incl. 4c insert + DL code / download
Release date: march 2nd 2018
After “La Légende d’Eer” in 2016, the PERIHEL series presents one of the milestones of electroacoustic music: IANNIS XENAKIS’ mindblowing 54-minutes oeuvre “Persepolis”, mixed from the original 8 track tapes by MARTIN WURMNEST and mastered / cut by RASHAD BECKER.
“Persepolis” is the longest electroacoustic composition by IANNIS XENAKIS (1922-2001) who ranks among the most influential 20th century avantgarde composers. Commissioned by the Persian Shah, the piece was part of a multimedia performance – XENAKIS’ so-called “polytopes” – which premiered in 1971 in Shiraz-Persepolis (Iran) as a performance including light-tracks, laser beams, groups of children walking around with torches and 59 loudspeakers to project the music in an open-air situation.
XENAKIS had realized “Persepolis” on 8-track analogue tape in the Studio Acusti in Paris and released a stereo reduction on vinyl in the famous Philips series “Prospective 21e Siècle” in 1972, adding the new subtitle “We bear the light of the earth”, his most hymnal title ever.
Out of print for decades now, the LP became – especially the Japanese edition from 1974 – one of the most expensive collector’s item of electroacoustic music. There were some later CD versions with different durations – too long due to a wrong sample rate, others shortened by 3 minutes due to other reasons. The PERIHEL series now presents a new version: mixed from the original (!) master 8 track tapes by longtime zeitkratzer sound engineer MARTIN WURMNEST and mastered by RASHAD BECKER at D&M, Berlin – the same experts who had already taken care of the 2016 KARLRECORDS release of “La Légende d’Eer”, another milestone composition among the works of the Greek-French avant-garde composer."
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| YANAGISAWA, EISUKE |
Into the Cave |
CD-R |
"On the same label more field recordings by Eisuke Yanagisawa, who, this time, recorded sounds in a lime stone cave. Water sounds resonate all over the place. The six pieces document these resonant, echoing drops of water from various points and rooms in these caves. Sometimes close by, sometimes a bit further way. Thirty-seven minutes of dripping sounds make you look, rather nervously for the bathroom, but the recordings themselves are actually quite nice. As said, this is very much a document of said place, and no interference took place to 'do' something with the recordings. Things are presented as they are, and that's it. Only the last piece sound 'different': much darker due to the fact hydrophonic microphones were used. A nice work for sure." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.licht-ung.de
|
2012 |
€9.00 |
|
| YELLOW6 |
Melt Inside |
CD |
"After 7 years and almost 50 releases on nearly as many labels (Enraptured, Ochre, Rocket Racer, to name but a few), Yellow6 returns after a 2 year break with a new album, Melt Inside. While retaining the melodic, enveloping guitar soundscapes of previous releases, Melt Inside is different in one key element. On this occasion, Jons mesmerising, minimalist, guitar-based arrangements are enhanced by the divine vocals of Ally Todd.The album features 9 tracks, composed and recorded between Lund, Sweden and Leicestershire, UK during 2004-5. But it is more than simply a collection of songs. These are vibrant, emotional stories of love and loathing, of mystery and intrigue, of despair and elation. With her deep and, at times, bizarre lyrics, and the ability to switch from sounding sultry and sexy to quite menacing, often within the same song, Ally brings a completely new dimension to Yellow6." [label info]
www.makeminemusic.co.uk |
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| YEN POX |
Deliver (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
this newcomer sets your mind in fire with the most alien and deepest possible spacey landscape - not from this world
"LIMITED+NUMBERED FIRST EDITION OF 250 COPIES.
RED VINYL, HANDMADE SILK-SCREENED COVERS
THIS DUO FROM THE U.S. MAY BE KNOWN ONLY TO VERY FEW LISTENERS OF EXTREME MUSIC SO FAR. YEN POX ONLY RELEASED ONE FULL-LENGTH-TAPE IN 1994, WHICH WAS SO AWE INSPIRING THAT DRONE RECORDS DECIDED TO RELEASE A FIRST 7" AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. IN THE MEANTIME, YEN POX ALSO APPEARED ON THE OUTSTANDING CD-COMPILATION "INVISIBLE DOMAINS" (MALIGNANT RECORDS) - THE SAME LABEL THAT HAS JUST RELEASED THEIR DEBUT-CD. THE YEN POX SOUND CAN BEST BE DESCRIBED AS DEEPLY DRONING POLY-DIMENSIONAL SOUNDSCAPES, RATHER DREAMSCAPES, THAT TRANSPORT THE LISTENER THROUGH ALIEN, DARK AN SURREAL ATMOSPHERES, COMBINED WITH A KIND OF STRANGE ENERGY THAT DOESN'T LET YOU STAND STILL. THE TWO TRACKS ON THIS E.P.,'DELIVER' and 'REMOVE' SHOW YEN POX WORKING IN THE MOST DARK, GLOWING AMBIENT MOOD POSSIBLE. THIS IS STIRRING FOOD FOR YOUR BURNING SOUL!
"LET ATMOSPHERE SPEAK THROUGH THESE UNIQUE
POLY-DIMENSIONAL SOUND-WAVES"
DRONE RECORDS DR-15/ DECEMBER 1995 |
1995 |
€ |
|
| YOUNG GODS, THE |
The Young Gods Play TERRY RILEY in C |
do-LP + CD |
The Young Gods release a record with Two Gentlemen, Play Terry Riley In C. Needless to say this is a fertile meeting between two monuments who have helped shape the cutting-edge music of the last few decades. Terry Riley, born in 1935, is the cornerstone on which a considerable number of artists have relied to liberate their relationship to the process and methods of creation. In the same way, The Young Gods revolutionized, from the second half of the 1980s, their relationship with rock music by converting guitars into samplers. Composed and premiered in 1964, In C is a major piece in the contemporary music repertoire of the second half of the 20th century, and a pivotal moment in its history. The score for In C is reduced to 53 musical phrases, which each musician must repeat in the order in which they appear, as many times as he or she wishes; the instrumentation is not specified; the impetus for the performance is not given by an orchestral direction, but by the musicians listening to one another. A perfectly open work, In C was the first work to offer a successful synthesis of repetition and variation. The Young Gods first approached In C in 2019 at the invitation of Benedikt Hayoz, director of the Landwehr wind orchestra in Freiburg -- this resulted in a performance of the work with 85 musicians. Other approaches were made with Ensemble Batida, a Geneva-based contemporary music collective, with the dance company Alias, and with the documentary filmmaker Peter Mettler, for his film Petropolis. In this album, The Young Gods offer a new interpretation of In C, as a trio and with their own sound vocabulary -- electronic instruments, drums, and guitars. They have chosen to follow the score and Terry Riley's indications, while allowing for some additional freedom, for example in terms of managing the sound intensity -- which evolves, in several long cycles, from almost silence to eruption and back again. They have also chosen to maintain a constant tempo throughout the live performance by building up a hypnotic flow and a continuous musical presence that meanders and oscillates in perpetually changing rings and atmospheres that transform in a perfectly fluid manner. By developing through a series of crescendos and decrescendos, by playing on the repeated addition and removal of musical phrases, by working sensitively on the sound quality (timbre, grain, alterations) of its elements, the piece aligns a series of ascents, ecstatic plateaus and lulls that give the work as a whole all the characteristics of a living form. Double LP version includes CD."
https://www.twogentlemen.net/products/the-young-gods-play-terry-riley-in-c-2/
https://theyounggods.bandcamp.com/album/the-young-gods-play-terry-riley-in-c
|
2022 |
€32.00 |
|
| Z'EV |
live 03.01.86 |
10inch/object |
Z’EV is back! Z’EV is more than back ! Nicht nur war der legendäre Klangkabbalist in 2004 wieder auf Tour in Deutschland, es sind auch diverse neue Sachen erschienen. Von der Coverartwork am eindruckstvollsten ist sicher diese live-10“ mit einer Aufnahme aus Chicago 1986, denn sie kommt in einem schweren Metall-Cover in 333er Auflage, wobei die Nummer der Edition in jede der Metallplatten einzeln eingraviert wurde! Z’EVs unkonventionelles 1-Mann Metall & Gong-drumming, das sich auf den KLANG und die DYNAMIK konzentriert und nicht aufs Metrum, ist wohl einmalig zu nennen... und genauso sollte man sich auf seine Sounds wohl auch einlassen und sie betrachten: nicht als Komposition, welche es zu analysieren gilt, sondern als Klangalchemie, welche das Selbst in Schwingung versetzt...
„Three excerpts from a 1986 performance at N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago. Given the special packaging with this release, it was essential to have the audio component be as special. After listening to a handful of unreleased material Z'EV had given me and comparing it to his released work, I found this performance contained elements I'd not heard developed in previous releases. For one, the components of the pieces shifted quicker; he'd add new instruments and rhythms at more frequent intervals, say 3 to 4 minutes, giving a continuous piece (still between 9 and 12 minutes) a much different dynamic than other recordings. This is presented on side one, and the piece features one of the few instances I've heard where there is a secondary, or "triggered," percussive element. In this case, something akin to ball bearings were placed on a gong, adding a second layer of rhythm as Z'EV worked the gong. This is similar to his well-known car spring on bass drum pieces. Side two opens with one of the few live recordings of Z'EV's rubbing pieces (scraping a metal tube/pole or rubbing a rubber ball on a sheet of metal to make dronish, almost whale-like sounds) which segues into a subtle tonal wash of gong sounds. The final piece on side two is a rapid fire downpour of furious percussion. A unique addition to Z'EV's output, this release comes in an edition of 333 copies in steel plates. Each plate is sequentially hand-stamped, and each copy has an insert signed by Z'EV.”[label info] "Also by Z'ev, but from a historical perspective is a really beautiful 10": packed inside two metal plates which are stamped with 'Z'ev' and the copy number (of a total edition of 333 copies). It resembles that other metal packaging, by Chop Shop from so long ago. Crippled Intellect has released a 3" with historical live recordings before and this 10" features recordings made at the N.A.M.E. Gallery in Chicago in 1986. On the first side there is a rhythmic piece, which doesn't sound like it is kept in the same rhythm, but rather like an exploration of the sounds metal on metal can produce. Side B starts with slow rumbling of metal sheets being rubbed with balls which built in a peaceful way. The second piece is a fast drumming on metal piece‹maybe better known as Z'ev trademark playing. A fine addition to the already vast catalogue of material by Z'ev of which much is no longer available. It could also serve as a fine introduction to his work, in case you missed him out in the eighties." [Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly #411]
|
2003 |
€22.00 |
|
| |
Production and Decay of spacial Relations vs. Reproduction and Decay of Spatial Relations |
do-CD |
"Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the very first Z'EV studio album which originally came out on Backlash in 1981, DIE STADT is proud to announce the re-release of 'Production and Decay of spacial Relations' for the first time on CD. It features the original seven tracks from the vinyl plus six 'recodings' entitled 'Reproduction and Decay of spatial Relations' made by Z'EV in May/June 2005.
Back in the day Z'EV used to bring boxes over from Holland when he would come back to New York City which he would sell to Bleeker Bob (a famous Record Shop situated in the East Village of NY) who told him: "this is the best industrial record ever and I sell it to every japanese buyer who comes into the store". The CD is housed in a reproduction of the original LP (!) cover and comes with a special handmade insert. First edition of 500 copies. Total playing time: 79'57 min." [press release]
"...This was z'ev's first studio LP from 1981, recorded and released in Rotterdam on a curious and regrettable long forgotten experimental music label Backlash Records (who also released Tuxedo Moon and Nyrabakiga). Up to that point z'ev in various guises just released live recorded material. It is where the interests of z'ev started to mingle: the live playing of percussion and the studio techniques, which he used in several other projects, such as Stefan Weisser. I don't what the studio of Backlash looked like, but it's a pretty interesting production. The sound gets processed, slowed down, but then new layers are added and strange muffled but strong rhythmic sounds occurs. None of the original power has been lost here. It was in its day
already a masterpiece of 'industrial' music, and still is. On the same CD all the material gets a treatment in 2005, through some of the techniques z'ev uses these days. The layers are much thicker and fatter and lays less on the rhythm aspect. It makes this a great document. And with the first 500 copies there is also a second CD with three pieces from 1982. The first one is a live piece of metal percussion, which gives an idea what it sounded like in the day: raw and untamed. The second piece is a sound poetry/tape piece of heavily layered voices and 'Element/L' is a highly deformed piece of layered percussion, until it becomes an engine like sound." [FdW /Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€16.00 |
|
| Z'EV & JULIEN OTTAVI |
Crash & Cross |
CD |
In 2009 at Area10 in London, our mutual friend Kasper T. Toeplitz introduced Z’EV (1951 - 2017) with his percussion to me (Julien Ottavi) during a David Tudor’s Rainforest IV performance that I was organising at that time with the support of Apo33.
Even though we had played a couple of gigs before in London and Nantes, the real start of our collaboration was when we toured together in 2011. In 2014, Z’EV came to live in Nantes and we spent time playing music together, mainly working with Orgone Nantes Percussion on a Z’EV piece for percussion. We worked on some recordings mixed live and studio sessions that had been put together over the year after 2015. We used both percussion recordings and live music that were sometimes processed and other times not. We spent a whole year recording bits and pieces that were assembled together during a few months. The idea was to create a release that will cross the different aspects of our collaboration, together, live, recorded, in the same place, sometimes in different places. The aspects of composition were really strong as we worked on each other's materials through exchanges about the way to mix it and arrangement of the multi-track recordings. Some parts of the live materials were recorded as stereo, and the most interesting parts were cut and assembled. Even today, it is difficult to say which one is live and which one is not. But does it really matter?
https://4ibrecords.bandcamp.com/album/zev-julien-ottavi-crash-cross |
2022 |
€14.00 |
|
| Z1// |
Drone Works # 1 |
maxi-CD-R |
"Since we greatly enjoy drone/ambient/dream Muzak a new CDr series called Drone Works has just been launched here at DANHUSER Org.
Each release contains one lengthy track and will be treated with the same hand-crafted, generic packaging as above. The series of course will be limited/unlimited, as we produce a first run of, let’s say twenty copies, and if there should be demand for more, we will produce yet another one and another one and so on and so on. Of course every follow-up edition will be marked as “The 2nd, 3rd, 4th Edition” etc. Apart from that there will be no difference." [label info]
http://danhuser.wordpress.com
|
2013 |
€5.00 |
|
| ZANNI, ADRIANO |
Songs to the Sirens |
CD + BOOK |
"This work is loosely inspired by the title of a song by Tim Buckley included in his 1970 album "Starsailor" (a cover version by This Mortal Coil released in the '80s by 4AD was quite formative for me).
My passion for the sea, observed, listened and lived mainly - but not only - from the beaches of my land and during winter. A solitary invocation, a project still open, in progress for several years during which the photographs and field recordings used for its composition were collected, and assembled in its musical component during the months of lockdown.
The audio part opens with a track centered on the recording made on the morning of 23 February 2020, which then, ironically, would have been the last time I could see, hear and feel the sea before the forced isolation caused by the pandemic.
The sensory lack - visual, auditive and olfactory - that I suffered the most during isolation was that of the sea. To overcome this lack - as far as possible - I have composed, produced and mixed the audio tracks which are part of this album. As usual in my work, the photographs and sounds are complementary to each other and make up a single emotional and sensorial body.
A single contemporary, visual and auditory landscape." - Adriano Zanni
"On the edge of absence" by Mirco Salvadori
Standing on the edge of the vastness of the sea, the infinite space embraces our gaze creating emptiness, the same in which we got lost, each of us confined within the walls of our own flats. The undefeated storm was raging outside, while our imaginary boat did not emit even the smallest creaking, motionless and sheltered in its own absence. Yet thoughts returned there, on the edge of the immensity that had always been frequented, our feet sank on the shoreline of memories, our hearing distinctly perceived the Sirens' song: "Sail to me, sail to me, Let me enfold you, Here I am, here I am". Modulating the melody of the words, a guiding voice shaped by waves capable of unspeakable violence, a liquid essence able to penetrate and destroy, dragging the shipwrecked man towards the cliff of abandonment.
Adriano Zanni has listened to it, he has followed it trying to filter what it was whispering to him. He has travelled closed in his hermetic confinement with the constant presence of a poet who decided to welcome the last wave inside himself on a hot June day. What we listen here is nothing but their dense dialogue along a vast tract of beach that welcomes the two travellers, enveloping them in the sounds of marine space and time. It almost seems as if Zanni is attempting to drive away from himself the ghosts wrapping the continuous whispering of his travelling companion, filtering the sweetness of the dance of the waves, the shouting of the beaches crowded with summer heat, the footprint that sinks into the limpid substance, the unknown sound that hides in its depths, the murmur that turns into a song from which it's impossible to move away.
Just like water that penetrates between the rocks, reaching the most remote sea ravines, transforming itself into sonic purity, the echo of memories glides towards us, enveloping our innermost thoughts and inviting us to dive into the wave that wraps up its body before it is welcomed by the land.
A work that fascinates by transforming the perception of reality. We listen to sound, we dive into it, we get lost... Maybe all is just a dream, even our continuous swimming towards the open sea.
Adriano Zanni: photographs, field recordings, analog and digital electronics, resonances and sampling
13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2039_adriano_zanni_songs_to_the_sirens.htm
|
2020 |
€23.00 |
|
| ZEALLEY, ANDREW |
Themes & Variations |
LP |
"ANDREW ZEALLEY: THEMES & VARIATIONS is the third installment in Zealley's "How To Explain Silence To A Dead Hare" series of vinyl project editions. The album showcases selected film, video, installation and performance music by Zealley, commissioned by visual artists - including Luis Jacob, Joey Medaglia, Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, and Scott Treleaven. Produced by PSBEUYS, THEMES & VARIATIONS is released on Tourette Records (USA). This vinyl-only edition of 300 numbered LP's launches at Art Metropole on Saturday April 25, 1-3 PM.
On THEMES & VARIATIONS, Zealley intersects various aspects of his sound practise: field recordings, audio art, existential house, tonal mantra, and musical form/composition. At the center of THEMES & VARIATIONS are the scores for Scott Treleaven's trilogy of short films: GOLD, SILVER and LUSTRE. Composed and produced in 2005-2006, this group of instrumental compositions is punctuated, for the album, by four thematically-related works: APOTHEOSIS II, HABITAT THEME 2, SIGNAL, and ARENA.
TRACK NOTES:
The score to Treleaven's film on pandrogyny (starring Genesis P'Orridge and the late Lady Jaye Breyer), GOLD's cycling vortex of digital and acoustic sounds is followed by two variations on the same melodic and tonal themes: APOTHEOSIS II (an early audio sketch for GOLD), and HABITAT THEME 2 (developed for Luis Jacob's HABITAT installation at AGO). The plaintive love-pop electronics of SIGNAL, originally produced for Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay's CONSTELLATION performance piece, is newly remixed by PSBEUYS for the album. The swirling dream-scape of SILVER, the score to Treleaven's homage to John Dee (starring AA Bronson), is a seemingly endless sustain of electronics, violin and bell tones. ARENA, featuring the "beatbox" vocals of Luis Jacob, is the audio score to Joey Medaglia's video RE: FORM (BECOMING VISIBLE). An alternate version of ARENA's motifs can be heard on Zealley's exhibition soundtrack, AA Bronson School For Young Shamans. THEMES & VARIATIONS concludes with the 3-part score for LUSTRE, Treleaven's super8 tryptich starring Massimo & Pierce (Black Sun Productions). Here Zealley turns to a more classical interpretation of "themes and variations," literally voicing the score's tender melodic main theme (written for a local violin busker), through a series of pastoral string and oscillating electronic deconstructions.
ANDREW ZEALLEY: THEMES & VARIATIONS is mastered for vinyl at The E Room, by Peter J. Moore, and features performances by Luis Jacob, Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, violinist Adm Shedden, and the PSBEUYS-directed Prospect Cottage Strings.
THEMES & VARIATIONS is released on Tourette Records (USA), catalogue number TOURETTE009, and is available online at www.artmetropole.com and directly from the artist's site.
more info : www.andrewzealley.com"
[website info]
www.touretterecords.com
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
| ZEITKRATZER |
(Old School) James Tenney |
CD |
"“Critical Band” (1988), “Harmonium #2” (1976), “Koan: Having Never Written A Note For Percussion” (1971). Zeitkratzer directed by Reinhold Friedl: Frank Gratkowski (clarinet), Hayden Chisholm (alto saxophone), Matt Davis (trumpet), Hilary Jeffery (trombone), Reinhold Friedl (piano), Maurice de Martin (percussion), Burkhard Schlothauer (violin), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), Uli Phillipp (doublebass), Ralf Meinz (sound ). Recorded live at Philharmonie Luxembourg, Luxembourg, October 3, 2009. Recorded and mixed by Ralf Meinz and Reinhold Friedl, produced by Burkhard Schlothauer, executive producer: Reinhold Friedl.
“The internationally acclaimed “hilarious releases” [vital weekly] of Zeitkratzer records will continue with the new series [old school]. The first two CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage [zkr0009] and James Tenney [zkr0010] are now released together. The collaboration of Zeitkratzer with William Bennett /Whitehouse [zkr0007], recorded live in 2009 in Marseille/France and Den Haag/Netherlands, will follow this summer. Later in 2010, the [old school] series will continue with two more releases, dedicated to the music of Alvin Lucier [zkr0011] and Morton Feldman [zkr0012] respectively. James Tenney’s music has been part of Zeitkratzer’s repertoire for almost a decade. This CD presents a new recording of Critical Band – Tenney’s late classic – with maximum clarity. Also included is the first recording of Harmonium #2. Both works demonstrate the remarkable power and resplendent sharpness which Tenney achieved by composing with pure tunings. Koan: Having Never Written A Note For Percussion for tam-tam completes this CD with an orgiastic listening experience in the form of a huge crescendo on this wonderfully simple instrument - from whispering to singing, culminating in shrill roaring and blustering – and it’s dark decay. Tenney’s music as a sensual sound adventure !" [label info / credits]
www.zeitkratzer.de
"...I'm less familiar with the ideas and music of James Tenney, so its a bit hard to say anything about it that is connected to historical knowledge. I learned from the booklet that Tenney created 'swell pieces': music for long sustaining sounds, played on traditional instruments (same list as above), which have an almost electronic feel to it. It works in the region of overtones. Its great music. Sounds swell, rise from below and beyond and make a dome like sound. Think Alvin Lucier or Phill Niblock and you get my drift. But whereas they seem to be operating from a more studio based environment this is all live, which makes it even more remarkable, since it sounds like many voices at once, more than what the list of instruments suggest. In 'Koan: Having Never Written A Note For Percussion' the tam-tam is played, making a low rumble, that swells up like a giant roar. Indeed a swell piece. Whereas the Cage CD is a fine release but perhaps something we already heard before, this Tenney release is mind blowing." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Das hochkarätig besetze Ensemble zeitkratzer streckt sich je nach Aufgabenstellung zum Himmel, wenn es sein muss. Bekannt geworden ist die Gruppe um Reinhold Friedl durch ihre pop-avantgardistischen Diskurs-Pogos im Grauland zwischen Neuer Musik und Improvisation, zwischen Noise und strenger Reduktion. Nach einem eher durchwachsenen Gastspiel auf der MusikTriennale Köln in diesem Frühjahr kehrt das Ensemble mit seinen beiden old school/Klassiker-Einspielungen zu konzentrierter Strärke zurück. Besonders die CD mit den Tenney Stücken, darunter der Klassiker Critical Band, zeigt, wie reizvoll es doch sein kann, jegliche Tonalität zu zerstören nach einem akkuraten Schlachtplan. In Koan: Never Written A Note For Percussion (1971) kommt dieser Ansatz zu einem grandios blitzflackernden, elektrisierten Finale. Die Cage Aufnahmen, mit den Stücken Four6, Five und Hymnkus weiß auch durch präzise Durchführung zu gefallen, hier sind es die Stücke selbst, die altersmilde aber auch weise anmuten." [Zipo / Auf Abwegen]
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| ZOVIET FRANCE & FOSSIL AEROSOL MINING PROJECT [ZFAMP] |
Flexible Pooling |
7inch flexi |
"Ltd edition 7 inch ep white flexidisc at 33rpm in custom packaging with insert and accompanying free download. this is two sides of audio at 11minutes and a download for a further 18 minutes...a 29 minute 'mini LP' in all...
:zoviet*france: and Fossil Aerosol Mining Project take their collaboration, which resulted in last year’s ‘Patina Pooling’ double album release by alt.vinyl, a stage further – into the realm of pliable reverberation. Using the near-redundant record format of the 7-inch flexidisc, ‘Flexible Pooling’ consists of two new tracks that have been devised with the lo-fi quality of the format in mind. The low grade sound fidelity and susceptibility to physical degradation of flexidiscs intentionally becomes an additional layer to the recordings, a surface audio patina analogous to the rusting of the steel sleeves of last year’s album.
Coded access to the free download of an additional, extended track will be supplied exclusively with the single.
Flexible Pooling will be released by alt.vinyl and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art this month, in conjunction with the Baltic 39 exhibition, The Curves of the Needle." [label info]
www.altvinyl.com
"In 2014, we were blessed with a few copies of the first collaboration between the like-minded alchemists :zoviet*france: and the Fossil Aerosol Mining Projects, which came to us as a double lp, housed in a beefy slab of metal. Those few copies did not take long disappear, and we certainly expect that same fate to fall upon this outing as well. Flexible Pooling is intended to be the material antipode to the heft and durability of that first, with this 7" being a mere flexidisc and housed in a thin paper sleeve, with various printed ephemera gracing the package as well. There's two tracks found on the flexidisc and a download track, making the entire program an honest 30 minutes in length. It's a radioactive blizzard of tape machined errata, countervailed with subcutaneous drones and slippery layers of bedraggled, haptic noise compressed and / or exhumed from the vaults of some deep sea science station collecting data on thermal vents at the ocean floor before it was abandoned. The two entities organically sift through their material, sending various flutters, glissandos, snippets of unknowable dialogue, and electrical malfunctions into accreted and aggregated chorales of raw hypnogogia. Beautiful and eerie, Flexible Pooling represents a perfectly realized sound between two already exceptional authors of the sublime drift. Extremely limited." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2015 |
€18.00 |
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